Innocent People's Lives

Chapter Two

She blinked. No, no, no, this has to be a nightmare. This can't be real.

There was no freaking way Jackson Rippner was standing in front of her. Maybe she'd hit her head harder than she thought. Yes, she was hallucinating – that would explain it.

Lisa felt for the call button underneath her blanket, her eyes fixated on him. Before she could press the button, she felt the control slip from her grasp. It clattered onto the nearby tray table, just out of her reach.

"Nice try, Lisa, but aren't we beyond call buttons? Remember what happened last time?" he taunted.

Like she could forget. Even after ten years, that night stayed in her brain. It was imprinted permanently. "I'll scream," she said softly.

"And I'll smother you with your pillow."

"If you were going to kill me, why bother to wake me up?"

"Maybe I wanted to see the terror in your eyes when you finally realize I'm here to finish the job," he said, still the charmer after all this time.

She stared at him. "Why are you really here?"

"I already told you."

"You're lying. It's been ten years. Why now? Why today?"

Jackson sighed. "We don't have time for this." He crossed the room in two strides and threw open the cabinet. There was a plastic bag inside. He deposited the bag and its contents on her legs. "Get dressed. Now."

"No."

"Leese, if you don't…"

"You'll what? Kill my dad?"

Jackson cocked his head at her. "You and I both know he died of a heart attack three years ago."

Her skin crawled; her stomach in knots. "How long have you been watching me?"

"What makes you think I ever stopped?

Of course you didn't…

"I'm not doing anything until you tell me what's going on."

He drummed his fingers on the bed rail. "Stubborn to the end. Fine, you want to know what's going on? Short version – there are people coming to kill you. I've already killed one but there's more. There's going to be lots more. And they won't stop until you're dead."

Lisa frowned. "You're joking."

"Look to your left. On the floor. Before he could inject you, I injected him. Whatever he had in that syringe stopped his heart cold. He was going to kill you, Leese."

She glanced at the crumpled form on the floor and felt her lungs tighten. Any minute now I'm going to wake up and find this is really bad dream and I'm at home, safe, in my bed… This is not happening to me. Not again.

Jackson snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Focus. I need your full attention. We only have maybe seven minutes left until your guard comes back. He's expecting to find you dead in your bed. We need to be long gone before then. Now get dressed."

"No."

"Lisa, this is not the time to be stubborn. Either you dress yourself or I'll help you."

"No, I'm not going anywhere with you."

"We've already established that I'm not the bad guy here." He nudged the dead guy with his foot. "I know you hate me but right now you need to trust me."

"I could never trust you."

"If you don't, you're dead. Trust that."

She looked between him and the dead guy. There were no good options here. She could either stay put and possibly die, if he was right, or she could go with him and probably die at his hands.

"Fine. Give me a minute."

He turned his back, but she could tell by his posture that he was annoyed. Typical.

Carefully, she peeled the tape back on her IV port, wincing as it tugged at the fine hairs on her arm. She eased the port out of her skin, holding back tears as blood came to the surface. She clamped a hand over it to stem the flow of blood for a moment as she dropped the port.

Lisa kicked the blankets down the bed before reaching for the bag containing her clothes. She climbed out of the hospital bed slowly, negotiating around the rail, and pulled the dirty and torn skirt on first. She dropped the gown on the bed and eased on her ruined blouse. Her body was covered in bruises and small scraps. Everything ached, but it was better than being dead.

She stepped into her heels with a sigh and Jackson turned back around. "Ready?" he asked, pulling off the white coat.

She stared at him again. He was in a suit again with no tie. Only Jackson would dress up to kill someone.

He held out the lab coat. "Here… it'll hide the worst of it."

Frowning, she took the coat and slipped it on. "Why are you helping me?"

"I'll explain it all once we're away from here."

Against her better judgement she nodded and followed him to the door of her room.

He had forgotten how frustrating dealing with Lisa Reisert could be. She was already testing his patience and he'd only been with her a few minutes. Granted, he could have knocked her out and wheeled her out of the building but that would've meant he couldn't react as fast if they ran into someone along the way.

But next time, he was going to knock her out rather than deal with her inane questions.

Jackson had to stay focused in order to keep her alive. He couldn't be worried about dragging her along and keeping her alive at the same time. He needed her to cooperate so he could keep her safe. He couldn't assess their situation with her yapping in his ear.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked.

"Somewhere safe, now, ssh."

He led the way to a back staircase. It would be safer and probably just as fast as the elevator without the trouble of being boxed in. Most of the people looking for Lisa would check their first, or shut the elevators down, or use the cameras to track her movement. They needed to be quick and quiet.

"Where?"

"Later, Leese..." he hissed, taking her arm and steering her down the steps. "We need to get out of here now."

"Why? How did you know I was in danger?"

"There's a contract out on you. Half a million for you dead."

Author's Notes:

It's great to be back playing with these characters again. I've been focused mainly on original works lately and I've become a self-published author with a series but I'll never forgot my roots. With it being ten years since the movie premiered, I knew I couldn't resist coming back to Jackson and Lisa.

I hope you guys have as much fun reading this as I am writing it.