The Enraged (A Jonathan Quinn Novel) Read Online Free Page B

anything inside, she slit the top open. There was no additional envelope this time, just a white, three-by-five-inch index card. She pulled it out and set it gently on the table.
    There were three lines of text written on it. The first was the oddest:
     
    Y7(29g)85KL/24
     
    Her mind was too muddy at the moment to even guess what it could mean.
    The second and third lines, though, she could actually understand:
     
    I need your help.
    Call Quinn. A last assignment. For both of you.
     
    She stared at the words, reading the message over and over.
    I need your help.
    She guessed the fourteen characters in the first line had something to do with the assignment, but she didn’t know what that connection might be.
    Quinn must know what they mean .
    She reached for her phone.

CHAPTER 5
     
    ISLA DE CERVANTES
     
    O VER THE OBJECTIONS of the medical staff, Quinn moved into Orlando’s room within hours of her initial surgery, sleeping in the chair pulled up next to her bed when he could no longer keep his eyes open. The rest of the time he held her hand, wiped her skin with a damp cloth, and read to her from a copy of The Man in the Iron Mask the hospital had in its small, mostly Spanish-language library.
    Not once did she open her eyes or indicate she knew he was there, but at least there had been no setbacks.
    The doctors waited eight days before performing the second surgery, this one focused primarily on her leg. When she was wheeled out of the room at five a.m., Quinn moved downstairs to the waiting room so he could be that much closer to the surgical suite.
    It wasn’t long before Liz and Daeng joined him, and tried to distract him with conversation. But all Quinn could do was pace back and forth, as the helpless anger he felt continued to boil inside.
    Dr. Montero finally walked into the room right before nine thirty a.m. Quinn stopped moving the moment he saw him. He tried to get a read on the doctor’s face, but Montero was as stoic as always.
    “Well?” Liz asked. “How did it go?”
    To Quinn, the brief pause that followed felt like it lasted a million years.
    “As planned,” Montero said. “She’s being taken back to her room now.”
    “And?” Quinn asked.
    “I’m not going to lie to you. She will need a knee replacement when she’s up for it. But we’ve cleaned up what we could, and we’re confident her leg is otherwise going to be fine.”
    “What about her overall condition?” Quinn asked, worried that the surgery would put too much strain on her system.
    “Still serious, but she’s stable, and her vital signs are stronger.”
    “So she’s going to make it,” Liz said.
    Montero turned to her. “There are no guarantees.”
    “Is she going to pull through or not?” Quinn asked.
    “Time is the important factor now. If her condition continues to improve, her chances are considerably better.”
    “How much better?” Quinn asked.
    “That’s hard to say. I will make an evaluation—”
    “Forty percent? Fifty? Sixty? Seventy? What?”
    Montero looked uncomfortable. “Sixty is a good number, I would think.”
    The knot in Quinn’s stomach loosened a little.
    Sixty-percent chance she would survive. That was considerably better than the number the doctor had given the first day.
    “How long until she wakes up? Until I can talk to her?”
    “Not for a few days.”
    “A few days?” Quinn said.
    “The thing that will help her recover most right now is rest. I think it’s best if we keep her sedated for a while.” Before Quinn could say anything, Montero added, “She will be constantly monitored. When everything looks good, we’ll bring her out of it.”
    “How long until I can talk to her?”
    Montero pressed his lips together, clearly not wanting to be backed into a corner. “Three days. Could be four or five.”
    “Five days?”
    Liz put her arm around her brother’s back. “They’re doing all they can. If Dr. Montero says this is for the best, then it must be.”
    Even if his