Breathless (24 page)

Grayson this type of injury. She wondered if a third
man could have been hired by Tad to take care of
Grayson and possibly James.
"James," Alex whispered reaching for her purse and
her cell phone.
Alex's hand was seized by the
stranger from the other side of the room,
"Do you mind," she argued.
"Yes, actually I do," came the icy reply.
"Tad," Alex whispered, shuddering.
Chapter 24
"Hello, darling; how are you? I see that the
competition has done well by you," he smiled sitting
down beside her.
Reaching into her purse, Tad
removed her cell phone and put it under the chair
in which he was sitting, "You won't need that. Shall
we go?"
"The only place you're going Tad is jail. Now let me
go before I start screaming," she said trying to jerk
her arm from his grasp.
"We'll have none of that, my love," he answered
pulling a revolver from underneath his jacket.
"Shooting me will only bring unwanted attention."
"Trust me, Alex. I'm not going to shoot you. I love
you."
Alex laughed, "You don't know the meaning of the
word."
"Shall we go before that beautiful little candy
striper returns?" "Tad, I told you I am not going with
you.”
"Yes, you are Alex. You see, if you make me shoot
you then the doctors will come running and if they
come running then you're little friend will die. You
don't want that do you?"
Alex paled at the revelation of his words, "You did
that?"
"I knew you'd come back to visit your lover boy
eventually.
It was just a matter of time. So I
poked a few holes in him while he slept," said
described an evil smile on his face, "Once somebody
discovered him, you'd either come running or be
sent from the room. Either way, it was a perfect
distraction for me. This all your fault, you
know. You just had to come here and take away
the one chance I had of becoming a senator.
I
needed that money damn you."
"So this more about money than it is about love,"
declared Alex.
Tad pushed the gun into her side, "It doesn't matter
anymore, does it. We're flying out of here tonight
and into D.C. where a nice priest awaits us. Once
we're married the money comes to you and then
you die in a mysterious car crash or something and I
have all the means I need to achieve my goal,"
dragging Alex out of her chair by her arm, he
pushed her towards the hallway.
Alex saw the wild gleam in his eye and knew he
would shoot her, either accidentally or on
purpose.
Scared for both her life and for
Grayson's, Alex complied with Tad's demands
praying that James would find her somehow.
Tad continued to half drag, half pull Alex onto the
elevator and managed to remain calm while
surrounded by hospital staff. He panicked a little
when a security guard got onto the elevator and
applied more pressure to Alex's already bruised ribs
with the gun, "Not a sound," he whispered.
Alex
nodded her head mutely; realizing the closed
confinements of the elevator was not the ideal
location for a standoff.
The elevator reached the
lobby finally allowing a small breath of relief to
escape from both Alex and Tad's lips.
As the
exited the car, Alex almost jumped with joy to find
Sam and Rob in the lobby.
"Alex! Are you just coming from seeing Grayson,"
asked Sam as she and Tad walked by.
"Ignore them," said Tad.
"Alex?”
Tad rushed Alex out of the lobby towards the
parking lot, "Where's your car," asked Tad.
"Over there; in lot 4," she replied.
Tad got Alex to the car and had her drive out of the
parking lot, leaving Sam and Rob watching them
from the lobby doors.
"What the hell was that all about," asked Sam.
"I don't know. But that was Tad Pierce," responded
Rob holding up a picture he had acquired from the
Associated Press.
"Damn. I'll go see Grayson, you follow them. "
Rob nodded his head and went to retrieve his own
car.
He had seen Alex and Tad heading towards
Alex's house.
Sam ran the steps to the fourth floor and Grayson's
room.
He narrowly missed colliding with the nurse
who was just leaving his room.
"Slow down," ordered Nurse Willamina.
"I need to see Grayson Laird," said Sam flashing his
badge.
"You can see him, but he won't be talking for a
while. He's in surgery. "
"Surgery?
What the hell happened?"
"He was stabbed," said the second nurse who was
changing the sheets on the bed.
"Stabbed; how?"
"A man came, stabbed him with knife. Security
searching for him, checking monitors. I go see sister
now," explained Willamina.
"Sister,” Sam questioned; his confusion getting the
better of him.
"Red hair, blue eyes; not sister, just says so," she
explained in broken English heading for the waiting
room at the end of the hallway. Sam followed the
stout nurse down the hall to the waiting room.
It
occurred to him that Alex had said she was
Grayson's sister to get better visitation privileges.
As they entered the room, they found it empty,
"Humph. Where she go," asked the nurse before
shrugging and heading back to the nurses’ station.
Sam stood in the entranceway knowing something
was wrong.
He was reaching for the cell phone he
kept in his jacket pocket when heard another phone
ringing.
Walking around the room, Sam attempted
to find the source.
Finally, he stooped to look
underneath a row of chairs near the
windows.
Sam took a tissue from the box on the
end table and picked up the phone.
"Hello," he answered.
James frowned at the masculine voice on the
phone,
"I'm trying to reach Alexandra Chambers. Who's
this?"
"James? It's Sam."
"Sam, what in the hell are you doing with Alex's
phone," he asked concerned.
"James, I got some bad news. "
Sam explained what had taken place since he
arrived at the hospital.
Sighing in frustration,
James told Sam to stay put and that he was on his
way back to the hospital.
After hanging up, Sam put down Alex's phone and
dialed his own. He requested that a unit be
dispatched to the hospital to assist the security
team and take statements from the hospital
staff.
Then he called Rob.
"What do you got," he asked.
"So far they just seem to be driving. At first they
were headed to Alex's house, but then they
changed paths. They're on the expressway."
"Don't let Tad see you but don't lose them
either. The minute you think you know where
they're going call me."
"Will do."
Sam hung up and kicked a chair.
He felt frustrated
at not being able to get Alex away from Tad in the
lobby.
"If I'd only recognized his face," he swore
standing there.
"Sam," asked James from behind him, "Have you
heard from her?"
"No. Rob is following them in my truck. Alex will
recognize it, but Tad won't. I'm hoping she stays in
sight. "
"Where are they going?"
"I don't know. They're on the expressway heading
away from town," Sam responded his voice trailing
off, "Damn," he swore again, reaching for his cell
phone.
"Rob, get some units to cover the airport and route
seven.
I think he intends to get her out of town
and back to D.C."
Sam led James out of the waiting room as two
technicians entered it. They searched the room and
lifted Tad and Alex's fingerprints from her cell
phone.
"Hey Sam," hollered one of them holding a plastic
baggie.
Sam and James went back into the room and
examined the contents of the bag. Sam extended a
gloved hand into the bag and withdrew a large,
serrated edged knife covered in blood.
James whistled, "Tad stabbed Grayson with that?"
"Possibly," replied Sam.
"Probably," came a third voice as Dr. Gibson, still
dressed in surgical scrubs crossed the room to
where Sam and James stood, "The weapon used to
stab Mr. Laird was a two inch serrated blade, like
this one.
He was stabbed twice in the
abdomen.
One of those swipes punctured the
outer lining of his stomach requiring surgery to
repair it."
"He could have died," commented Sam.
"If he'd been discovered an hour later on the
nurse's rounds, yes. He'd lost a lot of blood before
his friend found him.”
"Thanks, Doc.
I'll have somebody come by and get
an official statement later," concluded Sam excusing
the doctor.
James stared out of the window thinking of
Alex. He had heard the doctor's words and knew
that Tad had gone over the edge. He was terrified
to think that Tad would escape with her, "If he
touches her, I'll kill him," he vowed.
"I'm sure she's fine," comforted Sam, "besides, Rob
is right behind them."
"I pray to God, you're right."
Alex drove steadily trying to keep the truck in her
rear view mirror.
She tried desperately not to be
frightened but failed miserably.
She had no way to
check on Grayson's condition and the wild look in
Tad's eye made her wary of his the gun and his
fists.
"Where am I going," she asked after being directed
to the expressway.
"The airport," he replied quietly looking in the
mirror for police cars.
"What are you looking for," Alex asked trying to
divert his attention from the mirror.
"Cops, your lovers, anyone who could screw up my
plan," he responded glancing at her and then at the
speedometer, "Let's try keep it under 60. I don't
want to stumble into a speed trap," Alex nodded
and slowed down the car, "That's better," he said
seeing a sign for the airport, "Is that a shortcut?
"It's more like a back road."
"Take it; less traffic. "
"I can't," stated Alex trying to stall. Taking the back
road would alert Tad to the presence of Sam's truck
behind them.
"Why not," he asked suspiciously.
"They're doing construction on one of the
bridges. We'd have to sit in what little traffic there
is and the police are directing traffic," she lied
passing the exit without taking it.
"Well, since you've just passed it, I guess we'll be
taking the highway after all," he responded looking
in the mirror again.
Alex caught the movement of his head and cursed
quietly. She could still see the truck and could tell
by the way Tad was fingering the pistol that he was
able to see the truck now too.
"What's wrong," she questioned innocently.
"Looks like we're being followed," he responded
bitterly, "Nice ploy to keep us on the expressway
where he could be concealed. Take the next exit,"
he ordered gesturing with the weapon.
Alex turned off the expressway and wondered
vaguely if Tad knew exactly where the airport was
or if he could be diverted by a roundabout
route.
"Tad, how did you get to the hospital?"
"I took a cab from the airport.
My chartered plane
is waiting for us.”
Alex smiled, it was the opening she was looking
for.
Glancing sideways, Alex saw that Tad wasn't
paying attention to the road or the signs and after a
few strategically placed turns, Alex aimed the car
for Hasani Industries.
Rob watched as Alex exited the highway and
directed the car towards Hasani.
He couldn't be
sure that that was the destination of the pair, but
she had turned away from the airport and the roads
leading from town. Rob followed the car for a few
more miles until he saw Alex make the final turn
necessary to go to Hasani. Reaching for the cell
phone beside him, Rob dialed Sam.
"Yeah," Sam answered.
"It's Rob. I don't know what's going on, but Alex is
headed for Hasani."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, she's on Ashmore Valley Pike now. "
"Call the troops. We'll be right there," Sam
concluded, clicked off the phone and turned to
James, "They're heading to Hasani.
You coming,"
he asked crossing the room to the door.
"Yeah, I am; but why Hasani?"
"I don't know," answered Sam as he passed the
elevators for the stairs, "I wish I did, but I don't.”
Tad had been more preoccupied with the truck
behind them than where Alex was driving.
When
he finally realized she was taking too long getting to
the airport, he returned his attention to their path.
"Where the hell are we," he demanded reaching
across the span between them and brutally
grabbing her upper arm.
The car swerved dangerously close to a pole and
sent them onto the shoulder of the road.
Quickly
rectifying the car, Alex lied, "This is another back
way to the airport.”
"I swear, Alex, if you're lying to me or trying to delay
the inevitable, I'll make your death painful," he
sneered viciously, tightening his grip on her arm.
Alex winced at the pain Tad was inflicting.
She
knew that he was serious and would kill her now if
he could get his hands on the money.
It was this
thought that made her more courageous.
Rob had seen the swerve of the car and panicked
briefly.
Not knowing what was happening inside
the vehicle made him more cautious of how close
he was to the other car.
Rob was aware that Tad
had to have seen him by now, but he wasn't
dropping back.
He didn't want to take the chance
of losing sight of the car and Alex.
Hasani Industries had the pleasure of sitting at the
end of what might be termed as a cul-de-sac.
It
sat facing the entrance of the road and the few
houses that lined it and was backed by an acre of
woods.
It was the ideal location for a
manufacturing facility.
For Alex, she considered it
to be an ideal location for her to escape from Tad.
Sam and James were approaching the police cruiser
that would take them to Hasani, when James' cell
phone rang.
Pausing while Sam climbed into the
car, James grabbed the phone from his pocket and
flipped it open, "James O'Reilly."
"James? It's Francine.
Can you hear me?"
"Now's not a good time, Francine," he spoke into
the receiver continuing towards the vehicle.
"I thought I should let you know I've made a
decision about the baby."
James paused in mid-stride and shook his head,
"Can this wait?"
"No, it can't. I'm at the Planned Parenthood office
on Main Street. "
"Francine, what did I tell you," James growled.
"It's not fair for me to do all the work and then hand
over this child to Alex. I won't do it, James. I'd
rather save this child the misery of growing up than