Chapter 22 #2
So Sam would use that training to her advantage. By distracting her with a potential threat. The doors slid open, and the two stepped out, slowly making their way through the halls toward the exit. She watched the reflections in the doors and windows. Picked out a bystander.
Sam stepped closer to the marshal. “I think we’re being followed.”
“The man in the hoodie,” Glover said. “Keep walking. Do you recognize him?”
“I think he was standing outside the building where I got hurt this afternoon.”
“Okay. I’m going to turn around and confront him. I want you to take cover.”
“Okay.”
“One. Two. Three.” Glover spun around and rested her hand on the gun in her holster. “Deputy US Marshal. Put your hands where I can see them.”
Everyone around them stopped and gawked. Sam took that opportunity to slip away. Hopefully, Glover would forgive her.
“I don’t care who you have to wake up or what you have to do, ping those phones,” Liam yelled into the phone as he pounded his hand on the steering wheel. “You need to find my niece and her friend.”
The cut across his chest throbbed in time with his heartbeat. How could there be so many cops milling about and not a single one of them saw two teenagers slip off.
Lord, help me find them.
He hit the contact button for Sophia. “Answer the phone, Soph.”
Straight to voicemail.
He wanted to throw his phone. He’d tried to use the tracking app, but her phone had gone dark. Most likely turned off. He kept trying to call her on the off chance that she’d answer it.
Lord. Help me.
He drove around the neighborhood. They couldn’t have gone too far on foot. Assuming someone hadn’t snatched them. He hit the steering wheel with the palm of his hand.
He knew the statistics.
“God, don’t let Sophia and Bella become statistics.”
Lord.
The RPD was searching for the girls. They were also working on getting an Amber Alert issued. It wasn’t a confirmed kidnapping, but given the attack, it was a high probability.
It took some real guts to kidnap two girls with the number of police present at the scene.
The suspect who’d stabbed him was in custody and at the emergency room, being checked out before booking.
The phone in his hand rang. He looked at the screen. Glover.
“Please tell me the girls showed up at the hospital.”
“No.” She sighed. “We have another problem. Sam is gone.”
Liam slammed on the brakes. “What do you mean she’s gone?”
“She said Bella called her. Bella said they’d been kidnapped and Sam was to go to the slaughterhouse at Ashbend Industrial Park.
We were on the way out of the hospital when she pointed out a man and said he’d been following us and that he’d been at the crime scene this afternoon.
As soon as I took care of it, she was gone. ”
“Why didn’t you call me immediately?” The rush of blood pounded in his ears.
“Because I was focused on trying to get us to the SUV, where I would have called you. I didn’t expect her to give me the slip.” Glover’s voice was hard.
“Okay.” Being angry with her wouldn’t help right now. “So she used the man as a distraction?”
“Yeah. He’s just some random bystander she chose to target.”
“Any idea why she gave you the slip?”
“None.”
“You said the slaughterhouse?” He knew where it was but wasn’t too familiar with the area yet.
“Yes. I’ll head toward Ashbend and set up a command center.”
“I’m on my way. I’ve got Kennedy working on pinging the girls’ phones. I’ll call and have her ping Sam’s just in case they move from there—”
“Hold on. You were stabbed.” Shock filled Glover’s voice. “Have you been stitched up? I’ll call for backup. We’ll handle this.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I know my girls are safe.” He ground his teeth.
“Don’t do anything stupid. We don’t need to worry about you while trying to rescue everyone.”
“Don’t try to stop me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Glover said in a wry voice.
Liam hung up, then found Sam’s number and called it. It rang a couple times and then went to voicemail. Her phone was on, but she’d chosen to ignore him.
He dialed Kennedy and told her to add Sam’s number to the ping list.
He tried Sam again. Same thing. A couple rings, then voicemail.
Lead filled his stomach. Why had she given Glover the slip, and why wasn’t she answering her phone?
His phone rang. The display on his dash flashed Kennedy at the Marshals’ office. “Tell me you got something.”
“I’m still not able to ping the girls’ phones, but that last number you gave me is on and tracking south on the highway toward Industrial Park Road.”
They had a current location, but was she actually headed to Ashbend? Liam wanted to believe that she’d told the truth and wasn’t causing some type of distraction so she could go out on her own to save the girls. “Would that take her to Ashbend Industrial Park?”
“That’s the most direct route, yes.”
Good. “Keep an eye on that phone, and let me know if it goes anywhere other than Ashbend. I’ll start heading that way.” Liam switched on his turn signal and busted a U-turn, then activated the lights and sirens.
What could the suspect possibly want with his niece and Sam and Bella? Dread filled his gut. “We need to find them.”
Sam had a twenty-minute head start on him.
He pushed the SUV harder. A lot could happen in twenty minutes.
All of it bad. His chest tightened at the thought.
Liam gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles were white.
He veered around cars that refused to yield to emergency lights or just stopped in the middle of the street instead of pulling to the right.
He slowed at intersections, making sure they yielded before speeding through. The last thing Sam and the girls needed was for him to be in a wreck and unable to make it to them. As it was, he wasn’t sure he would make it in time.
“Lord, please. I need them.”
He’d needed his fugitive apprehension job, and God had taken that away to give him this life. Would God allow him to lose Sam and Isabella—and Sophia? Liam had to trust, no matter what happened.
But he knew what he wanted.
He wasn’t sure where or when his relationship with Samantha and Isabella had changed from handler and witnesses to whatever it was now.
It had probably started the day of the shooting, if not way before that, but seeing Sam unconscious and vulnerable in that hospital bed had undone him. Knowing it was a targeted attack only made it worse, because he had no idea who wanted her and why.
If they made it through—no, when they made it through this, he would need to seriously consider whether he should continue to be their handler. But first, he had to find them.
He couldn’t bear the thought of losing them before he’d ever really had them. Sam had become so much more to him than just a witness.
And having to tell his sister that something had happened to Sophia would destroy them both.
His phone started to ring. Samantha’s name flashed on the dash. He pushed the Answer button. “Sam, where are you?”
“I just got to Ashbend Industrial Park. I’m sure Glover’s already told you, but someone has the girls. They told me to come alone.”
“You know it’s a trap. You need to wait for me. I’m ten minutes out.”
“That’s too long. What if something happens to them before you can get here? I’m going to go in and try to stall as long as I can.”
He gripped the steering wheel. “Why didn’t you just answer the phone and tell me where you were heading?”
“Because you’d tell me to stop. And I might have listened.” She hiccupped.
“I know me telling you not to go in won’t stop you but”—he had to try—“don’t go in. Sam, you need to wait for me.”
“You’re right. Saying that won’t stop me. I have to save the girls.”
“Please be careful. I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you.” He was admitting to so much right now.
The line was silent. The timer on the dash indicated the call was still connected. “Sam?”
“Liam.” Sam’s voice was filled with emotion. “I…I…feel the same. But we can’t lose the girls. I’ll be careful. You just get here.”