It was the driver who started it off. Bailey watched with large, bulging eyes as he got out of the car and opened her door. She exited slowly as Leo followed. He walked ahead of her, his body puffing out as a shield, towards the door of the large tan stone home. The two looked into the bay windows for some sign of life, but there was nothing. The front room was completely empty, and from Bailey’s ability to see straight into the kitchen, there wasn’t a soul on the first floor.
She turned disappointed back towards Leo who was peering out into the fields, “It’s clear. I don’t think he’s here.”
“What about the other buildings? A property this size has to have a barn or two.” Leo pointed towards a green building about a quarter mile down from where the main house was located. The two crept towards the building, each lowering their bodies out of site of the main windows in case they were being watched. They ducked under fences and sidestepped cow waste as they cut through the animal’s fields.
Bailey again checked the windows as Leo surveyed the grounds around the complex. From what she could tell, the barn, too, was empty as the house. She turned to run back to where Leo was standing. His arms were raised above his head as if he were holding a hat in place.
“It’s clear. I don’t think they're the—”
“PUT YA HANDS UP! GET ‘EM UP!” A shrill voice barked at her from behind the barrel of a shotgun. A man in his late sixties stood before them, his hands trembling as his finger grazed the trigger of his riffle. Bailey followed his instructions slowly as she stood by Leo’s side. “I don’t take too kindly to trespassers on my property, especially not city folks like you.”
Bailey took another look at the man who stood facing his back towards the sun. The halo of light had concealed his face, but as he lowered the rifle to his neck, she could make out the familiar lines of a man who aged drastically since she saw him last. “Papa Malnuty?”
The man softened, further lowering the gun to his side. He, too, looked at her, searching his memory for some clue as to who she was. Suddenly, it hit him as he lifted the barrel of the gun back up to his eye level, “Bailey Reed, what the hell are you doing on my land?”
Bailey placed her hands back on her head and sunk a bit behind Leo who had made no move or sound since being held captive. Her voice trembled as she said, “I’m here for Lily, sir. Joe took her yesterday morning, and we know he brought her here.”
“I don’t know nothin’ about that.” Yet the man still held the gun up to his face. Bailey could tell he was protecting something with that rifle. All of her memories of the elder Malnuty were of a proud, but kind man who believed in hard work and honesty. No doubt he would want to steer clear of Joe’s scheme.
“Please, Mr. Malnuty. I just want my daughter back...” Tears rolled down Bailey’s eyes as the thought of Lily hurt and now captive with gun toting relatives she didn’t know came to her, “You have to understand that. I’m a mother. I have to protect her. I know you had nothing to do with this, but if you know what Joe is doing, I need you to help me. Please.”
The man again lowered his gun and spit onto the ground. He adjusted the brim of his cap and then looked towards the house.
Leo took the opening. In a flash, he ran straight towards the older man and tackled him to the ground. Bailey cried out at him as he lifted his fist. “LEO! NO! DON’T! He knows where she is. He’s going to help us.” She ran to Leo’s side as he remained in place, pinning down the man as he cursed and twisted under his weight.
“Fine, but at least grab the gun. We don’t want him pulling it on us again.” Bailey complied as Leo stood up and offered his hand out to Malnuty Senior. He refused it and instead lifted himself off of the dusty, dried up ground.
The three stood looking at one another, neither knowing how to proceed. Leo panted while Bailey studied the man staring back at the home. “She’s in there, isn’t she?” Bailey asked quietly.
“Yeah, she is. Joe dropped her off this morning. I dunno where he went. He just opened the door, set the girl on the couch, and left. Didn’t say a word to us, but I knew you wouldn’t be far behind.” He began walking towards the house with Bailey trailing behind.
Leo shouted after her, “How can you trust him, Bailey? He pointed a gun at us. This could be a trap!”
The man turned and looked at the two. He removed his cap and wiped his brow, “I know she’s your daughter, Bailey. I know that. But she’s my granddaughter, too. Joe did some terrible things to you so I thought we’d never get to see her again. I don’t want to hurt her. I don’t want to hurt you or your…uh…friend either. I just want to make sure she is safe wherever she is.” He continued walking, this time with Leo following behind, too.
As he opened the door to the house, Bailey ran past him and inside the estate. She called out Lily’s name into the empty rooms of the first floor. A small voice from the top of the stairs called out. An older woman, Mr. Malnuty’s wife, ushered her upstairs as Leo waited for her at the entryway.
Within minutes, Bailey came running back down the stairs. Her face was streaked with fresh tears that washed away the dirt from outside. Pressed to her chest was the girl with the wavy brown hair Leo had seen only twenty-four hours earlier in the parking lot. Her skin was white as snow and her lips looked almost bluish. Leo ran to Bailey’s side as he lifted the girl out of her arms.
Bailey screamed at the couple to call an ambulance as she ushered Leo outside with her daughter. Leo could feel the girl’s body giving out from beneath his hands. She was breathing, but just barely.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Bailey clung to Lily as a nurse with brightly colored scrubs and pink dyed hair placed a child-sized breathing mask to her mouth. The girl’s tiny t-shirt had been cut open and her pants taken off. All that covered her tiny body was the toddler-sized hospital gowns the EMTs had placed on her when they had arrived moments earlier.
Bailey couldn’t take the nurse’s silence. She needed answers, and she needed them now, “Why does she need that? Is she not breathing? Should I be worried? What’s wrong with her?”
Bailey had gone from anxious to terrified as soon as the ambulance drivers unloaded Lily’s bed into the darkened room. The men screaming out instructions and Lily’s details to the small group of nurses had made the emergency of the situation more real to her. Her daughter was found, but that was only about half of the battle in front of them. And now, as Bailey half laid, half stood next to the miniature hospital bed, she had to face the idea that Lily may not come out of the Tucson Children’s Hospital the same girl, or at all.
Guilt washed over her as she considered how much her daughter must have wanted her mother for the month she was in the home and how scared and confused she was to see her father come pick her up. Bailey had done that to her, and she would spend her life trying to make that up to her.
The colorful nurse looked at the distraught mother sympathetically as she turned the oxygen tank on. She had seen many parents like Bailey break down to pieces when their son or daughter laid in one of these Emergency Room beds. But her answer was always the same, “I’m sorry honey. I can’t tell you what’s wrong. Hospital protocol and all, but the doctor will be in here any minute. He can give you the details.”
“I don’t understand…” The nurse exited the room without any further explanation. Bailey looked around the now empty room and shouted, “How could Joe do this? How could he do this to you?” Bailey sobbed into the white sheets of the bed as she grabbed on to Lily’s tiny arm.
The girl had yet to move since Bailey had picked her off of her grandmother’s bed and carried her back down to the living room. Both grandparents were distraught when they realized that what was going on wasn’t just normal kid stuff. When their son had dropped her off, he had sworn she was just tired and that she would wake up at any moment. Now they knew their son had done something much more sinister than leaving them with a sleeping toddler to care for.
The Malnutys arrived with Leo in tow. They gathered o
utside the ER’s entrance in the sterile-looking waiting room unsure of if they should break protocol and join Bailey as she waited for a doctor to arrive. The older couple whispered back and forth to themselves as Lily’s grandmother cried into the man’s shoulder. Leo watched as her husband took her hand to his lip and planted a small kiss and then wiped her tears away. The man continued to say, “It’s not our fault, Darla. It’s not our fault.”
Leo knew he couldn’t just sit there. Bailey needed him just as the woman needed her husband. He had come all this way, had done so much, to be out in the dark while the person who cared for most suffered alone. He took a deep breath and made his decision by walking past the security guard and into the bustling ER. Looking into the open windows of the rooms, he could see parents sobbing over their children’s broken bones or bleeding injuries. Another father scolded his child loudly for climbing on a tree.
It wasn’t until he reached the very end of the hallway did he hear a familiar cry coming from one of the doors with the blinds drawn. He took a chance and opened it slowly, peeking his head inside first. Bailey didn’t notice him. Her head was still hovering over her daughter’s frail body as if something would happen at any moment. She couldn’t spare a second to look away.
“Bailey.” He took a few steps in, not wanting to overstep his boundaries. “It’s me. Do you want me to sit with you? How about get you a cup of coffee? Whatever you need, I’m here.”
She snapped as she lost her patience, “I need her doctor to get in here! What’s taking so long? You would think they would understand that this is an emergency! My daughter could be dying here!”
Without a word, Leo turned and walked out of the room. He headed straight to the desk where a man in red scrubs searched through a magazine. Leo reached over and snatched the glossy pages from his hands and tossed it onto the ground, “Room 9 needs a doctor immediately! There’s an unconscious girl in there!”
The irritated worker rose to his feet, only meeting Leo at his chest. He looked up at him as he snidely said, “Sir, please return to your room. The girl’s doctor will be in as soon as he can.”
Leo wanted nothing more to reach over and grab the man by the collar. But instead, he roared as loud as he could, “THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!”
“Sir, I need you to lower your voice. I cannot help you unless you remain calm.” The man lifted his hands above his chest as he spoke. He then asked, “How are you related to the patient in Room 9?”
Leo shuffled his feet and charged at the desk once more. This time, he took the phone out of the man’s hand and held it up towards his ear, just barely missing hitting the man in the head. He thrust the phone once more as he yelled, “Does it fucking matter who I am or what I'm doing here? That girl needs help! This is a hospital! You’re supposed to help her and her mother in there!”
The worker sat back down and wheeled his desk chair out of arm’s length of Leo who panted from the energy expelled. He then picked up a phone against a wall and typed in a long set of numbers. Covering the headset, he spoke quickly without taking his eyes off of Leo. When he hung up, he turned his head to face the waiting room where Leo had come from.
Two large security officers appeared within seconds. Both of the middle-aged men looked Leo up and down as they asked the staff member what the problem was. As he began to spoke the smaller of the two men interrupted him and exclaimed, “Leo Lionheart! Is that you?”
The second guard spun towards the man and then took a step forward as if to study his partner’s claim. “Holy smokes! It’s him. It’s Leo Lionheart—in our hospital! We’re huge fans, man! That fight against Thompson was one of the greatest I ever seen. My son has a picture of you in that fight hanging on his wall. He’s gonna get a kick out of me telling him I met you.” The man outstretched his hand in a greeting.
Leo wasn’t sure how to respond. He wasn’t one to play up fans, but today, he could use it to his advantage. He plastered a tired smile on his face and outstretched his arm towards the excited officer in return, “Hey, man! Thanks for noticing. I’m glad to hear your son is still a fan. It’s been a couple years since I’ve been in the ring. Hopefully he keeps on rooting for me when I make my return.”
The second officer grinned widely and turned toward the man at the desk with an irritated look on his face, “There doesn’t seem to be a problem here, Ken. Why did you need us again?”
The man shook his head and returned to his work computer, too annoyed to argue with the security guards as they fawned over the celebrity. Leo chatted up the officers as he talked about his career and his thoughts about returning to the ring. All the while, he kept his eyes on the room where Bailey still waited with her daughter for help. He patted the men on their backs as he agreed to take a picture with their phones.
As they finished up, Leo exclaimed, “Hey listen, guys, I’m trying to get ahold of the doctor assigned to Room 9 there. I’ve got a friend whose daughter really needs medical help. I would appreciate you guys helping us out.”
The security guard jumped at offering a solution, “Sure, sure Lionheart! Let me go get Lois. She’s the nurse in charge of these sections.” The men strolled around the desk where a pack of female nurses stood chatting. They returned with a young woman with a massive clipboard in hand. The security guard excitedly introduced Leo to her and explained his request. She removed her cat eye glasses and then walked wordlessly to Bailey’s room, pulled the chart off the back of the door, and made a call with her nurse’s phone to the paging system.
In an instant, a doctor in a bowtie and black dress slacks walked towards Lois as she handed him the chart. “Unconscious four-year-old female. Unknown cause. Low heart rate and aspiration at 70%. We’re administering oxygen. Mom’s in the room with her right now. Would you like me to follow?” The doctor nodded at her as he continued to read the handwritten details on the silver binder.
Leo watched as he took a beat, walked into the room, and then announced himself to Bailey. Leo turned and thanked the two men for their efforts before following Lois back towards Lily’s room. He could hear the doctor asking Bailey a barrage questions, but Bailey could not provide him with any answers. Leo snuck beside her, placing his hand on her arm.
“Ms. Reed, can you tell me exactly what happened to her? We need to know so we can help her.” The doctor impatiently pulled out a click pen from his white coat and began to write in a fast scribble. He didn’t know what to make of the speechless woman or the mystery girl lying in the bed.
“I—I—I—” Bailey hesitated as she turned towards Leo for help. He massaged her arm, encouraging her to talk. She sucked in air from the room and then released it as she spoke rapidly, “My daughter was kidnapped by my ex-husband from her foster home in Chicago. The cops are looking for her, but we tracked her down here in Tucson. My ex must have done something to her before he flew because his driver told us that she was sleeping in his car and his grandparent’s thought she was just extremely tired, as well. Now, we can’t wake her. Could he have poisoned her?”
“How long do you think she’s been out for?” The doctor’s brow furrowed as he began texting away on his hospital phone.
“I don’t know for sure. He took her around noon yesterday and then flew out late at night. The driver picked him up around midnight, so I'm guessing he did this to her before she got on the plane. She would have been too afraid to fly without people noticing her, I think.” The picture of Lily’s ordeal had made Bailey shiver to the core. She could not believe that Joe, despite him being the abusive husband, could do something so evil to his own daughter.
The doctor interrupted her as he excused himself as he walked out of the room. Leo stood and peered out the small window. He could see the doctor chatting with the two security guards who were still hovering nearby. They immediately began talking into their intercoms as the doctor gestured to Lily’s room.
Leo gave Bailey the play by play as she began to cry again. “I can’t talk to the cops right now. Joe’s gone
. Who knows where he went? That bastard poisoned our daughter and just left her with his parents to die. And now he’s gone for good.”
Leo pulled his chair by her side and took her hand into his. “You don’t know that. They're gonna find him and track him down. You did your job. You found her. Now you just have to be her mom and make sure she gets better. And the doctors are here for that.”
Doctor Richards returned and began silently examining Lily. Nurse Lois followed behind to take blood samples from Lily’s arm. When he was satisfied, he turned to Bailey, “Ms. Reed, we are going to take the blood samples down to the lab immediately. Until we know what your ex-husband gave her, we can’t give her anything. All we can do is keep her on oxygen and monitor her heart rate.” He put down the clipboard and opened the door. “In the meantime, I went ahead and called the police. They will need to speak with you, your husband, and Lily’s grandparents. Is that possible?”
Possessive_Sons of Chaos MC Page 38
