He wanted to call Calvin, find out the status on Simon Norville. It bothered him, the timing of his escape and the kidnapping of Gracie. Cassandra and Jesse had to have been watching him almost twenty-four hours a day in order to know about his connection with Gracie. Connection—ha! He’d finally admitted to himself that he was head over heels, deeply and completely in love with the feisty woman. Finding her now, falling hard and fast, made him vulnerable. He prayed Gracie didn’t pay the price for his past choices.
“We heard. I called Joaquim Alvarez and he’s headed to the parking lot where you’re supposed to meet the cousins. He’s your backup until we get there.” Rafe was following close behind Nick, and Shiloh manned the GPS tracker they’d attached to Nick’s rental. He almost laughed at the thought there were two trackers monitoring him. Made him feel all warm and fuzzy.
But all he could think about was Gracie. How scared she must be at the mercy of people she didn’t know. People who’d dragged her from her own shop at gunpoint, and it was his fault. If she hadn’t met him, hadn’t become important to him, she’d be living her life without the danger of being involved with him.
“You know Gracie’s okay.” Douglas had refused to stay behind in Shiloh Springs. He’d climbed into the back of Rafe’s car amidst protests, simply crossing his arms over his chest. Which made three people besides him, and now Joaquim Alvarez, who were going to save Gracie. There was no try in this equation, there was no fail. Theyweregoing to save her. “I can’t see this meeting, hostage exchange, whatever we’re calling it to take place in a public parking lot, do you?”
“Not a chance. Too many potential witnesses. I’ll probably have to go on foot to another location.”
“Listen to me, Nick. You are not, I repeat not, to leave the parking area until we’ve arrived. Don’t even think about heading out without backup. Am I understood?” Antonio had been the fourth party to pile into Rafe’s car, claiming he had a right to be there. He overrode Nick’s objection. “Besides, Rafe’s outside his jurisdiction, he can’t arrest anybody. But I’m FBI, I can.”
“Antonio, they are tracking the car. They’ll know exactly when I arrive. I doubt they’re going to let me sit around and wait for you to back me up. When I get the instructions, I’m following them. I’ll have to leave this burner behind, because they’ll suspect something if I’m carrying two phones.”
“We’re not far behind you, but I don’t want to get too close. If they’ve been surveilling you, which we suspect, they’ll know what we all look like.” Trust Shiloh to state the obvious, Nick thought.
“Gracie has to come first. As long as we’re all on the same page.”
“Nick, getting her back is our top priority, you know that. But you’re just as important. Have you heard anything from your boss about Norville, whether they’ve caught him?”
“I’m going to call him again, Rafe. Hang on.”
Nick knew he was taking a chance calling Grant now, but he still had at least ten or fifteen minutes before he reached his destination and he doubted Cassandra would call back before they knew he’d arrived. Quickly dialing, he counted the rings, his heartbeat speeding up. If he didn’t answer, that meant Grant was still on the hunt. They couldn’t let Norville get out of the hospital. If he managed to make it off RMH property, chances were one hundred percent that he’d disappear.
“Nick,” gave Calvin’s voice after the fifth ring, shuddering and out of breath. He heard the older man gasping for air. “Nick, we got him!”
“How? Where?”
“He was on the roof. His niece, Alexandra Bishop, helped him get out of the room and into the elevator to the roof before the hospital lockdown.” Calvin sucked in another deep breath, huffing and puffing. “She rolled his specialized power standing wheelchair right past everybody. The nurses’ station, the security guard, everybody. You know the one, the custom-built wheelchair with all the state-of-the-art bells and whistles. Even has the ability to climb up and down stairs. How nobody saw that monstrosity and didn’t say a word is beyond me. But she got him strapped in and to the roof.”
Nick rubbed a hand over his face, and glanced at the clock on the dashboard. Less than ten minutes to his destination. He needed to pay attention because he wasn’t familiar with the Riverwalk area of San Antonio, having never been there before.
“How’d she think she was getting him off the roof?”
“Here’s the beauty of the plan. Norville wasn’t really in a coma. Alexandra was allowed in to see him once every hour and she brought a small laptop into his room. He was able to contact an air ambulance company to schedule a pickup, using the hospital’s connectivity and made it look like the hospital had set up the transfer. All they needed was for the helicopter to show up and then force it to land wherever Alexandra told them to. It was a brilliant plan actually. Would probably have worked too, if the winds hadn’t kicked up. Hospital was contacted by the copter pilot, telling them they’d be delayed because of high winds. When the hospital couldn’t find evidence of a scheduled patient transfer, they alerted security. When Norville’s escape was discovered, somebody finally put two and two together, and we got to the roof. The rest as they say is history. This one’s in the books.”
Nick heard soft voices coming from the other phone. He’d forgotten they could hear everything Calvin said. Oh, well, saved him from having to repeat it all again.
“They’re in custody?”
“Yeah. Norville has been transported back to the prison, and he’ll be heading straight back to solitary. Alexandra has been taken into custody and is headed for booking. Let me tell you, she is one ice cold piece of work, she is.”
“Good job, boss. I’ve got to go. I’ll let you know what happens with the cousins as soon as I can.”
“Wait, Nick. How’s your girl, what’s her name, Gracie?”
“Can’t talk, gotta go.” Nick disconnected quickly. He didn’t have time to tell Calvin everything that was happening now; he was almost at the meeting point. Now that Norville and Alexandra were in custody, he needed to get to Gracie. Hopefully Cassandra and Jesse hadn’t heard the news yet that their uncle was back in custody. He wanted to keep that little nugget of information until he could use it to its best advantage.
“That’s good news about Norville. Now let’s get the rest of this thing wrapped up and bring Gracie home.”
“I will, Douglas. I will.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Gracie yanked herarm free from Jesse’s heavy grasp. “I can walk; you don’t have to manhandle me.”
They’d pulled into the driveway of a modest ranch house in a modest section of town, about five minutes or so from the busiest tourist section of the Riverwalk. The homes were all basically the same, one of the subdivisions where everything was cookie cutter and alike, nothing remarkable to make it stand out. The neighborhood was vaguely familiar, but not someplace she’d spent a lot of time before. Didn’t matter, if she got the chance, she’d run. Somebody had to be home in one of these houses, even if there were no cars parked in the drives. They were probably in the garages, which each home sported.
His vice-like grip fastened on her wrist again, and she knew he wasn’t about to budge. “Like I’m gonna trust you. Let’s go.” Frogmarching her through the front door that Cassandra had unlocked, he slammed it behind him before finally releasing her.
