20. Blake
Blake
I sigh with relief as Banner and I wave goodbye to Tommy, the five-year-old boy heading off to live on his grandfather’s ranch in Colorado.
Tommy’s mother, Ellen, hired Price Security as a protection detail to get her to and from the courthouse safely while she battled her abusive soon-to-be ex-husband for sole custody of her son. A son who had been sent to the emergency room six times already in his young life. Despite both Tommy and Ellen telling hospital staff and the police that Edward, Tommy’s father, was the one responsible for Tommy’s injuries, Edward had walked free. Not because he was innocent but because he was loaded and had a judge or two in his pocket, meaning everything got swept under the rug.
When Tommy found Ellen dead one morning in a pool of her own blood after a so-called botched robbery, Tommy was sent to live with his father. A father who didn’t know that Ellen had security cameras installed by yours truly in every room of her house.
Thanks to the footage I pulled, Edward is now facing a life sentence, and Tommy gets to live with his grandfather, who seems like a good man who adores his grandson. Despite my frustration at not being able to save Ellen, I’m happy we managed to get Tommy out of his father’s evil clutches.
“Think he’ll be okay?” Banner asks as they pull away.
“Yeah, I do. He has a rough road ahead of him, but he’s safe now, and that’s half the battle.”
“Plus, you can see the grandfather adores him,” Banner adds.
I nod in agreement, thankful the kid has that. He deserves it.
I pull out my phone to turn the volume back on and see I have eighteen missed calls and seven text messages. I frown as a feeling in the pit of my gut tells me to brace myself.
“What’s wrong?” Banner asks, taking in my facial expression before whipping out his phone and cursing.
I don’t say anything, I just dial Marcus and wait until he picks up.
“Blake, man, Jesus fucking Christ. Get back here now. Meet me at the hospital.”
“What the fuck is going on? Where’s Callie? Is she okay?” I ask, climbing into my truck with Banner getting into the passenger seat beside me.
I switch my phone over to Bluetooth and let Marcus’s voice fill the cab.
“Callie’s gone. I can’t talk because the cops are here. Just hurry the fuck up,” he snaps before hanging up on me, leaving me to feel like the bottom just fell out of my world.
I slam my hand on the steering wheel and pull out of the parking lot with a screech.
“Keep calm, Blake, Callie needs you in one piece. You just concentrate on driving, and I’ll call the guys and see what I can find out.
“Keep calm? How the fuck am I supposed to keep calm when I don’t know where she is?” I snap.
“We don’t know anything is wrong yet?—”
“She wouldn’t leave without one of us with her. She knows what’s at stake, so don’t tell me to calm down, Banner. I’ll calm down when we find her,” I growl, panic clawing at my insides.
I drive as fast as I can without getting us killed as Banner tries to find out what’s going on. We pull up at the hospital two hours later when it should have taken at least three. It’s only by the grace of god we didn’t get pulled over.
Banner and I don’t know any more now than we did before, the rest of the team being far too busy trying to ascertain what happened to Callie to sit around chatting with us. As much as I appreciate their efforts to find my girl, I’m two seconds away from losing my shit.
I pull into a no-parking zone and jump out, not giving a fuck if they tow.
“Give me the keys and go, I’ll meet you inside,” Banner offers. I toss him the keys and head inside the hospital, finding Arlo waiting for me just inside the entrance.
“Tell me what the hell happened,” I snap at him, following behind him at a fast trot to the elevators.
“I know as much as you. I just got here myself and Marcus asked me to wait and bring you up when you got here.”
By the time the elevator reaches the fourth floor, I’m almost crawling out of my skin and ready to rip this place apart to find her. I spot Marcus heading toward me as soon as the doors open and brace myself for what he’s about to tell me.
“It’s my fault. He set a trap, and I walked her right into it,” he admits, his face full of guilt and remorse.
“If you don’t start explaining just what the hell is going on, I’m going to knock your teeth out,” I growl at him.
He leads me to a side door, and we go into what looks to be a family room of some sort where Felix is standing, talking to a bruised and bleeding Kellen.
Kellen jumps right in. “Callie got a call this morning saying her mother had been in a car accident. She didn’t seem to react much to that, so I offered to bring her here, figuring she must be in shock. When we pulled up, a truck slammed into the back of us, making Callie bump her head on the dashboard. I climbed out of the car, intent on ripping the guy a new asshole, when two fucking no-necked tanks got out, spouting shit off about me taking their space. It was all bullshit. There hadn’t been anyone there waiting when I pulled in. One of the guys shoved me, then threw a punch, before two more no-necks climbed out the back of their truck.”
I seethe. If they took Callie, I’ll kill them one by one.
“Callie called me,” Marcus takes over. “She wanted to help Kellen, but I knew she would get herself hurt and distract him, so I told her to go inside and wait, which she did. By the time we got here, Kellan and a security guard were giving their statements to the police, but the guys were long gone. Kellen told us what had happened to Callie’s mother, so we came up here to find her. Only, when we got here, there was no sign of Callie. A nurse remembers talking to her. She said she saw her enter her mother’s room but hasn’t seen her since. We’ve searched the place high and low, Blake. She’s not here. I’m waiting for the security guys to come back with the surveillance footage.”
I will my heart to calm down. Logically, I know in a hospital this size, she could have just been missed. She could be in any one of the many bathrooms or even in the cafeteria, getting coffee. She could, in theory, be back any minute. But I don’t believe that, and the look on Marcus’s face tells me he doesn’t either.
“Tell me what you’re thinking.” I learned a long time ago to trust his instincts.
“Callie wouldn’t leave. I don’t care what her relationship is like with her mother; she wouldn’t leave me and the boys to worry like that.”
He’s right. She wouldn’t, no matter what. And that’s what I’m afraid of.
“There’s more. I found a smear of blood on the floor in her mother’s room. There’s no spatter and no drops, and definitely not enough to cause anyone any major concern. It looks like a streak of blood from someone who was already bleeding, like from, say, a cut to their forehead,” he concludes. It doesn’t take much for me to fill in the blanks.
“You think she fell and hit her head on the floor, and because she was bleeding from the bump she took in the car, it left a trace behind,” I state, trying to picture it in my head, but the thought of Callie bleeding is more than I can stomach.
“Yeah, but Blake, if it was an accident and she just tripped and fell, where is she? I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I think she was taken,” Marcus says quietly, his voice almost drowned out by the roaring in my ears.
“Christian,” I spit out vehemently, turning to face Arlo, who came in behind me. “Chase up the security guy. I want that footage now.”
“Yes, boss,” he answers, leaving the room to do my bidding.
“Anyone talk to the mother yet?”
Marcus shakes his head. “She was in and out of consciousness when I checked the room out earlier. Freaked out so much the nurse asked me to leave. She looks bad, man. I heard the nurse say she has a fractured eye socket and that she has broken her nose, wrist, and collarbone. Every inch of her is covered in bruises, but they say she’ll make a full recovery.”
“Felix and I will go talk to her. She’ll recognize me, at least. Marcus, I want you to wait with Kellen for the security footage, then call me as soon as you have it. Kellen, have you been checked out?” I ask, noticing how he’s favoring his right side.
“I’m fine, just bruised, but I’ll live. Go, talk to the mother.”
I don’t argue with him. He’s a big boy, and if he says he’s okay, then he’s okay. Even so, I catch Marcus’s eye and give him a look that says, “Keep an eye on him.” I know he gets it when he nods at me.
“Banner will be here any minute. Fill him in and get him to talk to the security guards from the ground floor. See if they saw anything,” I call over my shoulder as I follow Felix down the corridor. I stop when he points to the last but one room on the left.
“Excuse me, sir, you can’t go in there,” a nurse calls from behind us.
Felix turns and dazzles her with one of his rare smiles before answering. “Blake here is her son-in-law, and I’m her nephew. Apart from her daughter, we are the only family she has left.”
Her face softens at the worried tone of his voice before she relents and gives in. “Fine, but you have ten minutes. She needs to rest,” she tells us before turning back the way she came.
I open the door and find a woman staring at me fearfully when I enter the room. I frown at her in confusion before apologizing. “Sorry, ma’am, wrong room.” I move to back out, but Felix blocks my way.
“Where are you going?” he asks, attempting to step around me.
“This is the wrong room,” I snap. We don’t have fucking time for this.
“What are you talking about? Callie’s mother is right there.” He points at the woman and stares at me like I’m on drugs.
“That woman is not Callie’s mother.”
Felix looks at me incredulously before walking over to the chart hanging from the bottom of the bed. “See, it says right here. Brenda Roberts, age forty-five.”
“Felix, I don’t know who this woman is, but she is not Callie’s mother.”