Unshakeable Pursuit (Christian Romantic Suspense)

Chapter 7b

Geoffrey stiffened. The man, the tall one with the bandage on his broken nose, hadn't seen them yet. He grabbed Maylin's arm in a tight grip and began pulling her back around the corner.

Then the man's gaze wandered up, and he saw them.

He started, his legs kicking out. His wide eyes met Geoffrey's for a half a heartbeat, then he was shooting to his feet.

Geoffrey cut right and pulled Maylin with him, back down the hallway.

They couldn't run because of the people in the hallway, but they moved quickly toward the nurses' station. Geoffrey's brain ran through their options. He had glanced at the directory but wasn't sure where the other stairwells were. As he dashed past the nurses' station, however, Maylin's voice sounded behind him. He stopped and turned.

She said urgently to the nurse they'd been speaking to earlier, "Call security. We just saw an Asian man in a dark suit, and he has a gun. You don't have any patients who needed a bodyguard, did you?"

"No." The nurse's face paled, but she immediately reached for the phone. While her attention was distracted, Maylin pulled Geoffrey away.

Good thinking. But it would take security several minutes to get to this floor. If they tried the elevators, they'd be exposed while waiting, so they needed to find a way off this floor without the man seeing them.

Maylin and Geoffrey exited the Cardiology wing and he spied a sign pointing to the Lab. He'd interned at a lab one summer in high school. He had an idea. "This way."

He walked into the Lab wing calmly but with purpose, as if he had a right to be there. Maylin followed his lead. He passed the tiny waiting area, which was only a handful of chairs and a small window to an administrative office, and strode down one of the hallways.

"What are you looking for?" Maylin said.

"Break room."

"What? Why?"

He found it at almost the end of the hallway, an open doorway into a large room. There were three circular tables with chairs, each with one or two people sitting, and at the far end of the room, a refrigerator stood next to a sink and counter.

And directly to the side of the door were hooks with white lab coats hanging there. None of the people in the break room wore their work coats.

Geoffrey had been hoping for that.

He walked casually into the room toward the water cooler next to the counter. Two women chatting next to the coffee pot on the counter stopped to glance at him.

"Do you need some help?" one of them asked.

Geoffrey smiled and shook his head. "Just getting some water. We're waiting on samples."

"Oh, go ahead. Want any coffee or tea?"

"No, thanks."

He filled a paper cup with water from the cooler, and Maylin copied his actions. They drank, threw away their cups, and then headed back out the door.

But as they passed the hooks with lab coats, Geoffrey snagged one. Maylin did the same.

They threw the lab coats on just in time. As they exited the break room, Geoffrey caught a glimpse down the hallway of the Asian man.

Geoffrey immediately turned his back to the man, shielding Maylin's face, making it look like he was chatting with her. The hallway wasn't as crowded as the other areas of the hospital, but there were a couple other people entering and exiting lab rooms.