Chapter 8
Marcus's POV: "Memory Recovery"
The needle was already halfway to my arm when I grabbed the fake nurse's wrist.
"Wrong room," I said, twisting her hand until she dropped the needle. The clear liquid inside splashed across the hospital floor.
The woman was young, maybe twenty-five, with short black hair and scared eyes. But her nurse outfit was wrong. The hospital sign was faded, like it came from a costume shop.
"I'm sorry," she stuttered. "I got confused. I was looking for room 314."
"This is room 312," I said, still holding her wrist. "And that syringe wasn't filled with medicine."
She tried to pull away, but I didn't let go. Twenty years of being a guardian teaches you to spot danger, even when you're lying in a hospital bed with a concussion.
"What's in the syringe?" I asked.
"Nothing! Just saline solution. I made a mistake."
I looked at the liquid on the floor. It was starting to eat through the vinyl tile like acid.
"Saline solution doesn't burn holes in floors," I said.
The fake nurse's eyes got wide with fear. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small gun.
But I was faster. Even with my head damage, my reflexes were still good. I yanked her arm and she fell forward onto the hospital bed. The gun flew across the room.
"Who sent you?" I asked.
She didn't answer. Instead, she bit down hard on something in her mouth. Foam started coming out between her lips.
"Poison pill," I realized. "Just like in spy movies."
She was dead in thirty seconds.
I stared at the dead woman on my hospital bed. Someone had just tried to kill me with acid and when that failed, the woman killed herself rather than talk.
This wasn't about the Elena Cross case anymore. This was about something much bigger.
My head was pounding, but suddenly memories started rushing back. Things I hadn't thought about in years. Things Harrison's bullets had knocked loose in my brain.
I remembered other cases. Other families that Harrison had ruined.
The Martinez family from five years ago. Their teenage son had watched a judge taking bribes, so Harrison made all four family members disappear. The cops found their car in the river, but never found the bodies.
The Thompson family from three years ago. The father was about to speak against a corrupt politician, so Harrison burned down their house with everyone inside. The fire looked like an accident.
The Wilson family from last year. The mother had proof that a police chief was selling drugs, so Harrison staged a home raid that left two parents and three children dead.
All these years, I thought Harrison was just a lawyer who killed Elena's family. But he wasn't just a lawyer. He was a paid family killer.
And someone very powerful had been protecting him.
I reached for the phone next to my hospital bed to call Sarah, but it was dead. I tried the emergency button, but nothing happened. Someone had cut the power to my room.
That's when I heard footsteps in the hallway. Multiple folks walking toward my room.
I got out of bed, my head spinning from the injury. I had to get out of here before more fake nurses showed up with more poison needles.
I grabbed the dead woman's gun and checked the bullets. Six shots. That might not be enough.
The footsteps stopped right outside my door. I could see shadows moving under the crack at the bottom.
Someone knocked softly three times.
"Room service," a man's voice called out.
But it wasn't time for room service. And I hadn't ordered anything.
I looked around my hotel room for another way out. There was a window, but I was on the fourth floor. Too high to jump.
The door handle started turning.
I aimed the gun at the door and waited.
Three men in black suits walked in. They weren't carrying food. They were carrying guns with silencers attached.
"Marcus Stone," the first man said quietly. "You need to come with us."
"I need to stay in the hospital," I said. "Doctor's orders."
"The doctor who ordered you to stay is dead," the second man said. "Car crash an hour ago. Very terrible."
My heart sank. Dr. Peterson had been a good man who saved my life after Harrison shot me. Now he was dead because he tried to help me.
"Who are you people?" I asked.
"We work for the same organization that employed Harrison," the third man said. "The same organization that's been cleaning up Harrison's messes for twenty years."
"What organization?"
The first man smiled, but it wasn't a nice smile. "Let's call us The Thirteen Shadows. We've been watching you recover your memories, Marcus. We know you remember the other families Harrison killed for us."
"The Martinez family. The Thompsons. The Wilsons," I said.
"Among others. Harrison was very good at his job. But now he's in jail, and his memories might be recovered by the cops. That makes him a risk."
"So you want him dead?"
"We want everyone who knows about The Thirteen Shadows dead," the second man said. "That includes Harrison. That includes you. And it includes Detective Kane."
I realized these people weren't just crooks. They were something much worse. They were the secret organization that had been running Chicago's corruption for decades.
"How many families did Harrison kill for you?" I asked.
"Forty-three families over twenty years," the first man said proudly. "One thousand, two hundred and seventeen people total. Harrison was our best agent."
I felt sick. Harrison hadn't just killed Elena's family and a few witnesses. He'd committed genocide against anyone who threatened The Thirteen Shadows. "But Harrison made a mistake with the Kane family," the third guy continued. "He was meant to kill everyone, but he let one daughter live. Sarah Kane."
"Why did he let her live?"
"Because Harrison has a weakness. He can't kill children who remind him of his own girls."
My blood ran cold. "Harrison has daughters?"
"Had daughters," the first man corrected. "Twin girls. We killed them three years ago when Harrison started getting sloppy. We told him they died in a car crash."
"You killed his children?"
"We kill anyone who becomes a problem," the second man said. "Just like we're going to kill you."
All three men raised their guns.
But before they could shoot, the hospital fire alarm started screaming. Red lights flashed and water sprayed from the ceiling sprinklers.
In the chaos, I dove behind the hospital bed and started shooting.
My first bullet hit the first man in the chest. My second bullet hit the second man in the shoulder.
The third man ran out of the room, yelling into a radio.
I knew I only had minutes before more killers arrived. I had to get out of the hospital and warn Sarah that The Thirteen Shadows were coming for her.
But as I ran toward the window, I saw something that made me stop.
In the parking lot below, Sarah was walking toward the hospital door. She had no idea that she was going into a trap.
And behind her, following at a distance, was a man I recognized.
Harrison.
He was meant to be in jail, but somehow he was free. And he was carrying a gun.
I banged on the window, trying to warn Sarah, but she couldn't hear me over the fire alarm.
I had to choose. I could escape through the window and save myself, or I could run downstairs and try to save Sarah.
But if I went downstairs, The Thirteen Shadows would kill both of us.
And if I fled, Sarah would die not knowing that her worst enemy was right behind her.
I looked at the dead fake nurse on my bed, then at Sarah in the parking lot, then at Harrison creeping closer to her.
That's when I discovered the most terrifying truth of all.
Harrison wasn't working for The Thirteen Shadows anymore.
He was working against them.
And Sarah Kane was about to become stuck in the middle of a war between two groups of killers.
A war that would destroy everyone I cared about.