“Josie,” Lauren said, still kneeling, voice low. “Where is your mom?”
Josie leaned in.
Her whisper shook.
“Our car slid off the road near the bridge. Mommy hit her head. She told me to take Eli and run. She said the men would come.”
“Which men?”
Josie’s eyes slid toward the glass doors.
“Those men. They were in a gray car. They followed us all day.”
Lauren did not look.
She did not need to.
“Did Mommy say anything else?”
“She said if I held up the gloves, you’d take the baby and you’d take me.”
The words hit harder than any blast she had ever survived.
“Nurse Pierce!”
Greiss’s voice cracked like a whip.
“I gave you a direct order.”
“Dr. Greiss.”
She rose slowly, the baby against her chest.
Her shoulders were still curved.
Her voice was still soft.
But her eyes had changed.
