Page 58 of Byte

“Thank you, Detective Hayes. I appreciate the update.”

“I’ll be in touch,” he said. “Hopefully with better news than I had today.”

I dropped my head into my hands and groaned. There was nothing I could do except sit and wait for Lauren to resurface. Ihadn’t felt so helpless since before that fateful day when my life changed at the age of fourteen.

“What’s wrong?”Gabby asked when she got into my truck.

“What makes you think something’s wrong?”

“I’ve been around you every day for weeks now. I can tell,” she said.

“Detective Hayes called earlier today,” I started and filled her in on what he told me.

“I don’t understand how people can just disappear,” she said.

I did, but I kept that to myself.

“So, what do we do now?” she asked.

“The same thing we’ve been doing. We stay vigilant and wait.”

19

GABBY

Two weeks passed with no sign of Lauren or Chad, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Part of me was happy they weren’t bothering me, but the other part of me wanted the whole ordeal to be done and over with.

I shook my head and tried to clear them from my thoughts. I had one more patient to see before I was off for the next four days. Byte and I were planning on going up to Badger’s cabin for a long weekend, and I couldn’t wait.

“The last patient of the day is ready in room three,” Jan said.

“Thanks. I’ll go ahead and get started. Will you let Dr. Vaughn know?” I asked and opened the patient’s chart on my laptop.

“Sure. He’ll be right behind you.”

I knocked on the door and entered the room. “Hello, Ms. Watson. I’m Gabby, a nurse practitioner student working with Dr. Vaughn. What brings you in today?” I asked and almost dropped my computer when my eyes landed on Lauren. She was sitting on the exam table with a devious smile on her face, and a large gun in her hand.

“Yes, Gabby, I know who you are,” she said snidely.

I instinctively took a few steps away from her. “Don’t even think about it. Unless you want me to kill everyone in this building, you’ll keep your mouth shut and do as I say.”

“What do you want?”

“I want what’s rightfully mine,” she said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Before she could respond, Patch knocked once on the door and entered the room. “Hello, Ms. Watson. I’m Dr. Vaughn. I see you’ve already met Gabby.”

“Yes, I have,” she gritted out.

At her tone, Patch looked up from the computer screen and noticed the gun in her hand. “What’s going on here?”

Lauren rolled her eyes dramatically. “I thought doctors were supposed to be smart. Isn’t it obvious?”

“Sorry. This is my first time being held at gunpoint at my place of business.”

“I want you to send everyone home,” she instructed. “And don’t even think about trying to alert anyone.”

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