Nearly breathless, he braced his hands on the desk. “Are you sure? Where is she?”
“We found a bed for her on the next floor down, in the—”
Before she could even finish the sentence, Jacob was running toward the open elevator doors.
Riley called after him. “I can call down to the nurses’ station for you—”
But he was already pushing buttons. Riley picked up the phone anyway and called down.
By the time they’d found Jacob downstairs, he was banging an impatient hand on the nursing supervisor’s desk as she pointed down the hall to a closed door.
He burst through the door of the room where Aubrey was sleeping. She shot up in bed, eyes wide with surprise. “Jacob! Wha—?”
Jacob sagged with relief at the door before sitting down beside her on the bed. “Thank God.”
“What’s wrong? Are you all right? You’re…you’re scaring me.”
“I couldn’t find you,” he said, gathering his breath. “I needed to find you.” He took her hand.
“You knew they were letting me rest here.”
“Yeah, I knew. But…listen to me. Something happened.”
“What?”
“Emma’s house. Your house—”
“What about it?” She squeezed his hand now, looking scared, too.
“Someone…someone tore it apart. It’s a mess. There’s stuff everywhere.”
“Wait, what?”
“I don’t think it’s a simple robbery. That would be a big freakin’ coincidence. They didn’t even take the usual stuff. TVs. Computers—”
“Oh my God.”
“—jewelry, even. It was all there. I don’t know what they took or what they were looking for. Your room was tossed, too. I mean, it’s bad. Winston’s still there,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “Looks like these freaks actually fed him, too.”
“What?”
“Yeah, there was a pile of dry food on the floor. A fresh bowl of water. No way he got that food out of that closed Tupperware thing by himself.”
Emma slid a look at Connor, who shrugged.
“Winston,” Aubrey breathed. “I forgot all about him in this craziness. Was he okay?”
“Freaked out, but yeah. Okay. But the house, Aubrey. It just proves that what happened to Emma was no accident. Someone is after her. After something she has.”
“Did you call the police?”
He shook his head. “I had this feeling, this panic that whoever is after her might hurt you.”
“Why would they? I have nothing.”
“Anyway, I’m calling the police,” he said, pulling his phone from his pocket. “And I’m going to get them to send someone over here.”
“Do you think Emma’s still in danger?”
