Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Of course, they’d had to find the office first. Ryson and a contingent of cops had gone, with Zeyla in tow.
Even though there was a chance Ellayna, her mother, and her brother were there, Kenna had done what Jax asked and went to the hospital instead.
So the pregnant woman could wait close to doctors and emergency medical care.
She tapped her heel on the floor, bouncing her knee up and down. Even the waiting room smelled like despair. Did she really want to have her baby in a place like this?
Jax sat beside her, texting Maizie about everything.
Getting live updates from the police and Zeyla as to what they’d found at Wallace Lofton’s office.
“Okay.” He glanced at her. “They aren’t there.
What is there is a collection of recordings, tapes he used to get the interview with Ellayna and some others on record. ”
“Tapes?” She didn’t quit bouncing her knee even though it was probably annoying everyone around her.
The hospital intercom buzzed, and a Doctor Young was asked to report to surgery.
“Literal tapes. The tiny ones you put in a handheld voice recorder.” Jax scanned her, head to toe but didn’t say anything about what he discerned. “Guess he thought himself some kind of investigative reporter.”
“Pretty sure they use apps for those now.”
“But an analog tape stuffed in a drawer is a lot harder to hack than an electronic file.” Jax’s expression softened.
“Which is irritating Maizie to no end. She thinks he did all the production on a computer, and the only thing he did online was upload the file to the podcasting site so it released. She used the desktop computer, which Zeyla said was ancient, to get into his online accounts, and apparently, there are several weeks’ worth of episodes already cued up, ready to release. ”
“Did they shut it down?”
He nodded.
“Where is Ellayna?”
A tendon in his jaw flexed. “I’m sorry, but we don’t know.”
An elderly woman came down the aisle and took a seat in front of them, pulling knitting from her purse. The needles started to clack together. “How are you folks?”
Jax said, “Good, thank you. You?”
“Oh, I’m hanging in there. Waiting for the hubs to get done with his dialysis.” She glanced between them. “You know, if you want that baby to come, you should pace up and down the halls. You see the pregnant women doing that all the time.”
“She can stay where she is for now.” Kenna patted her baby bump. “As long as she needs to be there.”
The woman frowned, rather than agreeing that was a good idea. Kenna didn’t really need to get into her personal life with this woman.
She shifted on the seat and put her bent knee on Jax’s thigh. She whispered to him, “I asked where they are, and he said his office. Why were they not there?”
“Maybe he thought you were asking about the tapes?”
“He’d better wake up soon.”
Jax hesitated but caught himself. “I nearly asked if you wanted coffee.”
“So mean.”
He put his arm around her. “You love hot chocolate and apple cider. Some tea.”
“Very few kinds of tea. Basically, just black with milk.”
She felt him chuckle, and he kissed the side of her head.
His phone buzzed, and he looked at it, immediately tensing.
“Maizie says Ellayna’s phone just came back on.
It’s giving us a GPS location, but she could be within half a mile of there, or it could be spoofed.
” The phone buzzed again. “The signal is bouncing around. It’s in a completely different place now. ”
While he told her all that, Kenna fumbled with her coat on the seat beside her, tugging it out from under the shoes of the kid curled up asleep on the seat beyond it. She pulled out her phone and dialed Ellayna’s number.
She bit her lip with the phone against her ear, listening to it ring. Come on, come on. It wasn’t quite a prayer, more her trying to will Ellayna to answer the phone. Which, of course, wasn’t more than just wishful thinking.
Lord.
She didn’t get the chance to say more to God because the call connected.
“Kenna?”
She sucked in a deep breath. “Ellayna, tell me where you are.”
“I…I don’t know.”
Beside her, Jax made a call of his own. He put the phone to his ear, and she heard him tell Maizie to trace the call, to get a triangulated location.
Kenna shut her eyes. “Where’s your mom?”
“She won’t wake up.”
“What about your brother?”
“He keeps crying.” The connection faltered. It sounded like she said something else, but Kenna didn’t catch it.
“Ellayna?”
“I’m here.”
“Describe what’s around you. What kind of place are you in?” She opened her eyes. “Tell me what you see.”
“Okay. The walls are metal. There aren’t any windows, but they gave us a lamp and three phones. But they don’t have much battery. I turned them off to save it, so they don’t run out too fast.”
“I’m glad you turned one back on. That was a good idea. We’re trying to find you.”
Ellayna started to cry. “I don’t know where we are.”
“Are any of you hurt?”
“No, but mom is sleepy. And I can’t get the door open.” She sniffled. “I tried, but it’s locked.”
“Have you seen anyone else?” She didn’t want to use the word “captor” but might have to. “Like whoever took you.”
“Not since I woke up. I think it was yesterday, but it’s been dark all this time. I don’t know what time it is.”
But they were unhurt, and no one was coming in the place where they were being held. “You’re doing great. Ellayna, listen to me. You’re one of the strongest people I know. You are going to be okay.”
Silence greeted her.
“Ellayna?”
The call dropped.
She twisted to face Jax, far too tense for being this pregnant. “Please tell me you got that?”
He shook his head, his jaw set in frustration. “The signal is bouncing around over multiple states. She can’t pin it down.”
Kenna squeezed her eyes shut, willing away the burning sensation. She didn’t want to break down in tears in a hospital waiting room.
“I see the doctor.” He pointed toward the nurses’ station. “Let’s go find out if Wallace is awake.”
“If he is, I’m going to pummel him.”
Jax set his hand on the small of her back as they crossed the room. “Someone already did, remember.”
“Sorry, you just discovered your wife has a violent streak.”
“In defense of a child who needs saving.” He looked at her as they stopped in front of the counter. “You think I’d have a problem with that?”
He probably figured it would be a hundred times worse with their child—which was good for them both, because their daughter would be as safe as she could be with two parents who would move heaven and earth to protect her.
Or it was only fine because she would be exhausted and busy with a baby for the foreseeable future, and he thought it would keep her out of trouble.
She wasn’t going to worry about which it was right now, even if that was a good way to disassociate from reality and her fears for Ellayna. “We need to know if Wallace Lofton is awake. There should be a police officer at his door.”
The cops had told the staff here who they were and that they got full access to the patient as investigators. So, the staff had told them to wait in the waiting area.
The nurse glanced aside, causing the light to reveal shadows on her face. She was exhausted. The doctor lifted a tablet from the counter behind the desk. “Lofton?”
“Yes,” Jax said.
“He’s awake. You can talk to the officer at the door, but I’ll speak with the patient before you can go in.”
Kenna nodded. “We appreciate the chance to speak with him. It’s very important. There’s a family missing. A mother and two children.”
The doctor’s mouth opened for a second as he hesitated at hearing that, then he said, “Come with me.”
He buzzed them through a set of doors into a long hallway. She didn’t see the officer at the door until they turned a corner at the end and came to a shorter hall.
The doctor glanced at her obvious condition but didn’t make small talk.
“Only one contraction so far,” Kenna said. “But if something starts up, at least I’m in the right place.”
He flushed. “That’s right. Though, you’ll want to be up on the eighth floor of the tower.”
“Good to know.”
Jax squeezed her hip, and when she looked at him, he winked. Whatever that meant.
The doctor went into the room, and she could see Wallace Lofton in his hospital bed. Hooked up to machines monitoring him but awake and sitting up.
She stood at the door where he could see her—and recognize her. Whether he remembered her from when they found him or not, he should know who she…
Yep. His eyes flared with recognition.
She’d tuned out whatever Jax and the officer were saying to each other.
“You can come in,” Lofton called from his spot.
Kenna waited until the doctor left, then rushed to his bedside, wanting to strangle him. “You have some nerve. You’re a piece of garbage, scum—”
Jax slid an arm around her, easing her back from the bed. “Okay, Mama Bear. Give me a sec, okay?”
She didn’t want to but nodded. Her teeth gritted so hard they hurt.
Kenna stepped back.
Jax grabbed the rail and leaned into the guy’s space. Majorly in his space. “If there wasn’t a cop watching us, my hands would be around your neck right now.”
Lofton’s eyes widened.
Kenna had a hundred questions about how he’d come to interview Ellayna or why on earth he’d thought it was okay to do that in the first place. “Where are they?”
He flinched. “What are you talking about?” His gaze shifted between her and Jax, probably wondering which one of them would hurt him if he didn’t give them the right answer.
That was the problem with torture, apart from it being illegal, the person—the victim—just told their interrogator whatever they wanted to hear to make the pain stop.
“Ellayna, her mother, and her two-year-old brother are somewhere, we have no idea where, locked in a metal room in the dark.” Kenna’s blood pressure was probably through the roof right now.
She had to calm down, or she wouldn’t be of any use to this case.
She set a hand over the baby, centering herself. Not just the case, but her family.
“You think I took them?” His voice rose in volume and pitch.
Meanwhile, Kenna drew in a long, cleansing breath. She held it at the top and then pushed the air out slowly. Lord, be with them. Be with us. Help us find them. She prayed Crystal wasn’t injured and that Ellayna would be able to comfort her brother.
“This is happening because of you.” Jax straightened, folding his arms across his chest. “Your interview put them in danger, so you’re going to tell us everything you know about the family and who might want to target them.
Or I’ll make sure you’re charged with all the same crimes as whoever took them. ”
“You can’t…” He looked over at the cop at the door.
“You think I’ll argue?” The officer shook his head. “I heard that podcast. The lady is right; you are a piece of trash.”
Wallace looked at Kenna. “It really is you.”
“Get over it. This is all your fault.” She wasn’t going to back down. “I want to know everything you know. Now.”