“Anything odd or out of place. But once again, I caution you not to disturb any possible evidence,” Trevor implored.
With a nod, they hurried from the room.
Viola and the Elvises started at the front of the ballroom. Only the slowness of Viola’s movements betrayed the fact she was still recovering.
When the others were out of earshot, Connor pulled his cell phone from his pocket and stared at the blank screen. Clenching his teeth, he said, “Why doesn’t whoever took her contact me?”
“They will when they’re ready.”
Connor released a growl. “I never was very good at waiting.”
“She’s safe for now.”
“How can you be sure?”
“They need her alive to bargain with you. Make sure you ask to talk to her when they do call.”
“And after we make whatever deal they want?”
Trevor’s face fell. “That’s when we have to worry.”
Viola and the men had finished their inspection and returned with no further clues. When he saw Viola leaning heavily on Aaron’s arm for support, Connor pulled one of the chairs from its row and offered it to his grandmother.
With a grateful smile, she sat. “Have you been contacted by anyone yet?”
Connor shook his head and returned his phone to his pocket.
“I’ll pay whatever they want,” Viola said with feeling as she regained some strength.
“We’ll help,” the Elvises replied at once, taking up positions around Viola, as though guarding her from whatever danger had swallowed Ellie.
James and Julie returned to the ballroom. “We can help, too,” Ellie’s father said, his face ashen. “We bought trip insurance for our cruise. All we have to do is cancel, and we can come up with several thousand to help our little girl.”
Connor looked down at James’s hand. He held a small envelope between a tissue and his index finger and thumb. “Did you find something?”
James extended the envelope toward Connor. “We found this near the door, like it had been slipped beneath.”
“Wait,” Trevor said as Connor went to grab it. He removed a pair of latex gloves from his pocket and put them on before he took the envelope from James. Carefully, Trevor broke the seal and peered inside.
“What is it?” Connor asked, his throat tight. It had to be about Ellie. It has to be.
Slowly Trevor removed several strands of burnished-gold hair and held them up. “Is it Ellie’s?”
“Yes,” Connor ground out.
“Oh, dear God,” Viola cried as she collapsed back against her chair.
“My baby,” Julie sobbed, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. “I just want her back.”
“We’ll find her,” Trevor assured them as he pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll have someone at the station run a trace on her phone. She hasn’t been missing for twenty-four hours yet, but the evidence found here suggests this is a crime, not a missing person’s case. I’m setting up a police team now.”
Connor felt as if his heart were being squeezed in a vise. He forced himself to think past the pain, ignoring the panic that threatened to drown him. “Why don’t you all go home? We’ll let you know when we hear something.”
Connor shifted his gaze from the fear and desperation in Ellie’s parents’ eyes to his father’s determined expression. “We’ll find her, son.”
Connor looked to his left, to the Elvises.
Lenny frowned and shook his head. Speaking for his friends, he said, “The Elvises are staying put.”
He turned to Viola. Her face became mutinous. “Don’t think for one minute since I’m old and feeble that I can’t stay up and wait with you. I care about that girl as much as any of you.”
The assembled group murmured sounds of affirmation, and Connor knew he’d lost that battle before it had even started. “All right. We’ll wait this out together. But there are six bedrooms in this house if anyone needs to rest.”
No one replied, and not one of the faces that stared back at him looked as if they’d be giving in to sleep anytime soon.
For better or for worse, they were all in this together.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The text came at midnight, demanding his prototype and his research in exchange for Ellie.
They wanted everything he had to give on the self-driving car. Connor would hand it over willingly if it kept Ellie safe and brought her back to the people who loved her.
No one had gone to bed. Those assembled sat at attention now as the hostage-negotiation team Trevor had brought in coached Connor on what to say in order to secure a transfer location place and time, as well as demand visual proof Ellie was unharmed.
Show me proof she’s all right. Connor typed onto the screen.
Do what we ask and she will be.
Connor could feel the frustration searing inside him, stronger than ever. Show me Ellie.
You don’t need proof besides her hair.
Like hell I don’t. Connor typed the reply and hit “Send,” praying he’d made his point.
One hour. The reply came; then his cell phone went silent.
After what seemed like hours, Ellie finally managed to loosen the knot at her hands and slip her wrists free. She took a moment to massage her abused flesh, then worked on untying her feet. As soon as she was free, she stood.
She wobbled on her feet—proof that the effects of the drugs Amanda had given her weren’t entirely out of her system yet. But she couldn’t wait until they were. If she was going to make a break for her freedom, it had to be now.
Her heart thundering in her ears, she groped through the darkness to her left. Ellie followed the image she’d burned in her mind of the location of the door. When she came to a wall, she put out her hands and fumbled her way along the cool concrete, desperate to find the door. Finally she came to what felt like the frame of a single metal door.
It took her a moment to locate the door handle. She pushed, then pushed harder, only to confirm it was locked.
She drew a fortifying breath. Determined to set herself free, she moved along the wall in the opposite direction. While the lantern had been lit, she hadn’t had a clear view of what was on the right side of the chamber. With luck, perhaps she’d come upon a door that was unlocked or a window she could break.
She hadn’t made it far when the grinding noise of the lock sliding free filled the silence. The door beside her slowly opened.
A chill went up her spine.
Amanda had returned.
Ellie froze. She had to act now.
Pale-yellow light spilled into the darkness, giving her a view of the door as it opened. Ellie kicked the metal with her right foot, forcing the door to slam into Amanda. She dropped the lantern and shrieked as the metal door connected with her perfect face.
Adrenaline pumped through Ellie. She stepped around the front of the door and swung at the startled Amanda, catching her in the head. Instead of lunging backward like she expected, Amanda dove for Ellie, grabbing her by the hair.
Ellie ducked, twisted. Her hair slipped from Amanda’s grasp. Instantly, Amanda lashed something around Ellie’s neck and held tight.
Panic flooded Ellie as she clawed at Amanda’s fingers. She needed air every bit as much as she needed a way to escape. If only she could break free, she might be able to clear the doorway. Then she could run, and keep on running.
Ellie could feel herself weakening as her lungs burned. In a desperate attempt for breath, Ellie knocked her head back into Amanda’s.
“Stop fighting me,” Amanda growled as she loosened her grip, giving Ellie a chance to suck in much-needed air. But before she could run, Amanda shoved the barrel of a gun against Ellie’s rib cage. “I’ll shoot.”
Ellie froze. She might long to be free, but she also had no wish to die.
“How did you untie yourself?”
She pressed her lips tight.
“Oh, never mind. There’s no way out of here except through me
, so start cooperating.” The half-light from the lantern was enough to illuminate the anger in Amanda’s eyes.
With her semiautomatic pistol, she motioned for Ellie to step back against the wall. Her nose was bleeding, and Ellie had managed to cut Amanda’s left cheek. Neither slowed her down.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Amanda said. “We’re going to make a phone call. The only words you will say are ‘I’m fine. Give them what they want.’ That’s it. Nothing more or I’ll shoot you, and Loverboy will see every gory detail. Understand?”
Amanda was calling Connor? Ellie racked her brain, trying to figure out how to convey more in the message without tipping Amanda off.
Amanda stepped back and righted the lantern, casting more light around the room and on Ellie. She pulled a cell phone from her jacket. With the phone in one hand and the gun in the other, she turned the camera on Ellie.
Ellie knew after their tussle she must look disheveled. She didn’t want Connor to worry, so she lifted her chin and tried to look confident. “I’m fine.” She hesitated as her brain scrambled for a way to warn him who held her captive. “Give her what she wants.”
Amanda ended the call and threw the cell phone against the wall, shattering it into a hundred pieces.
Ellie tensed as the phone splintered across the floor, fearing Amanda had noticed the subtle change she’d made to the message.
Then Amanda smiled. “Very good. Now we wait.”
Ellie released a pent-up breath. Amanda hadn’t noticed. Then in an attempt at bravado, Ellie hitched her chin up another notch. “What if Connor doesn’t meet your demands?”
Amanda moved back to where she’d originally dumped Ellie and snatched up a length of rope. “If he doesn’t, then it’s bye-bye Ellie.”
Amanda motioned for her to turn around, then jammed her against the wall while she tied her hands behind her back. “There, that should keep you out of trouble.”
She picked up the lantern and drew out another cell phone from her coat pocket. She typed in something, then put the phone back in her pocket before heading for the door.
“Please . . . leave the light,” Ellie asked, the words fracturing as a ripple of fear chased across her nerves.
“No.”
The word echoed in the stillness of the room as Amanda closed and locked the door, pitching Ellie into darkness once more.
Give her what she wants?
“Anything? Any ideas who has Ellie?” Trevor asked as the connection went dead.
“I know who has Ellie. Amanda Frost.”
“Your old girlfriend?” Trevor asked. “The one who stole your research and prototype once before?”
Connor nodded.
“Run her name. Let’s see what she’s been up to lately,” Trevor said to his team before his gaze returned to Connor. “Anything else you can tell me that would be helpful?”
“There’s not much to tell. I hadn’t seen Amanda since college. Then four weeks ago, she appeared at a party Ellie and I attended.”
“Okay. Let’s see what comes up in the computer. Meanwhile, we’ll run her plates and get her cell-phone records,” Trevor said with a worried frown.
“I never should have left Ellie alone,” Connor said, raking his hands through his hair, trying desperately to hold back his frustration, his fear.
“Don’t do that to yourself, man. You had no way of knowing.”
The pain of his mistake was enough to cripple him. “I should have been more suspicious of why Amanda suddenly reappeared in Seattle. Her company is based in San Francisco. Some people don’t change.” He hadn’t changed either until . . . Ellie. Five weeks ago he hadn’t believed in love. He hadn’t believed in happy endings. He’d never wanted to share his life with anyone or grow old together.
Until her.
Life without Ellie wasn’t something he wanted to contemplate. He would give everything he had to get her back. His self-driving car was, after all, simply a car. Ellie was priceless.
His heart screamed the truth. He loved her more than he’d ever loved anyone or anything else in his life.
“Let’s get everything we need to make the exchange,” Connor said to Trevor. “They sent us the drop location. I’m going to give them everything.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Four hours later, Connor parked the white prototype in front of the Museum of Flight, as directed, in the space between the two orange construction cones. Since it was five in the morning on Thanksgiving Day and the museum was closed, no one was around in the big, open parking lot.
Connor stepped from the car. A chill abraded his exposed skin. He flipped up the collar of his shearling-lined coat against the November wind as he searched the surrounding airpark with careful eyes in the early-morning light. Ellie would be here somewhere.
Frustration coiled inside him. There were so many planes.
The final instructions were to park the car between the orange cones and to retrieve Ellie from one of the planes in the airpark. Was she not near a plane but inside it? He’d search them all if he had to.
“Walk away from the prototype,” Trevor said in his earpiece. “Follow the plan. You get the girl. I’ll follow the car.”
Connor’s feet moved along the sidewalk to the north side of the entrance, but his brain had kicked into overdrive, scanning the planes. His head pounded in time with his pulse. Where was she?
He turned to the new covered section of the airpark as he inspected the SST. Not there. Then his heart soared at the sight of her burnished hair in the cockpit of a B-17. “She’s in the green B-17 off to my right.”
“Is she”—Trevor hesitated—“alive?”
“She’s slumped forward, not moving.” His heart in his throat, he broke into a run. She’d placed Ellie farther away from the prototype, most likely so she could get to the car before he could reach Ellie.
“Get ready, team,” Trevor said.
Out of the corner of his eye, Connor saw Amanda separate herself from one of the nearby jumbo jets on display. She raced to the car and hopped in. Wouldn’t she be surprised when she discovered how slowly the car moved? He hadn’t adjusted the navigation system back from accuracy to speed. Connor would have allowed himself a wicked grin if he wasn’t so concerned for Ellie’s safety. He really didn’t care if Trevor recovered the prototype or if he arrested Amanda. All his thoughts were of Ellie.
Adrenaline hit his system like a freight train, pushing him forward. He couldn’t reach the cockpit from the front, so he ran around to the wing. He jumped up and ran along the fuselage to the cockpit windows. Ellie was hunched over the control panel. Her hair fell across her face, and for a moment he wondered if they’d been tricked—if this wasn’t really Ellie at all.
Forcing his panic aside, he peered through the glass at the woman inside. Her hair was pushed to one side, exposing her ear. His heart cried out at the sight of a familiar freckle on the base of the lobe. It was Ellie inside, but was she alive, breathing?
Desperate to reach her, he raced down the wing and jumped down, heading to the waist gunner door. He pulled the hatch lock. It was either stuck or blocked. Unwilling to be defeated, Connor spread his legs wide, giving himself the most leverage possible, and wrenched the hatch lock to the open position. A pop sounded; then whatever was blocking it fell free. He swung the hatch up and went inside.
Quickly he worked his way through the airplane, heading toward the cockpit. When he reached Ellie, he knelt beside her and placed two fingers across the carotid artery of her neck. His breath stopped when he didn’t pick up a pulse. Moving his fingers closer to her windpipe, he released his breath in a rush as a weak pulse beat against his fingers. Mentally giving thanks, he cradled her cheek in his hand. “I’ve got you, love.”
They’d most likely drugged her with the same sedative as before. But it didn’t matter. He’d found her. She was alive. They could deal with the rest. Hope sprang to life within him. A bright flame that warmed him from within.
&n
bsp; He clung to that sensation as he scooped Ellie into his arms and headed for the gunner door. Help was nearby. “Trevor. Send in the medic unit. Ellie’s alive but not responsive.”
“On its way,” Trevor replied. “Hang in there.”
He strode through the plane, and by the time he made it outside, the medic team was there with a stretcher. Connor placed Ellie on it, then reluctantly released her as the medics hooked her up to oxygen and started an IV. Once they were satisfied she was stable, they wheeled her inside the ambulance.
Connor got in and sat beside her, holding her hand once more as they made their way to Swedish Hospital. As the medics worked, Connor bent close to Ellie’s ear. “I want to change the terms of our agreement. Come back to me, Ellie.”
Connor paced outside Ellie’s hospital room anxiously. The medics assured him she would be fine. If that were so, then why didn’t she wake up?
“Connor?”
He turned at the sound of Jordan’s voice. Before he realized what he was doing, he pulled the physician’s assistant into a hug, then released her. “Thank goodness you’re here. Can you please tell me why Ellie won’t wake up?”
Jordan met his gaze with a curious light in her eyes. “You really do care about her, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. She’s my wife.”
Jordan smiled. “I can see why Ellie likes you.”
At his puzzled expression, Jordan laughed.
“She’s going to be fine,” Jordan said. “The drugs should work their way out of her system fairly soon. I suggest you stay close.”
“I’m not leaving her side.” He looked past Jordan as Trevor came to join them.
“It’s all done,” Trevor said. “Amanda Frost is in the King County jail awaiting arraignment, and your prototype is back at your lab, courtesy of Mike Mulligan.”
Connor clapped Trevor on the back. “Thanks, man. Not sure what I would’ve done without your help.”
“I’ll have to think of a way for you to pay me back.” Trevor smiled mischievously as he turned toward Jordan. “We haven’t met.” He held out his hand. “Trevor Edwards, SPD.”
Married at Midnight Page 19
