The Man Who Crossed Worlds (Miles Franco #1)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Desmond was on his cell phone when I got back to him. He was still looking a bit pale, and his grin hadn’t returned. I gave him a nod and we jogged through the rain to the car, him still muttering into the phone.

I got into the car and pulled O’Neil’s smartphone from my pocket to go through it again. Before I could, it started ringing.

I was so shocked I nearly dropped it. A little animation of a ringing rotary phone had appeared on the screen, along with a number. The same number that had accompanied the text messages, if I remembered correctly.

I exchanged a glance with Desmond, but he was still on his own phone. Heart pounding, I pressed the screen to accept the call, and put it to my ear.

The sound of rain and muffled engine noises came through first. And then there was a voice.

“Shirley,” Todd said. “Where the fuck are you? I lost contact with William and Natalie, and the other Tunnelers aren’t picking up. But I got the girl.”

I clutched the phone tight to my ear, not daring to open my mouth. The girl? Who the hell was he talking about?

“I’m nearly at the Avenues,” he continued. “I need you to meet me there. The girl’s getting aggressive, and it’s gonna be risky with so much product lying around. Something funny’s going on, and—”

There was a low bang, and some muffled noises. Then he spoke again. “What the fuck? Oh, shit!”

Another crackle, like he’d dropped the phone. I heard something high-pitched, something like a scream. A familiar scream.

And then came the gunshots.

I squeezed the phone so hard part of me worried I’d crush it. The blasts sounded distorted in the phone’s speaker, but they were unmistakable. A sound like the shattering of glass came through, and a car door opened. Over it all was the scream.

“Get gone!” Todd’s voice was distant. “Run, you stupid bitch.”

The line went dead.

I kept holding the phone to my ear for a few seconds, praying that scream wasn’t who I thought it was.

“Miles?” Desmond said.

I turned to him. He stared at the phone in my hand, his jaw clenched, and silently handed me his cell phone.

“Miles, it’s Rob.” His voice was clipped. “I got into the hospital records for you.”

“Tell me she’s there. Rob, tell me she’s still there.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t.”

A punch to the gut would’ve been less painful. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Breathe, Miles.

“What… You just mean they discharged her, right? Tell me that’s what you mean.”

I already knew it wasn’t by the tone of his voice and the look on Desmond’s face, but I didn’t let myself believe it until Rob said it. “Last time they saw her was when a nurse took observations a couple of hours ago. They ran her blood, but it came back clean. They were planning to discharge her when her mother showed up. The girl started to get agitated so they decided to keep her in a bit longer.”

“‘Agitated’? The hell do they mean by that?”

“I don’t know, Miles, I’m just telling you what’s written down. It looks like she got so aggressive they called the cops. Some detective showed up and took her away.”

I cradled the steering wheel with my free arm. “Jesus Christ.” I shouldn’t have left her. Why the fuck had I left her?

Todd was using her to get to me. Only something had gone wrong. Fuck, she could be bleeding in a gutter right now. Who’d been shooting? What had Todd got her into?