Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The entire team raced to the hospital where Jen was being transported.
Chaos felt as if he was going to fly out of his skin.
He needed answers, and so far he and his friends had none.
The Good Samaritan who’d called Edge had said she’d seen Jen on the side of the road and was afraid to stop, but her conscience wouldn’t let her drive on by.
She’d called the police and, at Jen’s request, then called Edge.
She said that Jen looked bad. Dirty, bloody, and she wasn’t moving right. She didn’t tell the woman much and had a faraway look in her eye.
Chaos, and everyone else, could only wonder what hell she’d been through. But more than that, Chaos wanted to know if Kara had been found with her. If Nolan had been the one to kidnap them both.
He ran inside the hospital with the rest of his team while Casper parked his Escalade, the only vehicle that would fit all six of them at the same time.
Everyone was worried about Jen, but also wanting intel so they could start trying to find Kara.
Every minute she was in the clutches of Nolan Colins, their only possibly suspect, the lower their chances of finding her alive.
The intake employees wouldn’t tell them anything, instead directing them to a private waiting room.
Chaos almost lost it, but Buck managed to calm him down enough not to say or do anything that would get him kicked out.
He paced the small waiting room in agitation while Edge did the same.
Casper joined them not too long after, and it was almost agony for the six men to sit around and do nothing while Kara was out there somewhere, possibly suffering.
Buck called Tex while they were waiting, but without any kind of information there wasn’t much the man could do.
Finally, a nurse appeared in the doorway and asked if there was anyone related to Jen.
Without hesitation, Edge spoke up and said he was her fiancé. It was a bold-faced lie but obviously no one called him on it.
The nurse looked skeptical, but she nodded.
“She’s stable and resting in one of the rooms. We’re waiting on X-rays to come back but the doctor’s hopeful she won’t need to stay overnight.
She’s pretty banged up, but if there’s no internal bleeding or any other major issues, she’ll be able to go home. ”
Fuckin’ A. Internal bleeding? Chaos assumed she’d been beaten, but hearing the nurse so casually dismiss internal fucking bleeding meant she’d been hurt worse than they’d assumed.
“Can I see her?” Edge asked eagerly.
“She doesn’t want visitors,” the nurse hedged.
“Please! I need to see her,” he begged.
Chaos wanted to demand that he be able to go back with Edge, but he wasn’t going to push his luck. Yes, Edge was worried about Jen’s health, but he was also very aware of the importance of getting information from her about what happened, and where Kara might be.
“All right—but if she wants you gone, you’ll have to leave.”
Edge nodded, though everyone in the room knew there was no way he was going to leave her side.
It actually bothered Chaos a little that it took Jen getting hurt for his friend to finally get his head out of his ass, because it was more than obvious the man had experienced a change of heart.
Nothing like a near-death episode to make all the other issues in a person’s life immaterial.
Before he left, Edge turned and nodded at Chaos. “I’ll let you know as soon as I learn something.” Then he was gone.
Chaos couldn’t stop thinking of what Kara might be going through right that moment. What Nolan was saying to her. What he had planned. Nothing good, that was for sure. It physically hurt that all Chaos could do was stand there and wait for information.
When his phone rang minutes later, Chaos jumped, then fumbled to answer it.
“Edge?”
His friend and copilot didn’t answer, but Chaos could hear him talking. He’d obviously put the phone on speaker while he spoke to Jen.
Chaos clicked the speaker button on his own phone, and the four men left in the room crowded around him to hear what Jen had to say about what happened.
Except…she wasn’t speaking. All they heard was Edge’s voice.
“Please, Jen, talk to me.”
There were several moments of silence before Edge came back on the line, sounding louder than before. He was talking directly into the phone now.
“She’s completely shut down. The doctor gave her a sedative but not enough to completely knock her out. She won’t even look at me.”
Edge sounded broken.
“He did tell me that she spoke to the nurses when she first got here. She told them that Asher made her call Kara and go pick her up. Told her that she needed help finding her dog. And once she got in the car, Asher, who she now knows was Nolan Colins, restrained Kara with a rope around her neck, forced Jen to drive to the area where she was picked up, beat her, threw her in the swamp thinking she was dead, and left with Kara. Jen crawled to the road and waved down the lady who stopped to help her. Kara and Nolan are in her PT Cruiser. After Jen spoke to the nurses, she stopped talking. Hasn’t said anything since. She’s scaring me, Chaos.”
“I’m on the car,” Buck said softly, stepping away with his phone to his ear.
Casper put a hand on Chaos’s shoulder in support.
“She’s probably feeling so guilty right now,” Obi-Wan mused.
“That fucker completely played her,” Pyro growled.
Chaos’s mind was in turmoil. He felt awful for Jen. She’d done nothing wrong, and yet he knew Obi-Wan was right, she probably felt as if this was her fault. But Kara had told him over and over how smooth and charming Nolan had been. How she’d had no inkling that he was a psychopath.
“I’m going to stay here and try to talk to her, if that’s okay with you, Chaos,” Edge said.
“Of course it is.”
“If she says anything else helpful, I’ll call immediately.”
“Don’t pump her for intel,” Chaos said. “She needs to know that we don’t blame her.
That Kara won’t blame her for what happened.
Oh, and be sure to tell her that Fred is okay.
That he went home and Penny has him in her apartment.
” As much as he wanted to know every single detail about what happened, having Jen relive her own kidnapping wouldn’t be good for her mental health, and it was obvious that she was already struggling to deal with her role in Kara’s abduction.
He wouldn’t add to that, no matter how badly he wanted to know everything Nolan had said and done.
“Thanks, man. I bet Tex could check traffic cameras for her car. It’s not too common of a model or color.”
“Buck’s already talking to him.”
“Good.”
“Take care of Jen and we’ll be in touch.”
“Thanks.”
Chaos cut the line and turned to his teammates.
He was at a loss as to what to do. Yes, they had a bit more intel, but he was no closer to finding Kara than he’d been five minutes ago, except now he felt horrible for Jen.
She’d been put in a horrific position to trick her friend.
Not to mention, she had to be feeling blindsided that the man she’d been dating turned out to be using her to get to Kara.
“Tex is on this. He said he’ll find Jen’s license plate number and he’s using a new program he has to scan not only traffic cameras, but the cameras that busses around here have as well.
He knows where to start looking based on where Jen was found.
Once he has a general direction, he can hopefully narrow down a location,” Buck said.
“I’ll call the colonel and see if we can get permission to get in the air to search. That’ll be much faster than a ground search,” Casper said.
“Nolan will probably want somewhere isolated, like he had back in North Carolina,” Pyro mused.
Chaos wanted to throw up. Just thinking about Nolan taking Kara somewhere remote to torture her was more painful than he’d expected.
Not for the first time, he wished it was him in danger and not Kara.
She didn’t deserve this. Hell, neither did Jen.
No woman did. He’d never understand why some men felt it was okay to hurt their girlfriends or wives.
If they didn’t like their partner anymore, they should just leave. Move on.
“Hang in there,” Obi-Wan told him. “Kara’s smart. She’s not going to do anything to antagonize him. She knows you’ll be looking for her, and she’ll stay strong for you.”
Chaos agreed with his friend, but the pressure on his shoulders was immense. What if he couldn’t find her? What if her faith was misplaced? He’d rather she fight back than comply, just in case he couldn’t get to her in time.
No, he couldn’t think that way. Kara was smart. No matter what that bastard did to her, they’d get through it together, just as they’d dealt with the aftermath of her first kidnapping. And Obi-Wan was right, this time was different. She had him. She wasn’t alone anymore.
Of course, Nolan would also be aware that Kara had friends who were most likely looking for her, unlike last time. It would probably make him less likely to draw this out. Fuck.
“Come on. I don’t know about you guys, but being in hospitals reminds me too much of being here with Mandy when she was hurt,” Buck said. “Tex is going to call us when he has anything.”
“Let’s head to base so we’ll be ready to fly when the approval comes through,” Casper suggested.
They all headed out of the hospital, but Chaos’s mind was focused on Kara. On her smiling face. Her laughter. The way she looked as she slept next to him in bed. How she could be shy and adventurous at the same time. How the smallest thing made her happy.
He prayed that Nolan wouldn’t completely crush everything that made Kara who she was. But no matter what, he wouldn’t give up on her. Would do whatever was necessary to bring them back to where they’d been that morning, when he’d left her at the house. Content, happy, madly in love.
Because any other outcome was unacceptable.
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