Chapter 29
“Great. When can I get out of here?” A.J. asked.
“Take it easy, sailor,” Liss countered. “You were literally hit by a two-ton SUV. I’m keeping you overnight for observation.”
“Liss, I can’t be here while some psycho has Josie,” he argued.
“I understand, I really do, but you won’t be doing her any good if you keel over and dislocate your other shoulder.
” Liss made a final snip, covered the wound with a bandage, and snapped off her gloves.
She stood and gave A.J.’s good shoulder a gentle squeeze.
“Take some pain meds. Rest. I will make sure Cam comes by and gives you an update later. You know the guys are going to work around the clock, so I’ll make you a promise.
If there’s any actionable intel overnight, I’ll sign you out myself, okay? ”
A.J. let his head rest back on the pillow.
Everything hurt. His head felt heavy and cloudy, and his whole body ached.
As worried as he was about Josie, he knew his team would be doing everything humanly possible to find her.
He could take Lissa’s advice and rest so he’d be functional by morning, or he could be a stubborn ass. He opted to take Lissa’s advice.
“Okay,” he agreed.
“I’m going to order a non-narcotic IV painkiller for you so you shouldn’t be as groggy,” Liss said.
“Thank you, Liss. Do my kids know what happened?”
“No, we didn’t want to stress them out any more than necessary.
We told them you were still working hard to find Josie and wouldn’t be home tonight.
Fiona is planning to have a big sleepover at her place with all the kids and dogs, and Teag’s going to assist so Maria can work with the team.
I planned to stay here overnight. Is that okay with you? ”
A.J. swallowed back the lump in his throat. His friends were as much his family as if they’d shared blood. “Yeah, that’s great. Thank you.”
“We’ve got your back,” Liss said.
“I know you do,” he answered.
As soon as Liss left, A.J.’s nurse appeared with whatever cocktail of painkillers Liss had ordered and shot it into his IV line. In moments, his limbs relaxed, and a pleasant warmth spread through his whole body.
“Try to rest. We’ll move you upstairs in a little while,” she said.
***
It was dark when Cam and Jake strolled into A.J.’s hospital room. He’d dozed on his gurney in the ER, and then slept the rest of the day away once they’d moved him into a private room, but his head cleared quickly the moment he heard their familiar voices outside his door.
“Eat this,” Cam ordered, dropping a paper bag on his bedside tray. “Liss said you could have real food, so we figured we’d save you from the green Jell-O.”
Despite his desire to shake any new intel out of his friends, his stomach growled loudly.
“I’ll eat, you two talk,” he said pointedly as he fished the burger and fries out of the bag.
Jake dragged a chair across the floor and sat heavily onto it, while Cam leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.
“You okay, man?” Jake asked. “You scared the shit out of us.”
“It’s just a flesh wound,” A.J. said.
Jake gave him a half-hearted grin, but A.J.
noted the dark bluish circles rimming Jake’s eyes and the more than five o’clock shadow darkening the younger man’s tanned skin.
His eyes met Cam’s, and he wordlessly communicated his concern for Jake.
Cam gave him a subtle chin lift of acknowledgement, and A.J.
stuffed a handful of fries into his mouth.
“What do we know?”
“We’ve got a name,” Jake said. “I was able to get a good shot of the guy from your doorbell camera. I ran it through facial recognition and got a hit. Shane Davidson, aka Spider, 36. He’s a local, born in Hyde Park, and he’s muscle for the Irish mob, mostly collecting on gambling debts, but some dealing.
Did five years for aggravated assault. He’s pretty much stayed under the radar since he’s been out, but he’s still working for the Irish. ”
Dread settled like a cold stone in A.J.’s stomach.
“What about the SUV? Were you able to catch it on traffic cameras?”
Jake ran a hand through his longish hair and shook his head. “We lost it when he exited the highway into South Boston. Not a lot of cameras in that area.”
“Detective Morgan said the vehicle was registered to a shell corporation?”
“Yeah, I’m pulling on that thread hard to see if I can link the corporation to the Irish or to Davidson directly, but it’ll take some digging.”
“What about his last known address?”
“His late mother’s place is listed, but there’s no evidence he’s been there in a while. One of his sisters lives there with her kids, and she hasn’t seen him in years. No sign they’ve been at Kevin’s place either,” Jake said.
“So what’s the plan?” A.J. demanded, knowing he sounded sharper than he intended.
Neither Jake nor Cam blinked at his tone.
“The plan is that we come at this from every angle. We’ll be interrogating any of Spider’s known associates to see where he might go.
We’ll be digging around to find a real address for him.
We’ll be monitoring traffic cams, local hangouts, banks.
Anything and everything, brother. We’ll find him, and we’ll find Josie,” Cam promised.
A.J. held on to those words. He knew Cam and Jake understood, with devastating clarity, exactly what he was going through, and he also knew they would do whatever it took to find Josie. That was the only thing that kept him from losing his mind.
“Get some rest,” Cam ordered. “I promise if anything changes overnight, I’ll let you know.”
***
“Don’t move from that chair,” Spider said. “I’m checking in with Deacon.”
Josie flinched when Spider slammed the door closed, and then she sat frozen in place for the space of a heartbeat.
Spider seemed interested in her proposal to get ahold of the cash, but Josie needed to do more.
Without a landline in the office, she didn’t have any way to reach out to the team at TSI, and she had no way of finding out if Adam was okay.
As soon as her thoughts turned to Adam, tears stung her eyes, but she couldn’t allow herself to become incapacitated with worry. She had to act. On wobbling legs, she crept to Deacon’s desk. While she searched for a pen, she listened intently for footsteps outside the door.
A brightly colored pad of sticky notes caught Josie’s eye, and when she moved a few papers around, a pen rolled across the metal surface of the desk. She grabbed the pen and scratched out a quick note.
Please help me. Call this number. They are not the police.
After adding TSI’s main phone number and her name, Josie quickly stuck the note onto the framed picture of Deacon’s kids. Then, she turned the picture to face the wall behind the desk, dropped the pen onto the pile of papers, and hurried back to her chair.
When Spider returned a few minutes later, Josie was leaning back in the chair with her arms wrapped around herself.
“Let’s go,” Spider barked.
Josie followed Spider back through the garage and out into the fading afternoon sun. There was a bite to the autumn air, and Josie shivered in her thin sweater.
“You should be able to stay under the radar with this,” Deacon said, tossing a set of keys to Spider.
Spider hustled Josie around to the passenger side of the older-model gray Honda sedan and, with a firm grip on her upper arm, shoved her into the seat.
She heard Spider and Deacon exchange a few more words, but she couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying. When Spider rounded the vehicle to the driver’s side, Josie caught Deacon’s hardened stare.
“Please,” she mouthed, hand against the glass window.
As soon as Spider opened his door, Josie schooled her features and let her hand drop into her lap. Spider jammed the key into the ignition and drove out of the parking lot without a backward glance.
Leaving the relative safety of Deacon’s garage, Josie’s anxiety spiked.
Dread coiled in her belly and her heart raced.
Although she hadn’t trusted Kevin, and she knew he’d been responsible for the disastrous plan to abduct her, Josie never really thought her brother wanted to hurt her.
She believed Spider, on the other hand, wouldn’t hesitate to, which made being alone with him all the more terrifying.
Falling apart wasn’t an option, though. Josie had to stay in control.
“Where are we going?” she asked evenly.
“Back to the apartment,” Spider answered.
On the one hand, Josie did not want to be stuck alone in that apartment with Spider, but on the other hand, she knew the TSI team would be doing everything in their power to track her down. Maybe returning to the same place wasn’t the worst thing.
The fall days had been growing shorter and shorter, and it was nearly dark before they arrived back at the building.
Josie cautiously took in her surroundings, acutely aware of the gun tucked in Spider’s waistband.
She calculated the odds of successfully running somewhere, anywhere, to get away from Spider.
She’d never make it out to the street, she’d be too exposed, and if she could make a break down the alley, she might be trapped with nowhere to hide. If Spider had to chase her down, he’d probably conclude she was more trouble than she was worth.
Her contemplations ended abruptly when Spider manhandled her inside. The same stinking smell of urine, mold, and garbage had Josie nearly gagging as they hustled down the hallway. Thankfully, the inside of the apartment wasn’t nearly as ripe.
Spider locked and deadbolted the door behind them and then released Josie.
“May I use the restroom? I’d really like to shower,” she said.
“Go ahead. I’m going to order food.”
Despite her nerves, Josie’s stomach growled, and she really did want to rinse the grime of the last few days off, even if she had to put back on the same dirty clothes.
She shut and locked the bathroom door behind her and leaned heavily against it. The tears she’d managed to keep at bay suddenly leaked from her eyes. Her throat constricted, her body shook, and she slid to the floor, chest heaving with silent sobs.
Josie wanted Adam, but all she could think about was the thud of his body ricocheting off the SUV and the image of him sprawled on the pavement. If he was hurt, she needed to be with him. Frustration added another layer to her already distressed emotional state. She couldn’t even comfort the kids.
When she finally felt drained of tears, she forced herself to stand on wobbly legs and do what she came into the bathroom to do.
She found a threadbare but clean towel under the sink, and when she checked the shower, there was body wash and shampoo.
Josie peeled off her clothes, gave them a shake, and draped them over the vanity.
Groaning as the hot water hit her body, she allowed herself a few moments to let her mind go blank.
Later, after she’d finger combed her hair and dressed in her sour smelling clothes, she returned to the kitchen. Spider sat at the table, eating yet another pizza.
“Transfer the money,” he ordered, standing and shoving his cell phone at Josie.
When she reached for the phone, she was shaking so hard she nearly dropped it on the floor. Spider hovered over her, glaring.
“Don’t try anything,” he warned.
Josie opened the website for her brokerage house on a browser and logged into her account. With trembling fingers, she typed in her login and password, and then requested the transfer.