“How long were you unconscious?”Rafe asked, crouching down to examine Dusty’s pupils with a small flashlight.In the back of his mind, Gabe knew he should be the one checking Dusty out medically.He was the doctor in the room.Instead, he stood frozen, his only thoughts of Nica in the hands of a man who hated him.
“Not sure.I can guess, based on when Gabe called until now; maybe twenty minutes.”Dusty’s voice was slurred slightly; he probably had a concussion.“But I remember Banner saying something to his men before I went under.He told them not to hurt her, to be very gentle.Said she was fragile.”
The words should have been reassuring, but they sent ice through Gabriel’s veins instead.Banner’s obsession with gaining a twisted form of revenge for Melissa meant he saw Nica as the perfect way to destroy Gabe—and he was right—if he lost Nica, he knew his tenuous hold on his sanity would snap.In an odd way, he now understood Banner’s hurt at the loss of his fiancée.Because the thought of losing Nica…He couldn’t go there now.Right now, the only thing that mattered was finding her and bringing her home.
“This is my fault,” Gabe said, the words tasting like ash in his mouth.He turned away from the others, staring out the hospital room window at the bright afternoon sky.“It was my idea to set the trap.”
“Gabe—” Mike started, but Gabe cut him off.
“No.I thought I was so clever.I knew Banner had to have someone feeding him information from inside the hospital—someone at the staff meeting who would report back everything I said and did.I put on a show.Made myself look like I was finally cracking under the pressure of everything Banner’s thrown at me.Losing my professional composure, becoming unstable and irrational.”His voice was bitter with self-recrimination.“I knew Banner wouldn’t be able to resist seeing me fall apart up close.He’d want to gloat, rub salt in the wound.”
“You didn’t make the decision alone, Gabe.We all agreed it was a good way of drawing Banner out.If I thought otherwise, I’d never let you do it, not for one second if I thought it would put Nica in danger.She was watched twenty-four/seven.Dusty is an excellent deputy, but sometimes no matter how many precautions we take, it’s not enough.You had no way of knowing Banner was already in Shiloh Springs when you executed your plan, that was something none of us anticipated.”Rafe stepped up beside Gabe and put his hand on his shoulder.“We’ll find her.”
Gabe shrugged off his hand, his eyes blazing with guilt and fury.“I thought if we could draw him out, we could take him and end this nightmare.You both went along with it—even though it was my idea—letting me act like I’d snapped at the meeting, then having me make a scene at the coffee shop, even staging that arrest at the jail to make it look like I’d completely lost it.”
“And Banner didn’t show,” Rafe said quietly, understanding dawning in his expression.
“He showed, we just didn’t see him.All of this could have been over if we’d simply known he was in Shiloh Springs.Instead, we thought we were so smart, thinking he was in Houston and we’d simply waltz into his hotel room and grab him without a single problem.”Gabe walked across the room, pulling back the curtain blocking the view of outside.He studied the parking lot before turning back around.“He’s smarter than I gave him credit for.While we were playing our elaborate game, he managed to be one step ahead, like always.Went after the one thing I care about more than my own life.”Gabe’s voice cracked.“He took Nica.”Gabe ran a hand through his hair, mussing it further.“Why am I surprised?He claimed he’d hurt me through Nica and that’s exactly what he’s done.Over and over, he’s claimed he’d destroy me by taking from me what I took from him—and that’s exactly what he did.He took my heart and soul, ripped it from my chest when he took Nica.”
Mike stepped forward, his expression grim but determined.“We’re going to find her, Gabe.But first, we need to get Dusty to the ER and—”
“No.”Gabe was already moving toward the door.“I need to check something first.Rafe, can you take Dusty to the nurses’ station?Make sure they do a CT scan for head trauma.”
As Dusty nodded shakily, Rafe helped him to his feet, heading toward the door.Gabe was right behind them, heading for the elevator.His mind was racing through the implications of what he’d learned in the brief conversation with Nica’s nurse earlier—information that made finding her not just urgent, but a matter of life and death.
The doors opened on the first floor, and Gabe raced down a hall past the reception area to his office.Unlocking it, he raced around the desk, to his computer.His fingers flew over the computer keyboard as he pulled up Nica’s latest lab results.What he saw made his blood run cold.A sudden weariness came over him and he collapsed onto his chair.
It wasn’t more than a couple of minutes before Mike and Rafe found him.“Her white count is extremely elevated, temperature spiked to 102.2 this morning.She’s developed a post-surgical infection.”
Rafe frowned.“That’s treatable, right?”
“If caught early, yes.The good news is that she’s been on an antibiotic after the surgery.It’s something that’s always done to help prevent infection.They did a culture of the surgical incision this morning, but those results aren’t back yet.They usually take twenty-four to forty-eight hours.Depending on the type of bacterial infection, she could go into septic shock.Without immediate intervention with broad-spectrum antibiotics, she will continue to get worse.She could—” He broke off, unable to say the words, but it was clear from Rafe and Mike’s expression they understood what he hadn’t said.Without strong antibiotics, she could die.
The three men were silent for a long moment, the weight of the situation settling over them like a suffocating blanket.
“We need to find her now,” Mike said.“Any ideas where Banner might take her?”Gabe watched his friend, saw him change from the cool and collected FBI agent he knew to a predator, ready to hunt for his prey—and Banner was his target.“Somewhere isolated, where he can control the situation.Somewhere he feels safe to…” He couldn’t finish the sentence.
Rafe pulled out his phone.“I’m calling in some favors.Got a buddy in the state police who can run Banner’s known associates, any properties connected to him or his organization.”
“He’s not going to be someplace where he owns the property.That’ll be too easy to trace.”Mike started counting off on his fingers.“Not in Shiloh Springs, too many people would recognize Nica.Someplace close, maybe a town that borders here.A rental property, either a house or a large property that won’t have close neighbors.Any rentals of ranches, farms, maybe office space or warehouses.”
Twenty minutes later, they had their answer.
“Warehouse complex in Santa Lucia,” Rafe announced, looking up from his phone.“One of Banner’s shell companies recently rented it for commercial use—it was a used textile plant before it went under.Perfect place to hold someone without being disturbed.”
Gabe was already heading for the parking garage.“How far?”
“Forty minutes if we push it,” Rafe called after him.“But Gabe, we need to call for backup.We can’t go in there alone.You know we’ll be walking into an ambush.”
Gabriel stopped, his hand on the handle of the front door.Every instinct screamed at him to get in his car and drive like a maniac to get to Nica, but he knew Rafe was right.They needed a plan.But every minute counted, every second ticking like a doomsday clock while his precious Nica was in the hands of the man who wanted her dead.
“How long for backup to get organized?”
“At least an hour, maybe more for a coordinated response.”Rafe answered before Mike had the chance.“I might be able to shave a few minutes off that; I’ll round up every local officer, get things started.”
“She doesn’t have an hour.”Gabe’s voice was flat, deadly calm.“Every minute we waste, that infection is spreading through her system.I’m going now.”
“Then we’re all going,” Rafe said simply.“But we do this smart.Mike, what kind of resources can you get us quickly?”
