Page 76 of Rescuing Nathaniel

Slowing down, Nathaniel watched as the two men approached a large van parked just a little way down the street.

A white van.

Ava had been abducted the first time in a white van.

It wasn't possible … was it?

One easy way to find out.

If these two men were really just delivery people, they should have zero problems with what he was about to do.

“Hey,” he called out as he jogged down the sidewalk after them. “That looks heavy. Let me help you load it up into your van.”

Both men froze for a moment as he approached, then turned slowly to face him. Neither of them looked appreciative of his offer, and they quickly exchanged glances.

“No thank you, we have it under control,” the man without the blood on his face said. He had an accent. Mexican?

“I don’t mind helping,” Nathaniel said again, offering a warm, easy smile that he certainly didn't feel.

“Can't. Insurance purposes. You're not covered,” the man with the accent said as he stepped forward a little to block Nathaniel’s view of the other man.

Or to block his view of the trolley?

Then he noticed it.

A small lock of hair, barely noticeable where it peeped out between two blankets.

Ava.

Reaching for his weapon, Nathaniel was pulling it out when the man with the accent fired first.

Pain burned through his chest as he stumbled backward.

Vaguely, he was aware of shouts, of a car door slamming closed, of tires screeching.

He tried to move, tried to get his body to cooperate, to fire back at the kidnappers, to stop them, to save Ava from a hell she wouldn't survive a second time around.

But he couldn’t.

His vision went gray around the edges, and then black dots danced in front of his eyes.

Slumping down against the unforgiving sidewalk, Nathaniel was forced to confront the reality that he’d failed.

Ava was gone.

Then he succumbed to the darkness.

CHAPTER20

March 8th

4:03 P.M.

Her head pulsed with a headache.

That was the first thing Ava became aware of.

It seemed to throb in time with the beating of her heart, which was most disconcerting.

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