Chapter 3 - The Secret Pact
Martha backed away until her shoulders hit the doorframe.
She calculated the distance to the door, but the bodyguard was blocking her path.
Dr. Vance stepped closer, the needle gleaming in the humid air.
"I just like things tidy," Martha lied, keeping her voice steady.
"I watched a lot of medical shows on television."
Vance chuckled darkly and reached out to grab her chin.
Suddenly, a loud splash echoed through the room.
Maxwell had violently thrown himself forward in the water.
He thrashed his upper body, making it look like a severe muscle spasm.
"Vance!" Maxwell roared in manufactured agony.
"My back is on fire!"
The doctor immediately dropped his focus on Martha and rushed to the tub.
"Hold him steady!" Vance yelled at the bodyguard.
Martha used the distraction to slip out into the hallway.
She hid behind a heavy oak pillar and waited.
Ten minutes later, the doctor and the guard left the suite.
Martha crept back into the bathroom.
Maxwell was out of the tub, sitting in his wheelchair wrapped in a robe.
He looked exhausted but completely lucid.
"He didn't inject me," Maxwell breathed out.
"I slipped the needle out of his hand during the spasm."
Martha walked over and locked the bathroom door.
"He's giving you a neurotoxin, Mr. Rourke."
"I know," Maxwell replied softly.
"I started secretly spitting out my oral meds a month ago, and that's when the feeling in my leg returned."
He looked up at her with dangerous, calculating eyes.
"You are going to help me walk again, Martha."
"And in exchange, I won't let my brother Silas kill you."
Martha swallowed hard.
"Why would your brother want to kill me?"
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Maxwell pulled a hidden folder from under his wheelchair cushion.
"Because Silas is the one paying Dr. Vance to paralyze me."
