Chapter 36
B eth choked on words that wouldn’t form.
Evangeline’s form vacillated in the doorway like an apparition, her face as white as the choir robes hanging on the rack. Blood as red as holly berries dripped from her bottom lip.
“What happened to?—?”
The question crystallized in Beth’s throat as Evangeline fell face-first into the room. Beth lunged to catch her. Her phone and purse slipped from her hands as she caught Evangeline by the shoulders and crumpled with her to the hardwood.
Organ music pounded in her head as she dragged Evangeline up. “What are you doing here? What happened to your face?”
Evangeline touched a fresh bruise on her cheek as she tugged Beth to the basement door. “You need to come with me.”
“Tell me what’s going on.” Beth pulled herself from Evangeline’s grip and bent to pick up her phone and purse. “You’re scaring me. ”
Tears ran down Evangeline’s cheek as she kicked Beth’s belongings under the choir robes. “You need to come. Please.”
“Why?” Beth burrowed her thin heels into the floor so hard they’d surely leave a mark. She opened her mouth to scream for Hudson.
Evangeline slapped a hand over Beth’s lips. “If you don’t come with me, the Diablos will kill me.”
The cartel name and the fear in Evangeline’s voice blasted a shiver down Beth’s spine. The basement door pushed open the rest of the way. A short man with a beard as thick as his body and biceps three times the size of Kane’s filled the frame.
“Both of you. Move.”
Cold sweat erupted on Beth’s forehead as she trained her gaze on the gun with the silencer attached to the barrel. If he shot it in here, nobody would hear it over the organ. “What is he talking about, Evangeline?”
“Please don’t hate me. I didn’t mean for it to go this far.” She eyed the medallion hanging around Beth’s neck. “They said they’d kill me if I didn’t help snatch you, so I put a tracker in your necklace.”
Beth yanked the medallion that burned like the devil away from her skin.
Biceps cocked his gun. “Move.”
A knock sounded on the door from the vestibule as the organ quieted. Biceps wrapped his beefy arm around Evangeline’s neck and ducked them into the basement shadows. “I can hear you through this door. Say a word and I shoot your friend and whoever walks in. And then I give the word to have your boss shot.”
No. She fought for air as the basement door closed and hope for Dr. Sable’s successful rescue sank to the basement. If she was still in the cartel’s clutches, where did that leave Kane?
“Miss Beth, the pastor said we need more crayons and?—”
Beth spun to Madalynn. “Go back to your seat, sweetie.”
Hudson poked his head in. “All good?”
“Yes.” She forced the word out along with her smile. “I’ll help Madalynn and be out in a minute.” The first notes of a Christmas hymn chimed through the vestibule as Madalynn rushed to her side. “Close the door so we can hear each other over the organ. It’s about to get louder.”
As Hudson shut them in, the basement door squeaked open. Beth shoved Madalynn behind her.
The child tugged at her sweater. “You said no hide-and-seek, but someone’s down there.”
The door didn’t open farther, but Beth caught the barrel of Biceps’s gun peeking through the slim gap. She grabbed a box of crayons from the shelf. “Take these out. I’ll meet you at the pew.” She bit her lip hard against the urge to scream for Hudson, but she couldn’t risk Madalynn, Dr. Sable’s, or even Evangeline’s life.
Madalynn stomped her foot. “I know you’re playing without me. Let me have fun too, or I’ll tell the pastor that you said the f -word when you lost last week.”
“Madalynn, please just listen for once.” This kid’s sass was going to be the death of them all. Literally, if she didn’t get out of here.
Or maybe not.
Beth reached behind her neck and undid the clasp on her necklace. The smooth metal felt like barbed wire as it slid through her fingers. She bent to Madalynn’s height. “You’re right. I am playing. Adults only.” She handed Madalynn the necklace and prayed that counting on an eight-year-old who always did the opposite of what she was instructed was a good plan. “I need you to hold on to that until I get back. It’s so sparkly that it could lead someone to me, even in the dark. And don’t tell anyone about this.” She lowered her voice. “It’s a top secret initiation for new members.”
Madalynn’s eyes widened. “Cool. More people to play. I promise I won’t tell.”
“Please tell the man outside that my parents called, and I’ll be another few minutes.”
As soon as the vestibule door shut behind Madalynn, the basement door opened. Biceps stepped into the light with Evangeline clutched in front of him.
Evangeline winced as he jammed the pistol into her temple. “Please, Beth. Just come.”
The rising notes of the organ muffled her last words. Beth took a deep breath and dragged herself to the threshold. Biceps yanked her through. As her boots dragged along the stone floor, he secured a heavy metal bar across the door.
Kane cursed as he jammed his finger into the end call button on the dashboard of Chris’s SUV. “Why the hell isn’t Beth picking up?”
Chris reached forward and hit Scarlett’s name on the display. She answered on the first ring.
“Where’s Beth?” Sweat poured from Kane’s brow as he tightened his fists.
“On the phone with Gran in the church office. Hudson just went to check on her.”
Relief inundated his system as the sound of an organ played in the background. “Put Gage on the phone.”
Muffled voices filtered over the line for a painful heartbeat.
“This is Gage. What’s wrong? ”
Kane relayed what he’d learned from Dr. Sable. “Find Beth.”
“I’m heading to the office now.”
Kane’s heart hammered his rib cage. Dammit, he was the one who was supposed to be in danger of dying, not her. He knew apprehending Chavez had been too easy. He should have locked her down at headquarters, but he wanted to make his sugarplum happy on Christmas Eve. Instead, he’d gotten her…
“Fuck.” Failure tasted like blood on his tongue as he thought about the unacceptable possibilities.
Gage cursed over the line agonizing seconds later. “She’s not there.”
Hudson clicked into the call. “There’s a door to the basement in the office. It was locked from the office side when she went in there. I checked. Now it’s barred from the basement side. We found her purse and phone on the floor. And blood.”
Kane slammed his palm onto his steel leg. He felt the impact in every fiber of his flesh-and-bone being. A lot of good his superpowers did Beth if she was missing. He connected with Nic and Linc through his mind comms. “Beth’s been taken.”
Linc cursed . “So has the Chavez we captured. Minutes after he woke up, a team of mercenaries busted him out of the hospital before he could be questioned. Nic is pulling up satellite feeds but isn’t having any luck. We’re fifteen minutes out from the church.”
“We’re one minute out,” Chris said.
Hang on, sugarplum. I’m coming for you. And when he found her, he wasn’t letting her go. Ever.