Page 30 of Kade

“You tell him we were this close to you.”

Then he was gone through another door on the opposite side of the wall, and Angel’s knees hit the floor. Sweet Mary Mother in Heaven.

Her son wasn’t dead.

Kade paced. Why wasn’t she back from radiology yet? Nikoli sat eating in one of the hospital chairs. Heclaimedhe hadn’t eaten all day. That was like Angel saying she skipped breakfast. All lies.

“Dude, calm the fuck down. She’s perfectly safe. They took her to do a repeat CT. All that pacing is making me dizzy.”

If that were true, why did he have this awful sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach? The same feeling he’d had when Boston’s serial killer had kidnapped her. He trusted his instincts more than he trusted his brother’s evaluation of the situation. Scans didn’t take thirty minutes.

He pulled his phone out just as it started to ring, and he jumped.

“Told you, man, calm the fuck down.” Nikoli shoveled more ravioli in his mouth.

“Fucker.” He shot his brother a glare and answered the phone. “Where are you?”

“We’re in radiology. You need to get your ass down here. There was an incident.”

“Incident?” He didn’t wait to explain to Nik as he tore out the door and headed for the elevator. “What floor?”

“Second. The nurse took her to CT and wouldn’t let me go in with her. I stayed right outside the door, but they were waiting on her in the room.”

His stomach bottomed out, and he felt sick. “Was she…is she…”

“She’s okay, but the nurse isn’t. They killed the girl in front of her and would have killed her if I hadn’t come in when I had. The guy took off.”

“Did you get the motherfucker?”

“No. I was afraid to give chase and leave her alone.”

“No, you were right. There could have been more waiting for you to leave. She’s okay?”

“The man put a gun to her head and said to tell you they were that close to her. She’s not all right, Kade. She’s in pretty bad shape, but she’s not physically hurt.”

Motherfucker! He slammed his fist into the wall of the elevator. How the fuck did they get that close?

“The police are on the way, and I’ve put off hospital security from questioning her, but the police are going to want a statement when they arrive.”

The elevator dinged, and he saw Watkins as soon as he stepped out. He was standing beside Angel, who stared listlessly at the wall. Alarm spread the longer he looked at her. Something was wrong, something more than seeing a woman killed right in front of her.

He dropped down on his knees and took her hands. “Angel?”

She didn’t move, only watched the wall.

“Moye serdste.” He reached up and took her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. Her eyes were tormented. “You’re okay, sweetheart. You’re safe.”

She opened her mouth to try to speak, but nothing came out. Angel wanted to tell him they had their son, but she couldn’t. If she said it out loud, it became real. Her baby boy was in the hands of monsters doing God knew what to him.

Security came back, asking the same questions, but no words came. She kept replaying the scene over and over in her head. Could she have done something to save the nurse? If she’d shouted, he would have killed them both straight away, and possibly Jasper.

No. She did the right thing. Angel felt bad for the nurse, but if she had died, Kade wouldn’t know about Matthew. She had to tell him. They had to go rescue their baby.

But still no words came.

The earth started to move. No, that wasn’t it. Kade was pushing the wheelchair. How did she get in another wheelchair? She couldn’t remember. Jasper was the likely culprit. Thedingof the elevator startled her enough to look up. Kade’s hand was stroking her hair, and Jasper stood stoic, his expression colder than she’d ever seen it before.

Pissed, that was the word she was looking for. Jasper looked pissed. Someone had gotten past him twice now. The first time he’d been trusted with her care was in Boston. It wasn’t his fault a crazy serial killer had taken her because he’d knocked out her brother-in-law and the rest of her guards with a paralytic. She’d just gone to the bathroom. Not Jasper’s fault. This time, she’d been escorted to radiology by a nurse. Jasper had no way of knowing Emilio would be waiting for her in the actual room with the scanner. A place Jasper wasn’t allowed to go.

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