The Lethal Agent (The Extraction Files Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

platinum.
    Hadley.
    Mable gasped in shock. Tears shot into her eyes and blurred the image. She didn’t want to see it. She couldn’t look away.
    Her Hadley.
    What happened? How did she get hurt?
    Mable realized the horrible truth of it in an instant. Someone had hurt Hadley to get to Mable. It impaled her like a spear through the chest.
    She should never have left.
    How long? She’d only been back at CPI a few days. When had it happened? Where was she?
    Arrenstein knew. He had the picture.
    “What the—?” Theo started before he realized who it was. “Shit. Come on.”
    Theo’s hands wrapped around her shoulders pulled her from the chair. Once moving, her reflexes took over. She ran to the door and managed to get it open, though not gracefully. Waiting for the elevator was excruciating and torturous, but at last, the doors opened on the first floor.
    The two ran, no-holds-barred, as fast as their feet would carry them to the pod garage. Arrenstein was already there. “If I’d known you wouldn’t answer—”
    “Where is she?” Mable climbed into the front seat of the pod, one of the larger four-seat models.
    He was going with them.
    She didn’t have time to argue. She didn’t have time to be mad at him. That would be for later.
    “Chicago Memorial.” Silas slid the travel badge beneath the pod’s nav scanner and put them into motion. Then, he handed both Theo and Mable the travel badge they would need for the shuttle.
    “What happened?” Mable asked, though the answer was plain. Someone wanted Mable to kill them.
    “I don’t know anything yet. I got a call that she was demanding to see me. They had to sedate her. I’m sorry, Maggie. I commed you as soon as I knew.”
    Mable couldn’t hear him. Her pulse pounded in her ears so loud she couldn’t hear anything. She leaned forward and rested her forehead against her knees. She didn’t sit up until the pod stopped at the shuttle terminal.
    The shuttle pushed into the air and carried them toward Chicago. Less than an hour of air time. It felt like an eternity.
    Mable hated to feel this way, to feel like someone else had control over her, over the way she felt, even if they didn’t mean to. She worked hard to keep people at arm’s length, yet time and time again she failed. She’d pushed away Nolan first, with good reason, then Greg, and Rowen after that.
    But how could she push away Hadley? Even Mable was powerless against her charm, her goodness.
    And now she was suffering, alone. Mable couldn’t stand it. She wanted to punch someone, to kill them, to end any idea that Hadley would ever be treated that way again.
    Another pod carried the silent trio from ground transport to the main entrance of Chicago Memorial Hospital. She waited nervously as Arrenstein found Hadley’s room and led them to the elevator.
    Then, at last, there she was. Now she was awake, though otherwise she looked identical to the picture. Through the small viewing window on the door, Mable could see her free hand toying with the edge of the hospital blanket.
    “Wallace family?” called a voice down the hall.
    Mable choked back her tears and nodded. “I’m her sister.”
    “She’s had quite an episode. Sorry, I’m Dr. Mason. She’s got considerable facial contusions, a broken radius and ulna on the right side. Three broken ribs, a spleen so badly bruised we thought it might have ruptured. There’s a hairline fracture in her skull but at this point it doesn’t warrant surgery. She’s lucky.”
    Mable couldn’t hear any more of the long laundry list of ways Hadley had been brutalized in her absence. If Mable learned she’d been violated, she wasn’t sure she could handle it.
    She pushed open the door and ran to her.
    It was all she could do to throw her arms around Hadley and squeeze her as hard as she dared.
    “Mable?” she heard Hadley gasp between violent sobs. Her free hand grasped at Mable’s arm and shoulder, like making sure she was real.
    Mable refused to cry.