Chapter Thirty-Seven
Rip
I pulled into the hospital parking lot with a screech of tires and the smell of burnt rubber. I didn’t care about such niceties, nor did I bother to turn off my car—which I only realized later. My mind was elsewhere.
Laurie.
She was sick to the point of needing hospitalization. My fear for her well-being had grown with every minute, as had my guilt. My mate was ill and scared, and I wasn’t there for her.
Hatred for the ancient enemy followed. It was their fault I hadn’t been there.
Duty came before personal feelings sometimes, as much as I loathed it, and my people had needed me.
My people. They truly were becoming that, in spirit and name, the longer I went without my father around.
Fewer references to him and more comments about me.
It was only natural, I supposed, but it still felt weird.
I wonder, is this what he went through? Did my father suffer from the same feelings of inadequacy? That he might not be good enough to do the job our people deserve from us?
It was hard to imagine. My father had been a stalwart dragon of the old school. Tough, gruff, and with a heart of gold if you got past the exterior. He had kept our people and the other clans safe for a century. Every time he’d gone out to battle, he had come back. Without fail.
I swear I will do my best to do the same to you, Laurie. I will not abandon you.
The flashing lights didn’t catch my attention as I walked to the emergency department, where I assumed they would have taken her. That was three days ago, but I didn’t know where else to go.
It was a nice entrance, with large plants lining a raised stone wall to the left and benches for sitting in front. Off to my right, underneath large leafy trees, a fountain burbled away happily as if in defiance of all that occurred inside the walls.
“Sir,” a uniformed police officer said, moving to intercept me as I strode toward the wide sliding doors. “I’m going to need you to state your purpose here.”
I turned and glared at him, a growl rumbling so deep in my chest it sounded like a lion’s roar. The sound was almost too low for human ears to pick up, and I saw his eyes go wide in panic at the response it evoked in him.
“Out of my way,” I said. “My mate is in there, and she needs me.”
Despite his initial fears, the officer was made of sterner stuff than that. He reached a hand down to his side as he backed toward the door to keep pace with me, his hand coming up as if that could stop me.
“Sir,” he said more forcefully, “I’m going to need you to stop right now.”
More officers were moving my way.
“What is going on here?” I snarled. “Why are you stopping me from going inside?”
“Because that’s my job,” the officer said. “It’s what I have to do. It’s not you, not just you, I should say. I’m here to stop everyone, ID them, and make sure they have a reason to go inside.”
“It’s a hospital. Why wouldn’t I have a reason? She’s in there. I must get to her.”
“Can I have your name and her name, then?” the officer said. “I’ll radio it in. If you’re cleared, you can show some ID and go inside. No problem, I promise.”
“My name is Rip. I am here to see Laurie Stiller. She was admitted three days ago—”
Before I could finish my sentence, I stopped, noting the complete change in the officer’s demeanor.
“Laurie Stiller, you say?” he asked carefully, spelling her last name out, though it wasn’t difficult.
“That’s correct. I’m her … boyfriend, I guess. I was out of town on business and couldn’t get back until today. Now, can I please go see her?”
“One moment,” the officer said, turning away to speak into his shoulder radio, thinking I wouldn’t hear. “Sir, we have a man claiming to be Laurie Stiller’s boyfriend outside. Name of ‘Rip.’ What do you want me to do?”
“What’s going on?” I growled, taking a step forward. “Where’s Laurie? What’s wrong?”
Other officers tensed nearby, one of them reaching for his sidearm.
The hospital doors opened, and a familiar figure came striding out.
“Sir,” I said, standing up smartly as Mark Stiller came up to me. “Is Laurie okay?”
“I don’t know,” he growled. “I thought she was with you, but now that you’re here looking for her, I don’t know.”
“Is she not here? I was told she was sick.”
“She was here,” Mark snapped, looking around. “Then someone came in, knocked out my other daughter, and took her.”
I went still, a cold chill running down my spine. “Who did this?”
“It was Eric.”
Plants nearby wilted, trees drooped, and the fountain ran dry as I pulled water toward me in a fury.
The officers looked around uneasily, and I let the water go before one of them noticed the stream from the fountain headed toward me.
“Eric did this?” I said, walking away from the police officers.
Mark followed.
“Yes, according to the footage. I …” Mark shook his head. “I thought you two were in league with one another. That you were the mastermind behind it all maybe.”
“Absolutely not, sir,” I said respectfully. “But why would he do this?”
Mark sighed. “I found out what Eric was involved with. He owes some big loans to some bad people after the bank refused to finance his business anymore. They’ve come to collect, and he was hoping that by marrying my daughter, he could get some of her money to pay them off.”
“No wonder he’s so desperate,” I said. “Why kidnap her?”
“Ransom, I assume. The note hasn’t come yet, but I suspect it will,” Mark said angrily. “I’m ready to go to war with these people, Rip. I have men standing by. But my daughter is my priority. I will not have her caught in the crossfire.”
“I understand,” I said softly. “That means you know where she is?”
He looked around, suddenly uncomfortable. “We don’t talk about it much, but all of my family have tracking devices implanted under their skin. Just in case. I don’t like to admit this is a possibility, but it's not unheard of in my line of work. Usually not for this reason, though.”
“So you know where she is,” I confirmed.
Mark nodded.
“I will get her out of there,” I said with quiet confidence. “Then you can go to war and show them why messing with the daughters of Mark Stiller is a bad life choice.”
“Rip, I respect your determination,” Mark said, “but these men are highly trained professionals with years of experience in just such operations. And I’m still hesitating over what to do.”
I stared at him, thinking.
“Are any of your men here?” I asked.
“Stationed throughout the hospital, yes,” Mark confirmed.
“Who’s the best?”
“Alex,” he replied without hesitation.
“Call him here.”
Mark started to argue, then shrugged and made a call. Alex arrived smartly, drawing irritated looks from the cops, who clearly thought he was treading on their turf.
“Come with me,” I said to both of them, walking around a corner to a deserted loading dock.
“Who the hell is this guy?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know you, and you don’t know me,” I said. “You walk and move like someone well trained. But this isn’t a job for you and your army. It’s not a frontal assault. It’s an extraction. I’m going to be the one going in to get her. Then you and your men move in and deal with everyone else.”
“Why you? We can do this job,” Alex said tightly.
I didn’t wait for a signal. I just attacked without warning. Alex snapped around, going for his weapon. My hand was on his wrist in an instant, holding it in place. He yanked hard, but I didn’t move.
“How did you do that?” he asked. “I didn’t even see you move.”
“Exactly the point,” I said. “I’m not like you. It’s not your fault.”
“Again,” Alex said, shaking me off and backing away as he dropped into a fighting stance.
Mark shuffled out of the way.
Casually, I walked up to Alex. He launched an attack.
I blocked it with a hand. Easily. And then another.
With the same hand. He struck with a kick and a punch in rapid succession.
I used the same hand to block them both.
He hit me with another kick. I grabbed his leg and casually tossed him against the wall, just hard enough that he felt it but didn’t sustain serious injury.
The wall was ten feet away.
“Satisfied that I can do this yet?” I asked.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Someone who cares about Laurie. Now, tell Mark that I’m going to get her out. Then your men move in and exact revenge.”
Alex frowned, then looked at Mark and nodded. “He’s better than anyone I know. Faster. Stronger. Almost inhumanly so. Quiet as well.”
“I will bring her back,” I said fiercely. “Whole and unharmed, I swear.”
Mark walked up to me, giving me a knowing look. “You bring them both back,” he said in too soft a voice for Alex to hear.
“What? I thought your other daughter was fine,” I said in the same tone.
Mark shook his head. “She is. But I know why Laurie was in the hospitable. You bring them both back.”
I gave him a long look. “I’m not discussing anything without her present. But I’d die before anything happened to her.”
Satisfied, Mark nodded and pulled out a tablet. He opened an app and showed me on the map where Laurie’s ping was coming from, relative to our current position.
“Go get her,” he said.
“I will. And I’ll tear down anything that stands in my way. This, I swear.”