Chapter Twelve
Chapter
Twelve
Keane paced the floors of the Willow Fork
Medical Clinic and wished there was some way to get Olivia back to Dallas. He
wanted all the best doctors watching after her. The Willow Fork Medical Center
was tiny, and the nurse who checked them in had seemed bored until she found
out the patient was Olivia. Then she seemed to feel the need to be on her phone
rather than doing her work.
Olivia was back there, and he wasn’t sure what was
happening. He fucking hated this. He hated being out of control. But she needed
him to stay calm.
Garrett walked up carrying a Styrofoam cup of hospital
coffee. Keane took it, drank it down for the caffeine. “Any word?”
It had been half an hour since Garrett picked Olivia up off
the parking lot ground and they rushed her to the hospital. Keane got a text to
meet Garrett, that it was an emergency and he was climbing into the cab of
Gabe’s truck and racing to the hospital before he could think to give her
friends a heads-up.
He texted them to find Olivia’s purse and her phone since
both were missing and to secure whatever she’d been drinking, though he
couldn’t be sure she’d been roofied. It seemed the only real theory to
contemplate. She’d been obviously intoxicated, and she only had two margaritas.
He talked to her before he joined Miranda on the dance floor and she’d been
perfectly fine.
“Nothing yet,” Keane said, nausea rolling through him, but
he wasn’t giving in. She needed him to be strong.
The door to the emergency room came open and Gigi jogged
through, a deeply competent look on her face. She had a badge in her hand.
“Where is she?”
She wasn’t alone. Gabe and Miranda were close behind her.
“Room twelve, but they said we couldn’t come back because
we’re not family.” It pissed Keane off, but he didn’t want to delay her care.
If they’d been in another town, he would have said he was her husband and
Garrett was her brother or vice versa. Anything to get them in there so they
could watch over her.
“I’ll handle it,” Gigi said as she rushed through the ER
doors, holding that badge up.
Miranda and Gabe stayed behind. She was pale and looked
younger than normal. “What happened?”
“I was out in the parking lot and saw someone dragging
Olivia out,” Garrett explained. “When I chased him off, I realized something
happened to her. I think someone spiked her drink. Why does Gigi get to go
back? They told us we couldn’t go.”
How he had wanted to throw a fit.
“Gigi sometimes works out here,” Gabe explained. “Abby is
active with the clinic, and Gigi helps with training. They’ll listen to her.
Hopefully.”
“Did you bring her drink?” Garrett asked, turning to
Miranda. “I want the police to check it.”
Miranda’s face paled. “I got us another round from the bar.
I ordered it and went to the bathroom. When I got back it was ready. I took it
to her.”
“But they would have thought it was for you,” Keane pointed
out.
“No, they wouldn’t. I was drinking strawberry margaritas.
Olivia has a very specific order. The bar staff knows her well, so they would
have known it was for her. They even put a blue umbrella in so they wouldn’t
get it mixed up,” Miranda explained. “I should have stayed until the drinks
were ready.”
Gabe put a hand on Miranda’s shoulder. “This is not your
fault. There’s no reason you should have been worried that the drink was
spiked. I looked for it after you texted. It was gone by the time we got back
to the table. I don’t know if someone bussed the table or someone grabbed it.
Her bag and her phone were gone, too. I already contacted the police, and the
owners of The Barn are cooperating by giving them all the security footage.”
“Do we know if we can call her cellular provider to turn on
location services?” Garrett asked, sounding calmer now. It was good. Garrett
needed a job to do.
“You should get someone on that,” Keane offered. “You might
have a better shot. You can say you’re her attorney.”
“I’m pretty sure she lets her mom track her phone,” Miranda
said, pulling out her own. “I can text her and say Livie lost it and ask if she
can see where it is.”
Garrett nodded. “It would be faster than going through all
the legal hoops.”
“Did they pick up Scott?” Keane asked.
Gabe frowned. “It wasn’t Scott who was leading her out.”
That had been the biggest kick in the gut. It had been a
complete stranger who tried to take their woman.
“You mean trying to kidnap her,” Garrett insisted.
“It seems that way,” Gabe said grimly. “They’re talking to
the bartenders and everyone around the table Olivia was sitting at. I don’t
think they’re taking it seriously. They think she had too much to drink and was
making a bad choice. I’m sure they’ll want to know what she was wearing.”
He wasn’t going to punch someone. Nope. He was going to stay
calm.
“I want to know where Scott Whittiker was this evening.” He
thought he’d seen the man but he’d been dancing with Miranda, and he trusted
that Olivia could handle that asshole.
He wouldn’t make the same mistake again. He wasn’t leaving
her alone until they figured out what was going on.
“I mentioned to the police that they should talk to him and
to Jason Hart,” Gabe said.
“We should also check into Jessica Fellows,” Garrett added.
“According to Ruby she might be in town. We know she took a flight from New
York to DFW a few days ago. Likely around the time Scott showed up.”
“Who was trying to take her?” Gabe asked.
Garrett’s head shook. “He took off running the minute I
called out her name. I know. I panicked. I shouldn’t have, but she was trying
to get away. I saw her and didn’t realize it was her, and I let him drag her
deeper into the parking lot. I thought she was some drunk chick and her
boyfriend was trying to get her home. If she hadn’t looked up at the right
time…”
Keane shook his head. He needed to keep Garrett calm, too.
“You couldn’t have known what was happening. Do you remember what he looked
like?”
“Unfortunately, I remember enough to know it wasn’t Scott or
Jason,” Garrett admitted. “He was shorter. Had way less muscle. He scared
easily. He was wearing a cowboy hat and jeans and boots and a T-shirt. He
honestly could have been anyone in that bar. I should have…”
Keane stopped him. If he let Garrett go on, he would spiral
into guilt and remorse over something he had no control over. “We’ll get the
security camera footage. I don’t care who was leading her away. I want to know
where Scott was tonight. I want to know where he was every minute of the
evening.”
“The police will be here soon, but I don’t know how much
help they’ll be. They didn’t even request the hospital check it out. They said
they would pump her stomach and be done with it,” Gabe said with a frown that
would make anyone back away.
“Which is why Gigi’s going to make sure they run a full
panel,” Miranda said with tears in her eyes. “She used a whole lot of words,
but I think she wants blood work to see what was in that drink.”
“The drink which is missing,” Gabe countered. “It’s down a
drain with the glass in a ridiculously hot dishwasher which will get rid of all
the evidence. If we can’t test the drink, too, the police here won’t know what
to do. Or rather they’ll do what they do best. Which is whatever is easiest.”
“I’d like to know who bussed that table so quickly, and
where the hell her purse and phone went.” Keane was wound tight. He’d let go of
the slashed tires. He’d even glossed over the fire since no one was in the
building, but he couldn’t overlook this now. Someone wanted to hurt Olivia, and
he couldn’t depend on law enforcement.
Garrett took a long breath and seemed to calm himself.
“There’s no real reason I can think of for Scott to want her phone. But I can
think of why Gladen would want it. She’s got evidence on her phone. He doesn’t
know she sent it all to me in the last few days. He knew she didn’t plan to
talk to her father until after her brothers’ wedding. He might think that’s the
last place it might be. If he’s the one who started the fire.”
Gabe nodded. “Okay, that’s a good working theory. We need to
get Ruby and Harlow involved.”
“Already done,” Garrett replied. “I called Ruby to update
her. I was in the parking lot talking to her when I saw Olivia. She’s got a
good line on a couple of suspects, but I’m worried we’re dealing with more than
one, and maybe for different reasons. Gladen wouldn’t have a reason to slash
her tires.”
“He could just be angry,” Miranda said. “Olivia can be
brutal when she sees injustice. She doesn’t hold back. I once watched her rip
one of my brothers up for doing something dangerous. She made him cry.”
Gabe turned to Keane. “We have to talk about something
else.”
He knew what needed to happen now. He had to give up his
playtime because something was far more important. “We have to call her
parents. We can’t hide this. Jack needs to know. He’s going to be better at
this than I am.”
“Better at what?” a deep voice asked. “Better at getting my
baby girl put in the damn hospital?”
Keane’s spine went straight as he turned, dreading the next
few minutes. “Mr. Barnes.”
Jack Barnes was still in great shape. The man was well into
his sixties, but he looked like he could still kick some serious ass. “Mr.
Rollins. I’ve heard you’ve done a good job so far, so I have to ask why you
were at a bar with my daughter.”
“Jack,” a soft voice said. Abigail Barnes-Fleetwood was
still gorgeous. She had an ageless beauty, as did the man at her side. Sam
Fleetwood held his wife’s hand. “We talked about this. Please don’t do this
right now.”
“We need to see Olivia. We need to make sure she’s fine
before we make terrible choices that will most likely get one of us stuck in
the doghouse,” Sam said.
The door to the ER opened, and a doctor appeared. “Mr.
Barnes, if you’ll come back with us. Maybe you and her mom. We need to keep
things to strictly family.”
Sam Fleetwood sighed. “Well, at least the doghouse is nicely
furnished.”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees.