“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. I’m just so scared, Adam. So scared …”
“I know.”
“I’ve got to trust that God is taking care of him, but it’s so hard.”
“I know,” he said again.
Ralph caught his attention. “Nurses are coming. Better get going.”
Adam pulled her down the hallway in the opposite direction of the approaching medical staff. In the stairwell, he led her down and stopped on the first landing. She leaned against the wall and stared at the ceiling.
“How can they do this?” she whispered. “How can they hurt a little boy?”
He couldn’t help it. He pulled her against him once again and stroked her short-cropped hair. “He’s going to be okay. We’re going to find him.”
“You can’t promise me that!”
Adam sighed. “No. I can’t. I’m sorry.”
“No. I’m sorry.” She sniffed and palmed her eyes. A thought seemed to hit her. “Is your mother in this hospital?”
Pain shot through him. “Yes.”
“Then you need to go see her.”
“Not right now. I will later. Once you and Simon are safe.”
Dani bit her lip. “Adam, you need to go to her.”
“I can’t. If someone sees me going in her room and connects us, they might hurt her to get me to give you up.”
She gasped. “Oh. I didn’t even think about that.”
“I know. I’ll make it up to her. She’ll understand, I promise.”
“What about your sister?”
He sighed, but his heart twisted at the concern on her face. Concern for him and his family. “I appreciate that you want to help me, but let’s worry about you and Simon for now, okay?”
She nodded. “Okay, so where are we going? What do we do next?”
“Call your friend Jenny, and see if Simon’s shown up at her house.” He handed her his phone.
Isaac stepped into the stairwell. “There you are.”
“What’s going on?” Adam asked.
“Tabitha just radioed me. Two guys just walked into the hospital and are on their way up.”
“What makes them stand out?”
“They’re in a government-issued vehicle.”
“FBI?”
“Looks like. Tabitha spotted weapons in shoulder holsters. And one of them is Stuart.”
Adam took Dani by the elbow. “Find out who the other one is. Time to go.”
She hung up the phone and handed it to him. “Jenny hasn’t seen him.”
“He and Mitchell are together,” Isaac said. “We’ve got someone tracking Mitchell’s phone.”
Adam started to lead them down the stairs, then paused.
Isaac stopped. “What?”
“Go up.”
“Why?” Dani asked.
“They’ll expect us to go down. Let’s go up. We can take the crosswalk over and then down to the parking garage. Tell Tabitha to meet us there.” He pulled his weapon from his holster. “Stay close.”
“How did they find us now?” Dani asked.
“I don’t know. We’re not exactly laying low and hiding out at this point. It could be that they had someone watching Blanchard’s room and called when we showed up. Who knows?”
“You don’t sound too concerned.”
“Oh, I’m concerned. I’m concerned we’re going to be dodging bullets. I’m concerned Simon hasn’t shown up and I’m concerned no one has contacted us about him.” He pulled her up the stairs. She kept up.
“If someone has Simon and wants to contact us, how will they know how?”
He paused and opened the door to the floor that would lead them to the crosswalk. He looked at her. “Simon knows my number. And he has Isaac’s phone. If someone wants to talk, he’ll be able to find us.”
She nodded. Then looked around. “Now what?”
“That way.”
He kept a good grip on her hand. Isaac brought up the rear. “Tabitha’s waiting with the car.”
“Good. Let’s try to get there without anything newsworthy happening.”
The three of them dodged hospital workers and patients as they raced across the plastic-covered walkway. At the end, they stepped into the next building and Adam led them to the next set of stairs.
Joe Duncan flashed his badge to the hospital security officer. “I need to look at your monitors if you don’t mind.”
“FBI? Is that thing real?”
Joe sighed. “Yeah. Now you mind?”
He was running out of time. He’d managed to send Stuart on a wild-goose chase to check on Ryan. He wanted to get to Dani before his partner and he didn’t need the man in the way. But he had to hurry before Stuart called him to tell him he hadn’t found out anything.
The officer hesitated, then moved out of the way. “Help yourself.”
Joe did. He settled down in the vacated chair and started clicking on the different views of the hospital. He saw Ralph outside of Ryan’s room. More clicks, more views. And then he spotted them. On the crosswalk. He spoke into his phone. “Fifth floor, the crosswalk.” He looked back at the security guard who was watching. “Which way would you go if you wanted to get out of the hospital?”
“Down to the first floor and through the lobby. Or through the side door and out into the parking garage.”
Joe spoke into his phone. “Cover the lobby door and the side door.” Then he walked to the door. “It’s all yours now.”
“Glad to help.” The officer settled himself into the chair and turned back to the monitors.
Joe pulled his weapon—the one he’d already prepared with the suppressor—walked up behind the man, placed the barrel near his head, and pulled the trigger. All in less than a second. The guy never knew what hit him.
He shoved the weapon into his waistband, walked over to the monitors, and erased the path he’d taken from the point of entering the hospital to walking into the security office. Then he shrugged off his sports coat and shoved it in the backpack. Pulled out a hoodie and slipped it on. He yanked the hood up over his head and opened the door.
29
Simon looked up at the FBI office and almost changed his mind. Then he remembered his mother’s fear and squared his shoulders. He could do this. He pressed a hand against his belly and took a deep breath. The pain had gotten worse since he’d left the boat this morning. A wave of nausea washed over him and he swallowed hard, ordering his nerves under control. Shivers racked him and he felt hot and cold all at the same time. Vaguely he wondered if he had a fever.
He swung off Mitchell’s bike. “Don’t turn your phone on, okay? They’ll be tracking it,” he signed.
“I won’t. Hurry up. I’m freezing.”
“You can come in with me.”
“No way. I’m going to get out of sight. If someone decides they need to call parents, I don’t even want to be in the area.”
“Where will you hide? You won’t leave me, will you?”
“Of course not.” Mitchell shot him a frown, then looked around. “See that bush?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m going to hide behind it and watch the door. I’ll pull up when you come out.”
Simon took a deep breath. “All right. Wish me luck.”
Mitchell shook his head. “I think this one calls for prayer.”
“Yeah. Me too.” He started up the steps, trying to figure out exactly what he was going to say to Stuart and praying he didn’t throw up thanks to the growing pain centering itself in his lower right side.
Dani paused on the third floor when Adam tugged on her hand. “That way.”
“I thought we were going all the way down.”
“We were. I’m changing directions.”
“Okay.” She stepped from the stairwell onto the patient floor. Nurses and doctors brushed past her without a second look. “Where to?”
“The service elevator.”
<
br /> “Where is it?”
Adam glanced at Isaac, who nodded. He stopped a woman with a cleaning cart. “Where’s the service elevator?”
“Around the desk and on to the back wall.” She grabbed her mop and headed for the newly vacated room. “But that’s just for hospital personnel who have keys. You’ll have to use the elevator through that door there.”
“Right. Thanks.”
Adam cupped her elbow and guided her toward the service elevator.
“What are we going to do?” Dani asked. “We don’t have a key.”
“Actually, we do.” Isaac held it up with a triumphant smile. “Sometimes my shady past comes in handy.”
Within seconds Dani found herself staring at a pair of stainless steel doors. Adam swiped the key and the doors opened. They stepped inside and began the descent to the bottom floor.
Adam called Tabitha. “Where are you?” He listened, then nodded and hung up. “When we get out of the elevator, hang a left. Walk down the hallway to the end and out the door. Summer is waiting with a vehicle.”
“What happened to Tabitha?”
“She’s still waiting.”
“A decoy?” Dani murmured.
“Yep.”
The elevator gave a slight bounce and the doors parted. Isaac and Adam had their weapons drawn and held slightly behind them.
The hallway loomed empty and Adam motioned for Isaac to lead the way. Dani followed and Adam brought up the rear.
Dani could see the car through the glass doors at the end of the hallway. Within seconds, they were settled in the vehicle.
Summer glanced in the rearview mirror. “Glad you could make it.” She pulled away from the curb.
Dani turned to look over her shoulder out the back window.
So far so good. She let out a relieved breath, closed her eyes, and sent up a prayer. When she finished, she asked, “Has anyone found my son yet?”
“Not yet,” Summer said. “We’re still watching Isaac’s phone and his friend’s phone. If they turn them on, we’ll have them.”
“And if they don’t?”
Adam reached over and took her hand in his. “Then we’ll have to figure out another way to find him.”
“How?” She couldn’t keep her frustration from spewing forth. “This is what I was afraid of. This is why I wanted to run. My nightmare is unfolding before my very eyes and you and your company seem to be powerless to stop it from happening. I trusted you and I—” Dani couldn’t believe the words she let spill from her lips, but she was afraid, so very afraid. She snagged the ragged fragments of what remained of her self-control and closed her eyes. She leaned forward to rest her head against the seat in front of her and let the sobs explode.
Adam drew in a shaky breath, unsure of how he should respond. Unfortunately, he had a feeling anything he said or did wouldn’t be the right thing. He shot Summer a frantic look in the rearview mirror. She raised a brow and tilted her head toward Dani. Adam ground his teeth with indecision. So what did that mean?
Dani’s thin frame shook, her racking sobs easing to hiccuping gasps. With one last look at an exasperated Summer, Adam finally moved. Summer nodded her approval.
Adam placed his hands on Dani’s shoulders and turned her to him. She took one look at him and resisted. He tugged. She gave in and allowed him to pull her against his chest.
“I’ve got to stop doing this,” she mumbled. “It’s not solving a blessed thing.”
“You’re letting off steam.” He stroked her short hair and rubbed the nape of her neck.
“I’m being a crybaby.”
“I’d say that was allowed in this situation.”
She sat up and sniffed. He handed her a tissue Summer had slipped to him. She used it, then clutched it like a lifeline. “I can’t think of where he’d go. Jenny said she hadn’t seen him. He wouldn’t go to Stuart. He’d only go to Mitchell.”
“What about a church?”
“We don’t have one. Kurt wouldn’t let us go. At least not very often.”
“A teacher? An administrator at his school?”
She shook her head. “No. No one.”
She knew it was pitiful. She and Simon had been so isolated when Kurt was alive. And now that he was dead, Dani realized how alone she still was. The thought saddened her.
Adam’s tug on her fingers brought her eyes up to his. “You’re not alone,” he said. She gulped. Was she really that easy to read? He simply smiled and turned to Summer. “Where are we?”
“Almost to Dani’s subdivision.”
Dani leaned forward. “You think he would have come home?”
“Won’t hurt to check.”
He spoke into his phone. “Isaac, you close by?” He listened. “Right.” He looked at Summer. “Drive on past the subdivision. I want Isaac and Tabitha to do a sweep before we go in.”
Summer did as he asked. Dani saw Tabitha and Isaac turn into the subdivision. Summer made a U-turn and parked on the side of the road.
“Where’s Blake?” Dani asked.
“His mother had a heart attack,” Adam said. “He had to fly home about an hour ago.”
“Oh.” No one had said anything.
Adam held up his phone. “He texted me and said to offer his apologies.”
“No, it’s no problem. Of course he’d go be with his mother.” Unlike Adam who’d chosen to stay with her. A gratitude like nothing she’d ever felt before rose up within her. God had his hand on this situation. She knew he did, she just needed to keep giving it up to him every time the terror threatened to overtake her.
For the next ten minutes, Dani waited with barely concealed impatience. She could imagine that Simon had gone home and was holed up in the bonus room playing his video games. Oh please, God. Please let me hold him again. She would hug him to pieces.
Before she grounded him for life.
While the scenario played out in her head and she hoped with all her heart it was true, deep down she knew Simon wouldn’t do that to her.
Although he had left. Who knew what he was thinking?
“How mad would Simon have to make you in order for you to give up on him?” Adam murmured.
“What?” Had she heard him right?
He flushed. “Nothing.”
Dani gripped his forearm and felt his muscle contract beneath the long-sleeved shirt. Almost like an afterthought, she realized she wasn’t afraid of Adam and probably never would be. He’d never use his strength against her. He was nothing like Kurt.
“Adam, Simon could never do anything to make me so mad I’d ever give up on him.”
“Nothing?”
“I really can’t think of anything. I might be really mad, but I’d never stop loving him, praying for him.”
He nodded.
“You think your mother’s given up on you?” she asked.
He flinched. “It occurred to me that she might.”
“Because you haven’t been there for her through the surgery?”
“That and the thing with my uncle.”
Guilt pierced Dani to the core. “I’m sorry.”
Adam gripped her hand. “I am too, but this isn’t your fault. None of it is, so don’t you dare try to shoulder the blame, okay?”
She nodded. “I’ll try.” A pause. “I don’t know your mom,” she said. “But if she loves you with even a drop of the love I feel for Simon, then she won’t give up on you. Ever.”
He stared a moment longer, then leaned over to kiss her forehead. “Thanks.”
She gave him a shaky smile and turned her gaze back toward her house. A house she never wanted to set foot in again.
His phone rang. He listened and nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”
She looked at him and didn’t even have to ask. “He’s not there.”
“No. And he’s not at Jenny’s either. She’s not home. If Simon’s hiding out somewhere in her house, he’s not answering the door. Isaac didn’t want to break in. But your movers are cleaning the pl
ace out and putting everything in storage. The realtor is putting the house on the market tomorrow.”
She blinked at the news. “Oh. Wow! That was fast.”
“Do you regret it? You can always stop it. Just don’t sign the papers.”
She lifted her chin. “No way.”
Adam smiled. “I didn’t think you would.”
“So now what?”
He thought. “I think we need to go by Mitchell’s house.”
“Why?”
“Because we know for sure he and Simon were in contact. Simon probably arranged for Mitchell to meet him somewhere. Mitchell has to come home sometime, right?”
Simon signed and spoke to the man at the desk. “I want to see my uncle. Will you tell him I’m here?”
“Who’s your uncle?”
“Stuart Harding.”
The man’s brows rose a little higher on his wide forehead. “Stuart Harding, huh? What’s your name?”
“Simon Harding.”
“Kurt’s kid?”
“Yes sir.” He kept a hand pressed against the pain in his stomach.
“All right. Have a seat over there. We’ll see what Stuart says. He just walked in not two minutes ago.”
Simon settled himself on the hard plastic chair and watched the man’s lips as he spoke into the phone.
“Thank you.” He looked at Simon. “He’ll be right here.”
“Thanks.”
“Sure.” The man looked down. Then back up. He said something, but Simon missed it.
He frowned. “What?”
“I said, how are you doing since your dad’s death?”
“We’d be doing just fine if Uncle Stuart would leave us alone.”
The man blinked. Stared. Then blinked again. “Oh. Huh?”
“Never mind.” He winced and leaned forward to press his face into his hands. He’d never felt this kind of pain before.
The touch on his shoulder brought his head up. He looked into the concerned eyes of the man from the desk. “Hey, I’m Buddy Faust. Are you okay, kid?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”
Mr. Faust’s hand moved to his forehead. “You’ve got a bit of a fever.”
“It’ll go away.”
The elevator door opened and Stuart stepped into the lobby.
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