by Apryl Baker
“I don’t know.” Did he want to involve the police? It would be the smartest move, but they might not believe him. Then they’d waste precious time. Time his son might not have. If the cartel knew Angel recognized him, they might not wait to start torturing him.
“We’ll figure it out when I get there.” Conner disconnected without even saying goodbye.
“He does that now.” Nik shook his head at their brother’s bad manners. “Mama would switch his backside good for that, even though he’s a head taller and three times wider than she is.”
“Come on back in, and we’ll eat while we wait for Angel to wake up…” He trailed off when he saw Max get out of the elevator. That was quick. Too quick. He probably just grabbed his laptop and hadn’t had time to even run the check.
“We need to find a quiet place to talk.” Max glanced around nervously.
“You found something?”
Max nodded curtly.
Kade asked Marcy if there was somewhere they could talk quietly and privately. She showed them to an empty on call room with a lock on the door. She didn’t ask any questions, much to her credit.
“What?”
Max opened his laptop and showed the police report that had been filed earlier. It was a man who worked for the construction company. He sent a snapshot to Watkins, who had been there this morning, and got a confirmation that it was the man who hadn’t shown up. His boss came instead. They’d found him a few blocks from his wife’s new building, dead.
“This makes no sense. Why would they kill a construction guy?”
“If they dumped her phones, they would have seen she’d made several calls to the business. If it were me, I’d have called them and gotten all the juicy details.”
“They’re not going to give out client information…”
“Kade.” Max put a hand up and stopped him. “It’s a construction company, not a doctor’s office. If someone called and said they couldn’t remember what time their meeting was or who it was with, they would have confirmed it.”
“Motherfucker.”
“You should know this. You were in the FBI.”
“I do know it, I’m just fucking tired.” He sat down on one of the beds. “They probably grilled the kid and got the address. The bastards leave no witnesses behind. He was dead the minute they got his name.”
“Do you know anyone who works gang intel down in Florida?” Max closed his laptop. “If it were Texas, I’d have you covered, but I know jackshit about Florida.”
“It’s been years. I can get in touch with my old handler, but he was my only contact while I was there.”
“I think Cole knows some people down there.”
“Cole?” Kade searched his memory but came up blank.
“Cole Daniels, Viktor’s new hire. He’s from the Miami-Dade area. He might be able to help. He’s supposed to start Monday, but I’ll shoot him a text see if he can lend a hand.”
Kade glanced at his phone when it pinged. It was Watkins telling him they were taking Angel for her CT, and he was going with her.
“Do we want to involve the police, though? It’s a lot of red tape.”
“You can’t just roll into town, shoot it up, and not expect police backlash.” Max stuffed the laptop back into its case. “You need the police. Call your buddies in the feds. Keep a plan B on the backburner in case plan A fails, but we want the police involved.”
“I’m with Max on this.” Nik finally spoke up. “I’m not a military man, so I can’t say Conner’s plan won’t work, but I think you need to do it legally first.”
“And what happens if legal doesn’t work and we have to go in? The dead bodies will lead back to us then. The cops will know we were looking for Matthew. If we go with stealth and just take out the necessary players and take him back, no one is the wiser.”
“And how are you going to explain finding the son you thought was dead?” Nik asked. “You’re not thinking like a cop, Kade. You’re thinking like a father who is willing to do anything to get his son back. If you don’t start thinking like a cop, you’re going to wind up in jail where no one can protect you, and it still might end up with Angel and Matthew dead.”
When did his little brother start making so much fucking sense? He did want to go in guns blazing and take his son back, but Nik was right. How would he explain it? A child who had been presumed dead? How did he find out about him? Who did he contact? Where did he get the child? All those questions would land at his doorstep, and he had no answers that wouldn’t land him with a prison sentence.
People would die when he went in to take back his kid. If the cops weren’t in on it, his family would be the ones to pay for it.
“Just calm down.” Nik gripped his shoulder. “Conner will be here in a few hours, and we’ll all sit down and come up with a plan A and a plan B. We’re going to get him back one way or another.”
Kade wanted to argue, every instinct he had wanted to argue, but he agreed with his brother. There couldn’t be any mistakes this time.
And there wouldn’t be.
***
Angel yawned when a nurse woke her up. It wasn’t Marcy. This one was from radiology and told her they were going to do a repeat CT on the doctor’s orders. The first thing Angel noticed was Kade was missing. He was probably on the phone with his mother or one of his brothers telling them about the baby.
The baby.
A small smile escaped as she got into the wheelchair with the help of the nurse. The light still bothered her eyes a bit, but it was getting better. Even the dizziness had almost dissipated. She must have really hit her head when she passed out.
“Where are you taking her?” Jasper asked when the nurse wheeled her out of the room.
“To CT.” She started pushing the chair and stopped when Jasper followed. “Excuse me, sir, but you are not allowed in CT. You can wait here until she gets back.”
“Not happening.”
“Sir…”
“You’re not going to get him to stay here.” Angel shook her head, forgetting the movement would hurt. Dammit. “He’s my bodyguard. Where I go, he goes.”
The nurse looked like she wanted to insist, but the expression on Jasper’s face brooked no argument. She gave in with a huff and started wheeling her down the hall, Jasper on their heels.
“I’ll text Kade to let him know where you are. He’ll panic if he comes back and you’re gone.”
That was the God’s truth. All the Kincaid men went into caveman mode if they so much as suspected there was danger to their women. Angel loved them for it, but it also irritated her. She wasn’t a china doll who had to be locked up in a glass case, protected from everything.
Granted, she wasn’t indestructible. She knew firsthand how easily anyone could get into a bad situation where they had no control. She’d survived a serial killer, after all.
They rode the elevator down to the second floor. The nurse refused to let Jasper enter the CT room itself. He argued, but this time the woman held her own. It wasn’t safe for him, and the nurse told him in no uncertain terms she’d call hospital security to escort him back to Angel’s room.
Angel hid her laughter by ducking her head.
“Is he always like that?”
“Yes. He’s not being ornery on purpose. His job is to protect me.”
The nurse shook her head. “I…”
Angel looked up when the nurse stopped talking. A man stood behind her, a gun pressed against her temple.
“Hello, Angelique.”
She knew him. He’d been to her brother’s house many, many times. Emilio. That was his name. This man was hard to forget. Dark eyes, black hair pulled back in a braid, with a scar that ran from his temple to the center of his cheek. For most men, that kind of scar would detract from their looks, but not Emilio. It made him look scarier, yes, but he was gorgeous.
“Hello, Emilio.”
He grinned. “You remember me.”
“You’re a hard man to forget.
”
He tipped his head to her. “As are you, chica. As beautiful as ever.”
“Thank you.” She did her best to keep her voice steady, but on the inside, she was falling apart. He was here to kill her. She knew it. He knew it. It was just a matter of how long he was going to taunt her.
“Perhaps I will have you dance for me tonight.” He pushed the girl toward her. “Now, Angelique, stand up and have the nurse take your seat.”
“Don’t kill her.” Angel did as she was bid and stepped out of the way so the nurse could sit. “She has nothing to do with this.”
“Witnesses, chica, witnesses.” Before Angel could do anything, he pulled the trigger. It wasn’t loud. He had a silencer on the gun, and it sounded more like a soft whoosh. He’d shot her between the eyes. At least it had been quick.
“You’re not going to get out of here.” Angel debated screaming and alerting Jasper. “My guard will only wait outside for so long, and Kade’s in the hospital.”
“I know all that.” His grin, all male and full of teeth, appeared again. “You’re going to come with me willingly.”
“You’re insane.”
“My mother says the same thing, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re going to come with me. Someone wants to meet you.”
Going with him wasn’t an option. If she went, she was dead.
“Who would want to meet me?” She had to buy some time. Jasper would come in if it took too long.
“Your son.”
Her brain froze for half a second before the anger surfaced.
“My son is dead.” How dare he? As terrified as she was of Emilio, no one was ever going to use the memory of her child against her.
“Is he?” Emilio took out his phone and tapped a few times before handing it to her. “Look.”
She reached out and took the phone, her eyes darting between Emilio and the screen. It was the same little boy from yesterday, and her inner mama instincts roared to life. This was her son? No. She tamped all that hope down. Her child died.
“This is a lie.” She threw the phone at him. He caught it mid-air. “My baby died before he was even born.”
“No, he’s not dead.” Emilio pocketed his phone. “Since you won’t come with me, you leave me only one option, chica.”
“What’s his name?” All those feelings from yesterday surged up. It didn’t make sense, but Emilio wasn’t lying. That little boy was hers.
“Mateo.” Emilio cocked his gun and pointed it at her.
“Why tell me right before you kill me?”
Emilio smiled. “So you know your child is being raised to kill for us, the same people who took everything from you. You will die knowing all this.”
The knock on the door interrupted them. Emilio’s eyes narrowed as he weighed his options. Jasper would open the door any second.
Emilio put the gun to her forehead, and she braced her knees to keep standing. She wouldn’t show him fear.
“You tell him we were this close to you.”
Then he was gone through another door on the opposite side of the wall, and Angel’s knees hit the floor. Sweet Mary Mother in Heaven.
Her son wasn’t dead.
Kade paced. Why wasn’t she back from radiology yet? Nikoli sat eating in one of the hospital chairs. He claimed he hadn’t eaten all day. That was like Angel saying she skipped breakfast. All lies.
“Dude, calm the fuck down. She’s perfectly safe. They took her to do a repeat CT. All that pacing is making me dizzy.”
If that were true, why did he have this awful sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach? The same feeling he’d had when Boston’s serial killer had kidnapped her. He trusted his instincts more than he trusted his brother’s evaluation of the situation. Scans didn’t take thirty minutes.
He pulled his phone out just as it started to ring, and he jumped.
“Told you, man, calm the fuck down.” Nikoli shoveled more ravioli in his mouth.
“Fucker.” He shot his brother a glare and answered the phone. “Where are you?”
“We’re in radiology. You need to get your ass down here. There was an incident.”
“Incident?” He didn’t wait to explain to Nik as he tore out the door and headed for the elevator. “What floor?”
“Second. The nurse took her to CT and wouldn’t let me go in with her. I stayed right outside the door, but they were waiting on her in the room.”
His stomach bottomed out, and he felt sick. “Was she…is she…”
“She’s okay, but the nurse isn’t. They killed the girl in front of her and would have killed her if I hadn’t come in when I had. The guy took off.”
“Did you get the motherfucker?”
“No. I was afraid to give chase and leave her alone.”
“No, you were right. There could have been more waiting for you to leave. She’s okay?”
“The man put a gun to her head and said to tell you they were that close to her. She’s not all right, Kade. She’s in pretty bad shape, but she’s not physically hurt.”
Motherfucker! He slammed his fist into the wall of the elevator. How the fuck did they get that close?
“The police are on the way, and I’ve put off hospital security from questioning her, but the police are going to want a statement when they arrive.”
The elevator dinged, and he saw Watkins as soon as he stepped out. He was standing beside Angel, who stared listlessly at the wall. Alarm spread the longer he looked at her. Something was wrong, something more than seeing a woman killed right in front of her.
He dropped down on his knees and took her hands. “Angel?”
She didn’t move, only watched the wall.
“Moye serdste.” He reached up and took her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. Her eyes were tormented. “You’re okay, sweetheart. You’re safe.”
She opened her mouth to try to speak, but nothing came out. Angel wanted to tell him they had their son, but she couldn’t. If she said it out loud, it became real. Her baby boy was in the hands of monsters doing God knew what to him.
Security came back, asking the same questions, but no words came. She kept replaying the scene over and over in her head. Could she have done something to save the nurse? If she’d shouted, he would have killed them both straight away, and possibly Jasper.
No. She did the right thing. Angel felt bad for the nurse, but if she had died, Kade wouldn’t know about Matthew. She had to tell him. They had to go rescue their baby.
But still no words came.
The earth started to move. No, that wasn’t it. Kade was pushing the wheelchair. How did she get in another wheelchair? She couldn’t remember. Jasper was the likely culprit. The ding of the elevator startled her enough to look up. Kade’s hand was stroking her hair, and Jasper stood stoic, his expression colder than she’d ever seen it before.
Pissed, that was the word she was looking for. Jasper looked pissed. Someone had gotten past him twice now. The first time he’d been trusted with her care was in Boston. It wasn’t his fault a crazy serial killer had taken her because he’d knocked out her brother-in-law and the rest of her guards with a paralytic. She’d just gone to the bathroom. Not Jasper’s fault. This time, she’d been escorted to radiology by a nurse. Jasper had no way of knowing Emilio would be waiting for her in the actual room with the scanner. A place Jasper wasn’t allowed to go.
None of it was his fault, but she could see he’d shouldered the blame.
Kade wheeled her off the elevator and back to her room. Nikoli was there, Lily sitting in his lap. His arms were around her so tight, he might soon cut off her air, but Lily didn’t look like she minded one bit.
“There’s our girl.” Nik smiled at her while Kade lifted her onto the bed and tucked the blanket around her.
She saw everything around her, heard their words, and understood them, but she might as well be having an out-of-body experience. She wanted to shout, to scream, to tell them her child was in danger.
>
“The doctor said she’s in shock.” Kade scooted her over and climbed into bed beside her. “After what she saw, I’m not surprised.”
“What happened?” Lily snuggled into Nik.
“The cartel got a man inside, we think. The nurse who escorted her to radiology was shot and killed. Angel saw it. The doc says she should start talking as soon as some of the shock wears off.”
“And that’s not going to be happening with you in bed with her.” Nurse Marcy stood in the doorway, frowning. “She needs rest more than anything, so everyone but her husband is banned from the room.”
Kade jumped up, and everyone told her goodbye, but she didn’t respond. It was like her vocal cords had seized up. She had no idea shock could do this to a person.
Nurse Marcy propped Angel’s feet up and told Kade if she caught him in bed with her patient again, he’d be banned from the room as well. Angel wanted to laugh when she saw the outrage on his face. Here this tiny, petite nurse was telling her husband, who stood a good foot taller, that he had to walk the line or get the hell out. It was comical.
A giggle slipped out, and both Nurse Marcy and Kade froze, looking at her.
“Well, I guess laughter really is the best medicine in the world.” Marcy came back over to her bedside. “How are you feeling?”
“I…” Angel cleared her throat, surprised her voice was working. All it took was a little laughter. The nurse was onto something there. “I…don’t know.”
“That’s perfectly normal. I would love to be able to give you something to sleep, honey, but that concussion requires me waking you up every two hours.”
Her head still ached something fierce, but the light didn’t bother her eyes anymore. That was something, at least.
Kade sat in the chair beside the bed and thanked the nurse before she left them alone. Kade took her hand and kissed it almost reverently. “Why do you insist on scaring the fuck out of me, moye serdste?”
“You and that mouth.” She let her fingertips glide over his lips. “I’m sorry for scaring you.”
“Don’t do it again.” He splayed one hand over her stomach. “Neither of us can lose you.”
