Red lights flashed along the walls, breaking the spell. Nicolas let his breath out slowly and pulled back into himself, feeling strangely drained. He slumped over Calhoun, staggering for a moment. Dahlia reached out to steady him. He looked down at her small hands on his arm and then at Jesse Calhoun. The man’s eyes were open, and he was staring at him with a kind of awe.
“What did you do?”
“The police are coming. An ambulance. I’ve got people standing by to intercept and keep you safe, Calhoun. We’ve got to go, but you’re going to live.”
Calhoun’s gaze shifted to Dahlia. “Someone wants her dead.” His eyes closed and he seemed to slip back into an unconscious state.
Nicolas answered him anyway, just in case he could still hear. “She’ll be safe with me.” At once Nicolas tossed the spheres into his pack, noting almost absently that they were still warm. “We’ve got to go now, Dahlia.”
She stared down at Jesse’s body. He was breathing easier, and the blood no longer seeped from the wounds on his calves. The bones were obviously shattered, but his color seemed better and the bluish tinge was gone from around his mouth.
“I think it helped, Nicolas. I really do.” Dahlia took the agent’s pulse. “His heart is stronger.”
“We’ve got to get out of here now, Dahlia.” Nicolas caught her arm in a firm grip, tugging at her to get her away from Calhoun’s side. “Can’t you hear the sirens? The police are going to be swarming around this building soon, and we can’t be here.”
“I’m staying with Jesse,” Dahlia said quietly. “I’m not leaving him like this.”
“You’re coming with me,” Nicolas stated, his bronzed features settling into harsh, implacable lines. “Calhoun is either going to live or he’s going to die, but staying here and sacrificing your life isn’t going to change his fate. Get on your feet Dahlia, or I’m carrying you out of here.”
She had never heard Nicolas use that particular tone before. She could hear the sirens getting closer and closer. “I can take going to jail,” she said.
“You won’t go to jail, Dahlia, you’ll die,” Nicolas said. He took several steps toward the door, simply dragging her smaller body with him. “Think with your brain, not your heart. Someone took a shot through the window at you in the safe house. Who knew about the safe house? It was a member of the NCIS, it had to be. The people you work for. Are you going to believe that was an accident? They weren’t sent there to kill you, I read that in the team leader’s mind. They were supposed to go in soft, going in to see what had gone wrong. They should have been checking to see who was in the house, get you out safely, and protect you until they caught whoever was responsible, yet someone got trigger-happy.” He shifted his pack to his other hand and kept moving. Dahlia was coming with him, slower than he would have liked, but listening rather than fighting him. “Who knew about the sanitarium? The others couldn’t have followed you there. They arrived before you. Someone had to have tipped them off.”
“What about Jesse? If what you’re implying is true, he could be in danger as well.” But she was picking up the pace, knowing what he said made sense. Too much sense. Someone had betrayed Jesse Calhoun and sent the wolves after Dahlia. It was why everything about the mission had gone wrong. Someone Jesse trusted had tipped off the enemy. Nicolas couldn’t fight off the police any more than she could, and Calhoun would die if they took him with them.
“Lily’s sending the GhostWalkers in to protect him. I laid it out for her when I called her. She knows he needs protection, and she has the military contacts to make certain he’ll get it. No one’s going to kill him in front of the cops. They’ll be planning to make their try at the hospital, but they won’t have the chance. Lily’s got a helicopter standing by for him. He’ll get the best care possible. Either what we did will work and he’ll hold until they get to him, or it won’t, but we gave him a chance. That’s all we can do for him.” He caught her shirt and tugged her away from the entrance. “Not that way. Go through the window on the river side. We’re going to have to go into the river. They’ll put a spotter in the air so we’ll have to get completely out of this area.”