Page 88 of Sebastian

Gage clapped his hand on Seb’s shoulder and thankfully began to explain.

“I was on my morning run, and turned onto Main by the office. There was a still form down in a heap on the sidewalk. When I got closer I could see it was…” his voice caught, so he cleared his throat and continued. “I could see it was Emma.”

“What the fuck?” Stone said at the same time as Hawk asked, “What happened? Is she okay?”

“No. She’s not okay.” Gage cleared his throat again. “She’d been stabbed. Abdomen. It was precise enough to cause her to slowly bleed out. And her body was cut up, bad. She also had bruising along her neck.”

All three men sank into the chairs they’d been standing in front of.

“Jesus. What are the doctor’s saying?”

“We haven’t been updated yet.”

“Marco?” Stone asked.

Gage shrugged but Sebastian knew. “Yes. We need…we need to start hunting him. Tracker, I need you to look over everything from the last few days outside the office. Every minute of security footage needs to be looked over. Get the data from Natalie’s system too. Something isn’t adding up.”

“Yeah, Cap. I can do that. I’ll need to run and get my laptop, but I don’t want to be far from here in case there’s news.”

“Get your equipment. I’ll talk to the hospital administrators to see if we can set up in a conference room. And I’ll let you know if anyone tells us anything.”

* * *

“Where is she?!” Daisy’s shrill voice carried through the waiting area.

Seb stood and walked towards her. It had been over an hour since they’d brought Emma in, but no one had come out to update them on her condition.

“I’m her emergency contact. I have to see her. Is she okay? What happened?!”

“Sunshine,” Hank bristled, pulling her into his chest. “Let’s sit down and Sebastian can fill us in on what he knows. Being freaked out like this isn’t good for you or the baby.”

She pushed away from him, still keeping a hold of his hand.

“Hank, the baby is fine. I’m going to be upset. My best friend was attacked and is in the hospital. I’m freaked out! I don’t need to sit. I want answers.”

“We don’t know anything. No one has come out to update us yet,” Sebastian said.

“I don’t think you should be here.” Daisy’s eyes threw fire at Seb.

Sebastian nodded, lowering his head. “I’m not going anywhere,” he whispered.

She took several steps towards him, her finger jutting out to press aggressively into his chest. “You promised to keep her safe. You promised you’d protect her. And the first time she is stubborn and wants to do something you don’t agree with, you leave her vulnerable?”

“This is exactly why I didn’t want her to be in the middle of all this, Daisy. I was trying to honor her wishes, her autonomy, but I won’t ever forgive myself.”

“If she survives this, you better be there for her. You better tell her exactly how you feel about her.”

Fuck, he planned on it. And the truth speared him right through the heart. He loved her, and he hadn’t even fought against her stubbornness. He should have pushed harder. This was all his fault.

And now, would he ever even get the chance? Seb didn’t need to see the haunted look on the faces of the paramedics to know that they didn’t think she had good odds of coming out alive. But there was an ache in his chest that said she would. She was the strongest person he knew and he couldn’t start doubting that now.

“Daisy, you need to sit down.” Hank guided his wife to the chairs where his team was sitting. Walking back to Sebastian, Hank clasped his hand onto Seb’s shoulder. “What happened this morning?”

“Gage found her lying on the sidewalk outside my building on his run. There wasn’t anyone else around. I have him working through the security footage now, but if it was Marco, there’s a very good chance he would have either scouted where the cameras were ahead of time and avoided them, or disguised himself so no one could ID him off of anything captured.”

“Listen, we’ve already got an APB out on Marco, but I’ll touch base with my contact in the Rangers and see if they are able to lend us any resources. You need to get in touch with your contact in the FBI and do the same. I think we need to assume that if Emma comes out of this alive, and I fucking hope she does, she’ll still be a target. I’ll station a deputy to watch over her room and make sure he doesn’t try anything here.”

“I’ll also have one of my guys stay here with me the entire time. The rest of my team will be hunting Marco down.”

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