Death’s Grip

5:02 P.M.

John had learned something during the last twenty-four hours.

Pain could become background noise.

The burns hurt.

His ribs hurt.

His shoulder hurt.

Every step felt as if his body were protesting the decision to remain alive.

But none of it mattered as much as what he had seen when he opened Danny’s hospital-room door.

Danny was alive.

John was alive.

And somehow, that didn’t feel like good news.

Not completely.

There were too many unanswered questions.

Who had saved them?

Why had they both been brought to the same hospital?

Why were there security officers outside Danny’s room?

Why had the doctor been trying to keep Danny sedated?

And most importantly—

where were Ashley, Katelynn, Ethan, and Alex?

John sat on the edge of his hospital bed, staring at the floor.

Two officers stood outside his room.

He could see their reflections in the small glass panel on the door.

They hadn’t moved in almost twenty minutes.

John frowned.

Normal hospital security didn’t stand like that.

They weren’t watching the hallway.

They were watching him.

He slowly looked toward the nurses’ station.

A nurse glanced at him, then immediately looked away.

John noticed.

He had spent too much time around people lying to him to miss small things anymore.

Something was wrong.

The door opened.

A nurse stepped inside.

She was different from the one who had been treating him earlier.

John recognized her face.

Claire.

The same woman who had been around Danny.

She carried a small medication tray.

“How are you feeling?”

John looked at the tray.

“Like my body got dragged through a furnace and then billed for the privilege.”

Claire smiled faintly.

“That’s understandable.”

“No, it isn’t.” John’s eyes lifted to hers. “Not unless you know what happened to me.”

“You were injured.”

“I was almost killed.”

“That too.”

John studied her.

“You were with Danny.”

Her smile vanished.

“Excuse me?”

“Danny. You were in his room.”

“I work on his floor.”

“That’s a job description, not an answer.”

Claire set the tray beside him.

“Your medication is due.”

John didn’t look at it.

“Where is he?”

“I can’t discuss another patient’s condition.”

“He’s my friend.”

“I understand.”

“No, you don’t.” John leaned forward, ignoring the pain in his ribs. “You understand hospital policy. You don’t understand what we’ve been through.”

Claire remained silent.

John pointed toward the door.

“Those guys aren’t hospital security.”

Claire’s eyes flicked toward the glass panel, then back to him.

John caught it.

That was enough.

“They’re not, are they?”

Claire lowered her voice.

“Take your medication.”

John gave a humorless laugh.

“Try again.”

“Because you need it.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“No.” Her fingers tightened around the edge of the tray. “It’s the only answer I’m allowed to give you.”

John studied her face.

Then he noticed something.

Her hands were shaking.

Barely.

But they were shaking.

“You’re scared.”

Claire froze.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“I said I’m not.”

“Your hands disagree.”

She looked toward the door again.

John lowered his voice.

“Who are you scared of?”

Claire didn’t answer.

John waited.

He had learned that silence made frightened people fill it.

Finally, she stepped closer.

Close enough that he could hear her whisper.

“John.”

His expression changed.

“Yeah?”

“You need to listen to me very carefully.”

“I’m listening.”

Claire looked toward the door, then toward the hallway, then back at him.

“One of you is a traitor.”

John’s stomach dropped.

“What?”

“One of the people you came here with.”

John stared at her.

“Ashley?”

She shook her head.

“Katelynn?”

Another shake.

“Ethan?”

Claire’s mouth tightened.

“Alex?”

She didn’t answer.

John’s eyes narrowed.

“You said one of us.”

“I said one of the people you trust.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“It is when trust is what gets you killed.”

John’s blood ran cold.

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

He almost laughed, but there was no humor in it.

“You just accused one of my friends and you don’t know which one?”

“I didn’t accuse anyone. I warned you.”

“Based on what?”

“Because I was told.”

“By whom?”

Claire stepped closer.

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why?”

“Because if they find out I told you, I won’t leave this hospital alive.”

John stared at her.

She wasn’t bluffing.

At least, he didn’t think she was.

“Who told you?”

Claire’s eyes filled with fear.

“Someone who shouldn’t still be alive.”

John felt a chill crawl across his skin.

“Danny?”

Claire didn’t answer.

“Claire.”

She grabbed his wrist.

“Whatever you do, don’t tell the others.”

John stared at her hand, then at her face.

“Why?”

“Because if the traitor realizes you know…”

She stopped.

John finished the sentence.

“They’ll kill me.”

Claire nodded.

“And maybe the others.”

John slowly pulled his wrist away.

“How do I know you’re not the traitor?”

“You don’t.”

That answer surprised him.

Claire stepped back.

“That’s the point. You don’t get certainty anymore.”

The door handle moved.

Claire immediately returned to her professional expression.

She picked up the medication tray.

A man in a dark security uniform appeared in the doorway.

“Everything okay?”

Claire smiled.

“Everything’s fine.”

The man looked at John, then at the medication.

“Has he taken it?”

“Not yet.”

The man’s eyes narrowed.

Claire held his gaze.

“I’ll make sure he does.”

The man nodded, then stepped away.

The door closed.

John stared at Claire.

She leaned toward him.

“Don’t trust anyone.”

Then she left.

John sat completely still.

The room suddenly felt much smaller.

5:19 P.M.

John didn’t take the medication.

He pretended to.

He swallowed nothing.

Instead, he kept the pills hidden beneath his tongue until the nurse left.

Then he spit them into the cup beside his bed.

He stared at them.

Small.

White.

Harmless-looking.

He’d learned something else over the last day.

Nothing was harmless anymore.

John looked toward the door.

The security officers were still there.

One of them was talking on a radio.

The other kept watching the hallway.

John leaned back against the pillow.

His mind began racing.

A traitor.

Someone had betrayed them.

But who?

Ashley?

Impossible.

At least, he wanted it to be.

She loved Danny.

She had nearly died trying to get back to him.

But people could fake anything.

Katelynn?

John’s chest tightened.

He refused to consider it.

Not after everything.

Not after the way she’d told him she loved him.

Not after the way she’d fought to reach him.

Ethan?

Ethan knew too much.

He had hacked their way through systems that should have been impossible to access.

He had uncovered Project Lazarus.

Death’s Gambit.

The payments.

The security companies.

The police.

Maybe he’d uncovered something else.

Something none of them knew about.

Then there was Alex.

Quiet.

Observant.

Always watching.

Always thinking.

John had always trusted Alex because Alex rarely spoke without a reason.

But maybe that was exactly why he was dangerous.

John closed his eyes.

“No.”

He whispered the word.

He didn’t know.

That was the problem.

He didn’t know.

And until he did, every name in his head could become a possibility.

The door opened again.

A different nurse entered.

“Time for your medication.”

John smiled.

“Sure. Let’s keep pretending this is a normal hospital stay.”

She walked toward him.

John watched her carefully.

She placed a cup beside him, then turned away.

John looked at the cup, then at her.

“What’s your name?”

The nurse turned.

“Maria.”

“How long have you worked here?”

She smiled.

“About six years.”

John nodded.

“Six years. Long enough to know when people are lying.”

Her smile faltered.

“Anything else?”

“No.”

She left.

John waited until the door closed.

Then he looked toward the security officers.

One was staring at him.

John smiled.

The officer didn’t smile back.

6:03 P.M.

Danny woke in a different room.

His wrists were secured to the bed.

His ankles were secured too.

A strap crossed his chest.

Another ran across his waist.

He tried to move.

The restraints tightened.

Danny’s eyes opened wider.

“What the hell?”

His voice was weak.

His mouth was dry.

His entire body felt heavy.

He couldn’t remember being moved.

He couldn’t remember anyone entering.

He looked around.

The room was smaller than the one he remembered, with the same sterile walls and the same machines surrounding the bed.

A clear IV bag hung beside him.

The liquid inside was slowly dripping into his arm.

Danny stared at it.

Then at the restraints.

“No. No, get these off.”

He pulled against them.

Pain shot through his ribs.

The monitor immediately began beeping faster.

The door opened.

Two nurses entered.

“Mr. Matheny.”

“Don’t call me that. Take these off.”

“Please calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down while I’m tied to a bed.”

“Mr. Matheny—”

“Take them off!”

A doctor followed them into the room.

Danny recognized him.

Dr. Reed.

“Why am I restrained?”

“You became combative.”

Danny stared at him.

“When?”

“About twenty minutes ago, while we were transferring you from your original room.”

“I don’t remember.”

“You were confused.”

“I’m confused now. The difference is that I can see the restraints.”

Danny looked toward the IV.

“What is that?”

“Medication.”

“What medication?”

“A sedative.”

Danny’s eyes hardened.

“Why?”

“You were trying to remove your IV.”

“I was trying to leave.”

“You’re not medically stable.”

“Then stabilize me. Don’t drug me.”

Danny pulled against the restraints again.

“Where’s Ashley?”

Dr. Reed didn’t answer.

Danny’s breathing became faster.

“Where is she?”

“Danny—”

“Don’t use that tone with me. Where is Ashley?”

Dr. Reed looked toward the nurses.

“Give him another dose.”

Danny’s eyes widened.

“No!”

The nurse approached.

“No!”

He struggled against the restraints.

“Get away from me!”

“Hold still.”

“Don’t touch me!”

The nurse injected the medication into his IV.

Danny felt the cold spread through his arm.

His vision began to blur.

“No…”

Dr. Reed leaned closer.

“You’re safe.”

Danny laughed weakly, the sound cracking in his throat.

“Safe? I’m strapped down, drugged, and you won’t tell me where my girlfriend is.”

“Your body needs rest.”

“My body needs a door.”

The room tilted.

Dr. Reed’s face blurred above him.

Danny fought to keep his eyes open.

“That’s what everyone keeps saying.”

Then the room disappeared.

6:27 P.M.

John watched through the small glass panel in his door.

Two men pushed an empty hospital bed down the hallway.

John recognized the room number printed on the transport sheet clipped to its frame.

Danny’s former room.

The bed disappeared around the corner.

John’s stomach tightened.

He tried to stand.

Pain immediately forced him back down.

A nurse entered his room.

John looked at her.

“Where are they taking him?”

She didn’t answer.

“Danny.”

The nurse checked his IV.

“Stay in bed.”

“Don’t give me an order and call it an explanation. Where are they taking him?”

She looked at him.

“Mr. Matheny has already been moved.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

John stared at her.

“You all keep saying that.”

The nurse didn’t respond.

John looked toward the hallway.

Something was happening.

Something bigger than them.

He could feel it.

And somewhere inside that hospital, Danny was being drugged into unconsciousness.

John lowered his voice.

“Claire told me something.”

The nurse froze.

John watched her face.

“You know Claire?”

She looked at him for half a second too long, then continued checking the IV.

“No.”

John smiled faintly.

“Right. And I’m supposed to believe that because you said it calmly?”

The nurse finished, then left.

John waited.

He didn’t move.

He didn’t speak.

He didn’t tell anyone what Claire had said.

Because now he understood the danger.

If there really was a traitor among them, telling the others could expose him.

Or her.

And if Claire was lying, telling them would make things worse.

So John made a decision.

He would keep the secret.

For now.

7:11 P.M.

John lay awake in the dark.

The hospital lights outside his room had been dimmed.

The hallway was quiet.

Too quiet.

He stared at the ceiling.

He thought about Katelynn.

He wondered where she was.

Whether she was hurt.

Whether she believed he was dead.

Then he thought about Danny.

Alive.

Drugged.

Restrained.

And somewhere else in the hospital, Ashley, Ethan, Alex, and Katelynn were being held in separate rooms they couldn’t escape.

John’s fingers curled into the blanket.

Someone had betrayed them.

Maybe before the robbery.

Maybe during it.

Maybe after.

He didn’t know.

But one thing was becoming clear.

Death’s Gambit hadn’t ended.

It had changed.

The Gambit had stopped hunting them from the outside.

Now it was inside their circle.

John closed his eyes.

He whispered the words Claire had given him.

“One of us.”

He opened his eyes again.

“And I’m not telling anybody.”

For the first time since the building collapsed, John wasn’t afraid of dying.

He was afraid of trusting the wrong person.

And somewhere in the hospital, behind a locked door, Danny Matheny slept beneath enough medication to keep him unconscious.

Someone had made sure he couldn’t leave.

Someone had moved him before John could reach him.

And someone—

somewhere—

was waiting to see what John would do with the secret.

The second game had already begun.

This time, the enemy didn’t need to chase them.

They only needed to wait for them to turn on each other.