Page 77 of Guarded Hearts

“When my house in Martha’s Vineyard was finished…” He spread his hands to encompass the room. “I bought another for you to fill with your treasures.”

“I want to leave. Please let me leave!”

His stare pinned her in place, as if she weren’t already tied to the bed and at his mercy. One plunge of that syringe into the IV feeding into her arm and she’d be knocked out again. Then god only knew what he’d do to her.

“I’m no longer your client, Layne.”

“I still don’t want to date you!”

The smile he gave her was chilling. Completely insane. “That’s why I’m going to keep you here with me, Layne. You belong to me.”

* * * * *

Carson dug his fingers into each side of his head. “Get me the surgeon’s address. If he can practice out of this hospital, he can’t be far.”

Oaks’s phone was already in his hand. He brought it to his ear and began firing off orders to someone on the other end.

Carson tuned him out. Five steps away, a security officer had ten screens up and flipped through security footage.

Carson stabbed a finger at the monitor. On the screen, a man of medium height was wheeling a hospital bed down a corridor. “This. Right here. Where is that?”

The security officer twisted her head toward Carson but didn’t meet his gaze. He got it—he intimidated people. He also didn’t give a damn.

“It’s the basement. The hallway by the morgue.”

Terror shot a bullet to the heart. “No. I refuse to believe he took her to the morgue. Find more footage!”

When the woman didn’t respond fast enough, he barked, “Now, goddammit!”

An arm banded around his chest and shoulders. Oaks shoved him back a step away from the desk.

His brother wasn’t strong enough to push Carson around, but he allowed the liberty—for now.

Oaks got in his face. “Calm down. You’re not helping matters here.”

He was losing his goddamn mind. “Where the hell did he take her? I’m going to fucking kill him when I find him!”

“And I’ll help you, brother,” he said in a low oath that only Carson could hear. “Let the security officer do her job. I’m searching for an address, and we’re close to finding out where he took her. The hospital is locked down, being searched from top to bottom.”

He knew in his bones that Layne wasn’t nearby. Hadn’t he always known when she needed him? Past, present or future, he was linked to the woman he loved in this way.

“She’s not in the building.” The statement came out flat but with total conviction.

She needed him.

“I have to get to her.”

“I know you do. We’ll find her. Just hang on another min—”

The security officer whirled her desk chair, eyes wide. Carson stepped around Oaks and leaned in to stare at the spot on the monitor she pointed at.

“He wheeled her to an exit from the basement and carried her out in his arms.”

“Goddammit!” As he watched the recorded footage, he wanted to bash his fist through the image to shatter it. The action wouldn’t ease the pounding need to crush each and every one of the surgeon’s bones, but it would ease him for a minute or two. They’d already wasted precious time searching the hospital for Layne and watching that footage to tell him what he already knew: Patel took her away from him.

Oaks gripped Carson by the shoulder and spun him away again. “We know which direction they went.”

Oaks’s phone pinged. He looked down at the screen. “The hospital just got us Patel’s address. Let’s get out of here.”

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