Chapter 42
Immediately, Reid was on his phone ordering men down to the docks to start searching.
“This isn’t over.” I stared my mother down before I turned on my heel and ran out the door, back to my car.
“Get out,” I told the driver as I ran down the sidewalk.
I didn’t offer another explanation. I just took the key fob and got behind the steering wheel as Reid slid into the passenger side.
I looked back at Marksen and Luc. “Meet us down there.”
I stabbed the “ignition” button without bothering to buckle my seat belt and hit the gas, pushing my Mercedes-Benz class to its full potential as I maneuvered through New York City traffic. I raced through downtown New York with a complete disregard for my safety, the safety of the man next to me, and of every single citizen who happened to be in a car or walking through the streets.
The only person I gave a thought to was Eddie.
I needed to get to her before the worst happened. I just knew in my bones that I was racing against the clock because my mother wasn’t going to give up that easily. She was going to do something to hurt the only bit of joy that I had ever found in my life.
To his credit, Reid didn’t say a word about my driving. He just grabbed the bar on the side door and held on while barking orders into his phone.
He had several men on the streets, all moving toward the warehouses on the docks as quickly as possible, and one man he called his eye in the sky, which I gathered was a guy sitting behind a laptop somewhere.
“The eye in the sky has narrowed down the possibilities to two warehouses. I say I send my men to one, and we go to the other.”
“Sounds good,” I said. “Tell me where I’m going.”
He directed me toward the warehouses. We pulled up in front. And the second I saw the black SUV without license plates sitting in front of one of the warehouses, I knew we were in the right place.
Reid made some type of motion that I assumed indicated he was going to go around on the other side, and I was to go in the closest door.
“Wait,” he said. “Are you armed?”
“No,” I said, not even realizing until that moment that I should have been.
He grabbed a Glock from his ankle holster and handed it over. “Do you know how to use that?”
I looked at him before turning off the safety, pointing it toward the ground, and moving to the door.
Reid ran over to the other side, and I waited for some type of signal. And then Eddie screamed.
My blood ran cold, and I knew I couldn’t wait anymore.
I pushed through the door and immediately saw them. They had Eddie down on her knees, blood leaking from one of her feet and bruises marring her perfect face. Her blonde hair was dirty and matted, and a gun was pressed to her temple.
“I still think it’s a waste,” said the big red-headed guy I recognized from the pictures her friend sent me.
“She wants the photos now. We’re going to do it now,” the smaller man next to him insisted, keeping the gun trained on Eddie’s head.
“Put down the weapon and back away from the girl,” I demanded, pointing my gun at the smaller man.
They both turned to face me, the big guy looking shocked.
The little one looked me up and down and smirked.
“He ain’t going to use that,” he said. “Prissy little rich boys aren’t taught how to shoot. Even if he does, there are two of us and one of him. What is he going to do?”
I aimed a little lower and shot the shorter man in the thigh, dropping him to the ground. He started wailing and screaming while I adjusted my aim toward the big guy who took several steps away from Eddie.
When I looked at Eddie, she was scrambling on the ground, reaching for the smaller guy’s gun. He tried to hit her and grab it himself.
She cocked her hand back and punched him right where the bullet had penetrated.
The man screamed bloody murder as Reid came in, guns drawn, from a door behind Eddie.
With his gun trained on the two men, I rushed forward, grabbed Eddie, wrapped her in my arms, and held her to my chest. The relief I felt holding her in my hands was overwhelming.
“Are you okay?” I asked her as I looked her over for any more serious injuries.
The large bump on her head and the cut on her foot told me I needed to get her to an emergency room immediately.
She wrapped her hands around my shoulders, laying her head on my chest as I held her and started to cry.
“Never again,” I said. “This will never happen to you again.”
“How can you promise that?” she said. “Your mother is the one that arranged this. If we’re still together, she’s going to keep coming after me.”
“No, she isn’t,” I promised. I cradled her head in my palms and looked deeply into her bloodshot eyes. “I want to make sure that everybody knows you are protected. You cannot be touched, because you are mine.”
“And how exactly are you going to do that?” she asked. Even injured and no doubt in shock, she was too smart for her own good.
I did the one thing a lawyer should never do. I asked a question I didn’t know the answer to. “Edwina Carmichael, will you marry me?”