Chapter 5 - THE COAT
The man in the grey trench coat didn’t smile. He didn’t draw a weapon. He just stared at Blair with dead, hollow eyes.
“You dropped your ticket, Miss,” he said in perfect, unaccented English.
He held out a discarded subway pass.
Blair’s heart hammered a frantic rhythm against her ribs. She forced her face to remain completely blank.
“Thank you,” she said, taking the ticket with a slightly shaking hand. She didn’t look him in the eye. She acted like a terrified, exhausted commuter.
The man watched her for a second longer, then turned and walked toward the train platforms.
Blair didn’t breathe until he rounded the corner.
She clutched the leather ledger and the photograph to her chest, shoved them deep into her oversized coat pocket, and speed-walked out of the station.
The cold air hit her like a wall.
She ran to the grey sedan. She tapped twice on the window.
Lily peeked over the edge of the door, her blue eyes wide, and unlocked it.
Blair practically fell into the driver’s seat, locking the doors instantly. “Good girl, Lily. You did perfect.”
Blair pulled out of the parking lot, her mind racing.
Answer One, Open Two.
The ledger was safe. That was Answer One.
But the photograph opened a massive, terrifying door. The doctor at the clinic—Dr. Evans. He was Klaus’s inside man.
And Leo had just told her he dropped Rocco off at a clinic.
Blair grabbed the burner phone and dialed Leo.
It went straight to voicemail.
“No, no, no,” Blair muttered, hitting redial. Voicemail again.
Leo was walking into a trap. Or he was already in it.
She looked at the photograph again. The clinic sign in the background of the picture was faded, but she recognized it. St. Jude’s Urgent Care. It was only ten blocks away.
Blair gripped the steering wheel and drove.
When she pulled up to the clinic, the front was completely dark. No lights. No cars in the lot.
It looked abandoned.
“Lily,” Blair said, turning around. “I need you to be incredibly brave again. I’m going to take you inside, but you have to hold my hand and not make a single sound. Can you do that?”
Lily nodded solemnly.
Blair tucked the heavy ledger into the waistband of her jeans and pulled her large coat over it. She grabbed the heavy flashlight from the glove compartment. It wasn’t a gun, but it was heavy enough to do damage.
They slipped through the back alley.
The rear door of the clinic was propped open with a brick.
Blair’s stomach plummeted. That wasn't an accident.
She squeezed Lily’s hand, and they stepped inside.
The smell of antiseptic and old blood hung in the air. The hallway was pitched in total darkness.
From the front lobby, Blair heard a voice.
It was Dr. Evans.
“I gave him the sedative. He’s out cold. The bodyguard lost too much blood, he’s not a threat.”
Blair crept forward, peering around the corner.
Dr. Evans was standing over an examination table. Leo was lying on it, unconscious, his coat removed.
Standing across from the doctor was Klaus.
“Good,” Klaus said in German, stepping closer to Leo. He pulled a silenced pistol from his jacket. “The Commission will think he died of his wounds from the restaurant shootout. A tragic end to a stubborn man.”
Dr. Evans wiped his forehead. “You promised my family would be safe if I delivered him to you, Klaus.”
“And they will be,” Klaus smiled coldly.
Blair didn’t have a gun. She didn’t have a plan.
But she had a heavy metal fire alarm pull-station right next to her shoulder.
She let go of Lily’s hand, pointing to a supply closet right behind them. “Hide in there,” she mouthed.
Lily slipped into the closet.
Blair took a deep breath, raised the heavy flashlight, and smashed it into the fire alarm.
The building erupted.
Deafening sirens blared. Strobe lights flashed violently, turning the dark clinic into a chaotic, blinding nightmare.
Klaus cursed in German, dropping his gun in surprise and covering his ears.
Dr. Evans panicked, diving behind the counter.
Blair didn't hesitate.
She ran out from the hallway, grabbing a heavy metal IV pole, and swung it like a baseball bat.
It caught Klaus squarely in the jaw.
The German mobster crumpled to the linoleum floor, out cold.
Blair dropped the pole and rushed to Leo. She slapped his face. “Leo! Wake up!”
Leo groaned, his eyelids fluttering. The sedative was heavy in his system.
“Come on, you heavy idiot, move!” Blair dragged him by his shoulders, hauling him off the table.
Leo stumbled, leaning heavily on her. “Blair?” he slurred.
“I’ve got the ledger. Let’s go.”
She turned back to grab Lily, but froze.
Dr. Evans was standing in the doorway of the supply closet.
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He was holding Lily by the arm. He had a scalpel pressed to her tiny throat.
“Give me the ledger,” Dr. Evans said, his voice trembling with sheer terror. “If I don't give it to Klaus, he’ll kill my wife.”
