She nods. “I always press it when I come here with Mommy.”
“That’s so fun,” Maddie chokes, biting back her tears. “You get inside that elevator, just like you do with your mommy, and you press the L button. Can you remember that?”
“I think so.”
“I know you can,” Maddie assures her, squeezing the girl’s shoulders and forcing a brave smile. “Now go. Run as fast as you can, okay?”
The little girl takes one last look at Maddie and disappears out the door. We’re all silent until we hear the doors of the elevator close. It’s just the three of us now.
“Bauer, I’m the one you really want, right? It’s my fault you lost business. My fault Maddie didn’t follow your plan. This whole thing is on me. Let Maddie go, then you and I can settle this like men.”
Bauer eyes me carefully. “What you said is true Roman—this is about you. But I know I can cause you the greatest pain in your life by taking Maddie’s right in front of you, knowing there is nothing you can do about it.”
Bauer is out of his mind, and there is no reasoning with him right now. I’m going to have to take this by force if we have any hope of making it out alive. And just in case it goes badly, I turn to Maddie, ready to bear my soul.
“Maddie,” I say softly. “I’m sorry, baby.”
Tears spring to her eyes again.
“I don’t blame you for what happened. I was angry, and I said some things I shouldn’t have, but I love you. I love you more than anything, and I came here today to tell you that.” My voice breaks with emotion. “You’re all that matters to me, Maddie. You and Ty.”
She nods, a gentle smile on her face. “I love you, too, Roman. So much.”
“This is all very touching, but you’re running out of time.” Bauer rolls his eyes.
He’s right. With only three minutes left on the timer, it’s now or never.
“Run, Maddie.”
“What?” Her brow furrows.
“Now, Maddie. Run!”
She glances at me for a second, debating what to do. I give her a pleading look, and seconds later, she takes off out of the room.
“Shouldn’t have done that...” Bauer is halfway through his sentence when I lunge at him.
Gripping his shoulders, I wrestle with him violently for a few seconds before shoving him backwards. It seems like everything moves in slow motion and then it all happens at once. I’m not even sure which comes first, but as I shove Bauer backwards, his finger comes off the trigger remote and the two of us crash through the window.
Glass shatters all around us as we collapse on the rooftop below, both reeling from the fall.
I look up at the window we’d just fallen out of, helpless as the entire hospital goes up in a cloud of smoke.
Chapter Forty-Three
I’veexperiencedpaininmy life.
There was the time Emmett dared me to jump off a swing in our backyard when I was seven, and I splintered the bone in my leg so badly that shards of it were poking through the skin. I’ve been captured by an enemy, and for twenty-eight hours, I was beaten with a pillowcase full of bars of soap until I was absolutely senseless. And once when I was a teenager, my dad took me ice fishing in Northern Canada. I fell through the ice and the brutal frigidity of the water felt like one thousand knives stabbing every inch of my skin.
Those were all painful experiences, but nothing compares to the feeling of watching someone you love and care about hurting and not being able to do a damn thing about it.
The influx of displaced patients and doctors overwhelmed area hospitals, forcing the transport of serious cases to better-equipped cities. Maddie was flown to Denver, and as soon as I was cleared, I came to her. I’ve sat next to her bedside for the lastthree days, listening to the hum of the machines she’s connected to and praying that today is the day she wakes up.
After she left the room, Maddie must have known she wasn’t going to make it down from the third floor in time, so instead of heading for the stairwell, she ran in the opposite direction and ducked under the desk at the nurses’ station. No one expected the explosion to be as big and destructive as it was, so she probably thought she could shield herself from some of the debris there. Thankfully, she had the peace of mind to think of that, because the stairwell completely collapsed. Her quick thinking saved her life. I can’t even bring myself to think about what might have happened if she was in the stairwell when it came down or trapped on the elevator when it happened.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion once Bauer and I crashed through the window. There are parts I remember so vividly it’s like I’m playing back a movie, but other parts are so hazy I’m not even sure they happened at all. I don’t know how I got to the triage area, but after the explosion, the first thing I could remember was sitting in the tent being checked out by one of the nurses. I remember asking for Maddie about a dozen times, but no one would tell me what was going on. I wasn’t sure how much time passed, but eventually, Peyton came to find me. She told me they found Maddie, but they were taking her to a different hospital, which made no sense to me at the time. All I wanted was to see her, but I didn’t have the chance before they loaded her into the medicopter and headed for Denver.
When they made me stay for observation, I was irritated, but soon found out it was more about clearing me in the investigation into Bauer. Once they were satisfied I wasn’t working with him and he’d done this on his own, I was cleared. I was optimistic about Maddie, but it all faded once I got to Denver. She was in bad shape and hadn’t improved much at all in the thirty-six hours since the bombing.
