Chapter 4 - THE COP WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
I stepped away from Detective Sloane.
His friendly expression disappeared.
“Smart girl,” Eli said.
Sloane’s hand dropped toward his coat.
Eli grabbed me and ran.
The first officer shouted, “Stop!”
Gunfire cracked behind us.
We dove through the shattered front window of the abandoned grocery store.
Glass tore my sleeve.
Eli landed hard, rolled, and pulled me behind an old checkout counter.
I could hear Sloane outside.
“Cross! You’re making this worse!”
Eli muttered, “He always says that.”
“You two have history?”
“You could call it that.”
“I’m getting tired of your answers.”
“So am I.”
Footsteps entered the store.
Eli pointed toward the freezer aisle.
We crawled low through dust and fallen ceiling tiles.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
Unknown number.
I answered before Eli could stop me.
“Maya?”
Tessa.
My whole body locked.
“Tess? Where are you?”
“I don’t know. They moved me. I’m in a van.”
Her voice was tiny.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay. Listen to me. Don’t give them anything.”
A loud bang came through the phone.
Then a man shouted.
Tessa whispered, “They keep saying Mercy.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. There’s a white circle painted on the floor and—”
The line went dead.
Eli closed his eyes.
“You know what Mercy is.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me.”
“Mercy Foundation. Hospitals. shelters. scholarships. Half the city loves them.”
“And?”
“And they’re a front.”
“For what?”
“A network that buys people before it has to kill them.”
A shadow moved at the end of the aisle.
Eli pulled me down.
Sloane walked past, gun raised.
He was alone.
Too alone.
Eli waited until he passed, then pushed open a freezer door.
Behind it was a loading corridor.
“How did you know that was there?” I whispered.
“I used this place once.”
“For groceries?”
“For a body.”
I stopped.
He looked back.
“Not mine.”
“That did not help.”
We slipped out through the loading dock and crossed a drainage ditch behind the building.
A freight train crawled along the tracks beyond it.
Eli jumped onto a ladder.
“No.”
“Maya.”
“I am not jumping onto a moving train.”
A bullet hit the dirt beside my shoe.
I jumped onto the moving train.
Eli hauled me up.
Sloane reached the ditch too late.
He stood there watching us leave.
Then he smiled and raised his phone.
My phone rang immediately.
I answered.
Sloane’s voice came through, calm as ever.
“You can keep running, Maya. But your friend is on a clock.”
“Go to hell.”
“I’ve been there. It has better parking.”
He hung up.
Eli gave a dark laugh.
I wanted to punch both of them.
Instead I looked at the tiny key in my hand.
“Where does this go?”
Eli stared at it.
“A private deposit vault downtown.”
“What’s in it?”
“Something Noah died trying to protect.”
“You just said he might be alive.”
“I said he may be alive.”
“Pick a story.”
Eli’s face hardened.
“Fine. Here’s one.”
He reached into his wallet and pulled out a torn piece of paper.
There was a list of names on it.
Mine was last.
MAYA REED — ASSET 47 — TERMINATION AUTHORIZED.
Above my name was another.
ELI CROSS — HANDLER.
I looked up at him.
“What exactly were you handling?”
His silence was answer enough.
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