Chapter 7 - The Desperate Escape
I watched in horror as my sister fell two stories into a pile of cardboard boxes below. Mark reloaded his rifle and turned his cold, dead eyes back toward my face. I did not wait for him to aim the weapon again. I blindly fired three shots from my handgun through the glass window, forcing Mark to duck for cover. I scrambled down the rusty metal fire escape as fast as my legs could possibly carry me. I reached the alleyway and found Rachel groaning in agony among the crushed boxes. She was bleeding heavily from her shoulder, but the fall had miraculously not killed her. I hoisted her up and dragged her toward the busy main street at the end of the block. The armed men by the black SUV spotted us and immediately began sprinting in our direction. I flagged down a passing garbage truck and literally threw myself in front of the massive vehicle. The driver slammed on his brakes, cursing loudly as I pulled Rachel into the passenger cab with me. I pointed my gun at the terrified driver and ordered him to drive away as fast as possible. We sped away from the alley just as a hail of bullets shattered the truck's rearview mirrors. I told the driver to drop us off three blocks away from the city hospital. I needed to get back to Emma before Mark's syndicate friends realized where she was. We abandoned the truck and I helped Rachel limp toward the hospital's emergency entrance. The lobby was completely chaotic, giving us the perfect cover to slip past the security desk. I rushed to the pediatric intensive care unit, my heart pounding fiercely in my chest. I burst through the door of Emma's private room, ready to protect my daughter with my life. But the hospital bed was entirely empty, the heart monitors disconnected and silent. A young nurse walked into the room holding a stack of fresh towels. I grabbed her arms and frantically demanded to know where my little girl was. The nurse looked at me in confusion and said Emma had just been discharged. She told me a tall man claiming to be Emma's biological uncle had signed the paperwork ten minutes ago. I realized with absolute, crushing despair that Carter's men already had my daughter.
