Chapter 19 #2
That wasn’t the way to form a strong relationship. Something she was determined to change in the future.
They stopped at security in the hospital. The security guard handed them a bin. “Put your purse and anything in your pockets in this.” She dropped her purse in, then placed her inhaler beside it and stepped through the security arch. “You’re clear.”
She gathered her possessions while Jackson repeated the process.
“We need to take the elevator to the second floor.” Jackson hit the up arrow.
When they arrived on the floor, they walked without talking past the nurses’ station.
Three nurses and an intern conferenced, holding clipboards in their hands.
Mia expected one of them to ask her and Jackson what their business was. No one did.
Reggie’s room was four doors past the station.
Jackson knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Jackson’s eyebrows rose. “That’s Mark’s voice.”
Mia followed Jackson into the room. Officer Mark Ortiz stood near the bed.
At first, she thought Reggie was asleep.
Then his lids lifted. If she hadn’t known it was him, she wouldn’t have recognized the young man lying on the bed.
She’d never seen him so still. His dark eyes were heavy with pain, their lids swollen.
Because of weeping? She could see recent tears drying on his cheeks.
His dark hair, normally worn long, had been shaved. She saw stitches on his head.
She hadn’t known he’d cut his head. It must have been dry when he arrived at her house. Head wounds tended to bleed profusely when they were fresh. She knew that from experience. She’d once fallen and ended up with a nasty wound when she was fifteen during cheer practice.
When Reggie saw her, fresh tears streamed down his face. Mia hurried to his side and took his hand.
“Are you in pain?” she asked, sympathy squeezing her heart.
“No.” He gulped. “My mom…this cop told me my mom was shot. Someone came looking for the drugs hidden in my room, and they shot my mom.”
Mia closed her lips around a gasp. By his own words, Reggie admitted that he knew there were drugs in his room. She had hoped that maybe the drugs had been planted.
Jackson stepped forward. “Hey, kid,” he said softly. “Can you tell us anything about what happened?”
“You want to know about Dylan, don’t you?” Reggie asked.
Jackson nodded. “I think we all need to know everything. Can you tell us the whole story?”
Reggie gulped again.
Mark nudged him. “Let’s start with this. Where did you get the drugs, son?”
“My football coach, sir.”
Mia’s hand flew to her mouth. “Coach Simmons?”
Reggie nodded. “Yeah. I guess you know him.”
“I do.” She’d thought she had anyway. Phil Simmons had asked her out on a date last year. Mia had said no, and they’d remained casual acquaintances. But she’d never seen anything in him that raised red flags.
“He told me he’d kick me off the team if I didn’t sell for him, and I need to play football—it’s the only way I have a shot at any kind of scholarship to go to college.
I have to go to college. I have to get a good job so I can get my mom out of that house and move her to a nicer neighborhood.
My mom works really hard. She has two jobs. That’s not right.”
Mark cleared his throat. “Okay. What happened next?”
“Well, we had this summer camp we went to. Miss Turner had this flyer, and it said it was some kind of survival course. Dylan and I talked about it, and we both thought it would be fun. My mom said it was okay. Dylan’s foster mom was hesitant, but Mr. Reese told him he needed to go—almost pushed Dylan to go. ”
Mia hadn’t known that. It struck her as odd that he’d be that interested in Dylan going to the camp. But she’d never met Cynthia’s husband.
“One of the guys there was someone I knew from dealing drugs. I—I’m sorry, Miss Turner.
I know you had nothing to do with those people, but I really didn’t think it was a good place.
But I couldn’t leave. When he saw me there, he threatened me and said he knew where I lived and I better not say anything.
I thought he was recruiting more dealers. ”
Mark pulled up a photo on his phone. It was the man who’d been shot in the woods. “This him?”
Reggie looked at the picture and then flinched away. “That’s him.”
“He can’t bother you anymore. What happened after that?”
“After I got back from camp, Dylan came into my house one day and saw that I had drugs. He tried to convince me I needed to get out of it.”
“Did you really go camping?” Jackson asked him.
Mia frowned. They’d found the campsite. What was he really asking?
“Yeah, we went camping,” Reggie said. “I wasn’t trying to get Dylan in trouble or nothing. Dylan tried to convince me to give up the drugs. We were only there that one night. Dylan was really upset.”
Mia nodded, her mind working through what she knew. “Jackson, was that the day of the hearing?”
Jackson rubbed the back of his neck. “It was.”
“The next day, when we were getting ready to leave, a couple guys showed up and attacked us. We fought real hard—I even hit one with my hunting knife. He bled a little. But they still put us into their truck and took us to this building. It was cold and smelled funny.”
Jackson’s head lifted. “Dylan texted Cynthia. Said he was safe.”
“That was them. They sent texts so our parents wouldn’t report us missing.”
Mia pressed her lips together, holding in her angry words.
“There were a bunch of people there—mostly kids like us—being kept in cages. That girl Zoe, from camp, from the other high school, she was there too.
“Last night, when they were letting us out, they forgot to lock the door on the cage they kept me in. I couldn’t get the other cages unlocked.
Dylan told me I needed to run and warn people.
As I was sneaking out, I heard a couple of the guards talking.
They said that in thirty-six hours, everybody was going to be shipped out of the country. ”
Mia clenched her hands on the railing at his bedside. Jackson’s face went ashen.
Mark said, “You’re doing great, kid. What else did they say?”
Reggie looked right at Mia. “They were talking about you, Miss Turner. They said you were causing problems for the boss and needed to be taken care of—that it had to look like an accident.”
She blinked. Then she understood. “I’d been asking questions about the foundation.”
Jackson shook his head. “So that’s why.”
Mia looked at him, confused. “Why what?”
“I wondered why two women who resembled you were attacked. Remember, one was close to your aunt’s house. They must have gone after those women thinking they were you.”
She shivered.
Reggie looked at Jackson. “I did hear them say something about the boss being so mad at their mistakes.”
Jackson nodded.
Reggie spoke again. “Dylan’s okay, sir. But he’s scared. They’re all real scared.”
Mark nodded. “Reggie, how did you end up getting shot?”
“I was in the cage next to the one Dylan was in. I got out as soon as I knew it wasn’t locked. But before I could get any of the other cages open, I heard them come back.” He dropped his eyes. “I should have stayed, Jackson. Dylan told me to get help, but I don’t know if I did the right thing.”
“Reggie.” Mia spoke up. He looked at her. She spoke around the rage burning her throat. “If you hadn’t left, we’d have no idea about any of this. Right now, you are the only link we have to finding Dylan and the others.”
“She’s right,” Jackson affirmed, his voice rough.
Reggie swiped at his eyes. “I tried to sneak out, but I knocked a bottle over. It broke. I ran—the door was unlocked, they chased me. One of them shot me. I don’t know which one.
When I looked back, I saw I was in some kind of abandoned building.
Like a warehouse. It was near the woods where we camped. ”
Mia crossed an arm over her stomach. They finally had a break.
“I need you to work with someone who does drawings,” Mark said, “to see if we can get an image of the men who took you. And if I get you a map of the area, maybe you can help me by pointing out familiar landscapes or things that might help us find and rescue those kids.”
Jackson took Mia’s hand and held tight. “Reggie, you said Dylan was okay. Have they hurt him?”
“He’s a little bruised, but otherwise, he’s okay.” Reggie opened his mouth to speak, but a loud yawn emerged instead. He shook out of it. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine, Reggie. You’ve been through a lot,” Jackson murmured.
Reggie rubbed his face. “So tired.”
Reggie’s eyelids fluttered. Soon he fell asleep. Mark sighed. “The nurse warned me he’d recently had his pain medication and it would make him sleepy.”
Jackson’s hand tightened painfully on hers. She winced.
“We’ll keep looking,” Jackson said. “Mark, can you let me know if you hear anything more?”
“If I can, I will.” He walked over to them. “Dylan’s out there, Jackson. You know he’s alive. And now that the department knows we’re dealing with more than a couple of runaways, I’m sure this will become a priority.”
“Thanks, Mark.”
Mia waved at Mark and left the room with Jackson. She looked at Jackson’s face. His jaw had hardened, like it was carved in granite. “Jackson? What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I won’t stop until I find my brother and the other kids and bring them home. I’m going to take some time off work. Trent said I can have some time since I have a lot of vacation accrued. I’m going to take him up on it and not return until I find them.”