He stopped and turned, looming over her. “You were going to steal that box for yourself up there in Howardville. Then everything that could go wrong did. You played me, you played the deputies, but ultimately, you were given no choice except to go along with the goons Hunt sent and deliver the box to Lambert.”
She didn’t respond, but he took her silence as affirmation of all he’d said.
“Is it even a drug, Brynn?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“GX—”
“Yes. Yes! Everything I told you about it.”
“Okay. Is the patient Mr. Hunt or Mrs.?”
“Mister.”
“And he’s—”
“Desperate.”
“He’ll die without it.”
“One can hope that with treatment—”
“Skip the bedside manner. Will he die?”
She gave curt nod.
“So why didn’t you want Lambert to have the medicine?”
She said nothing.
“Brynn? Why? Why were you planning to steal it?”
She made a small, defeated sound and pushed back her hair. “What difference does it make now? Nate’s got it. As you said, everybody’s happy.”
“Everybody but you.” He stayed as he was, holding her stare, then took her arm and propelled her toward the street.
Again, she put on the brakes. “I told Nate I would be right back.”
“You won’t be.”
He continued nudging her out the exit. On the street, the fog was noticeably thinner, but the temperature was much colder. It had started to rain. He hurried her toward the Uber car idling at the curb, opened the rear door, and motioned her in.
“I can’t walk out on him now, Rye. We’re doing the procedure tonight.”
“The stuff doesn’t go bad till tomorrow night.”
“They don’t want to wait. If I disappear again, they’ll panic.”
“Oh, we wouldn’t want to start a panic, would we? I can prevent that right now by going back up to the fifth floor and spilling my guts to Lambert. He’ll probably be as curious as I am to hear why you were trying to keep that life-sustaining drug out of his soft, pasty hands.”
“What’s it to you, mister no involvement?”
“Because without my knowledge, you made me an accomplice in your scheme. Whatever the hell it is. God only knows. I sure as hell don’t. But I’m going to find out. From you.
“So either you and I go have a private little talk about your mountain escapade, or we go up and have a three-way with the colleague that you wanted to cheat out of his miracle cure. You decide, Brynn. You’ve got one second.”
5:34 p.m.