Gayle Wilson - Sight Unseen

Her sense from the first had been that he would. Certainly if he was pushed.

If she was right about that, as soon as he got her into a deserted area, then he would kill her. But if he’d been instructed to take her somewhere instead of killing her here—

The doors of the elevator in front of her, as well as the ones on the one beside it, began to slide open. She took a breath, afraid that if she did anything more to prepare, she would communicate her intent to him.

The opening doors revealed an elderly woman and a man in a wheelchair. The man looked frail, but the woman was tall and raw-boned. Her white uniform seemed to indicate she was the man’s caregiver rather than a relative.

“Excuse us, please,” the woman said cheerily as she began to maneuver the chair out of the elevator.

Raine and her captor were standing so close it would be difficult for the caregiver to get the chair out around them. Despite that, the man behind Raine made no move to step aside, perhaps fearful that in doing so, he might reveal his weapon.

“Watch your toes, dear,” the woman warned as she attempted to roll her charge by them.

Taking advantage of the situation, Raine pretended she was forced to take a step to the side in order to get out of the way of the wheelchair. The move caught her captor by surprise, and the hold on her elbow loosened fractionally.

When it did, she jerked her arm forward as hard as she could. Incredibly, it slipped out of the man’s grasp.

She sprinted to the next elevator, whose doors, with perfect timing, began to close as soon as she ran between them. That didn’t prevent her from pressing the close-door button when she’d located it.

Outside there was an ungodly commotion. It sounded as if, in pursuing her, her captor had somehow become entangled with the wheelchair, maybe upsetting it. The female aide was shrieking something unintelligible. The man with the gun shouted an obscenity just as the elevator doors slid together.

Heart racing, her breath coming in audible gasps, Raine tried to think what she should do next. If she were right about her captor having deliberately parked at the top of the parking deck…

Frantically she punched the button for the floor below it. Her eyes watched the elevator’s climb while she prayed she’d been in time. A soft ping gave the answer to that plea.

As soon as the doors opened, she stepped out and began running full-out down a corridor that looked very much like the one she’d just left. She needed to find another set of elevators or figure out how to get back into the main section of the hospital as quickly as she could.

Once she’d done that, she would think about what came next. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go back to the ICU, since that’s where the man with the gun had been waiting for her.

And in all probability, it was where he would begin his search for her this time. If he were brazen enough to try to take her again.

Of course, the ICU area was also where Ethan Snow was. Despite the fact that he was little more than a stranger, her inclination was to find him as quickly as she could.

He was the ex-CIA agent. He was also the one who had gotten her into this. And beside that, he was—

The sound of a chime from the other end of the corridor put a halt to her list of Ethan Snow’s crimes and attributes. The chances that the occupant of that arriving elevator was her captor were remote. Unless…

She tried to picture the elevator bank where she’d pulled off her escape. Had the floors where the elevators stopped been shown above each car? If so, it was possible he’d tracked her by simply watching those numbers flash by until the elevator had stopped on this particular floor.

The spurt of adrenaline produced by that realization pushed her to increase her speed. Breathless, she finally rounded a corner to see a small offset with a double bank of elevators.

She rushed into the center of it, pushing the up and down arrows on both sides repeatedly. Rationally she knew that wouldn’t make them arrive any quicker, but she felt she had so little control over what was happening that doing something—even if it were pointless—seemed to help.

The first car to arrive was going down. And it was empty. As she stepped in and pushed the close-door button, she heard what sounded like someone running down the corridor she’d just traversed.

The footsteps were heavy. A man’s hard-soled shoes, slamming against the polished tile with each step.

When the elevator doors closed, she leaned, weak and panting, against the cool metal wall before she realized she hadn’t made a floor selection. She straightened, looking at the control panel. The only lighted indicator was for the first floor. If she didn’t do something soon—

The chime and a soft bump indicated it was too late to change her destination. An upward glance at the numbers above the doors confirmed she had already arrived on the main floor.

Maybe that would be an advantage, she told herself. More people. More protection. Security guards.

The doors opened to reveal none of those things. She was in another offset hallway, the corridor that fronted it as deserted as had been the one she’d just left.

Except for the sound of those running footsteps, she amended.

She shot a look above the elevator she’d just exited, which confirmed her worst fears. The numbers of all the floors were displayed, the L, for lobby, now brightly lit.

He would have been able to follow her from floor to floor, so the footsteps she’d heard had undoubtedly been his. Which meant there wasn’t a moment to lose. As soon as he could get an elevator, he’d follow her down here, too.

She ran out into the corridor and turned right without taking time to look at the signs on the wall. Her most immediate need was to get away from the elevators. As far away from them as she could before he arrived.

Despite the rather obvious fact that this wasn’t a major hallway of the hospital, she passed far more people than she had since she’d made her escape. Not enough to constitute a crowd. Certainly not enough to hide among.

Several stopped and gaped as she ran by. Belatedly she realized that calling attention to herself like this meant that any of them would be able to describe her to her pursuer and tell him exactly which direction she’d been heading.

She slowed to a walk, at the same time trying to ease her ragged breathing. Trying desperately now to blend in with the other visitors.

Suddenly the corridor she’d been following came to an abrupt end. Her two choices were clearly communicated by the arrows on the wall. The one that pointed to the left said Main Lobby. The other indicated that it led to the financial and administrative offices. And the cafeteria.

She hesitated, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of entering either of the most public areas of the hospital. Could they possibly have someone watching the main entrances and exits in case she managed to escape from the man with the gun?

If so, she’d be better off following the arrow that led to the business offices. There would be plenty of exits there. Fire doors if nothing else. And at this point she wasn’t averse to setting off some alarms.

She adjusted the strap of her purse more securely over her shoulder, taking a quick look behind her. The man who’d held a gun to her back wasn’t behind her. Not yet at least.

She turned in the direction leading away from the lobby, walking purposefully down the cross corridor. There were a comforting number of people, most of them probably headed to the cafeteria. The smell of food was tantalizingly close, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast.

She walked past the line of patrons waiting to go in, careful to keep her face turned away from the glass-enclosed serving area. Beyond the relatively crowded entrance lay a broad hall, whose tile floor gleamed empty and inviting.