Page 30 of Fractured Memories

“Yes. She’s with your aunt in a classroom down the hall.”

Felicity touched Noah’s arm briefly. “I’m going to view the security feed from the last few days. The killer scrambled the video today, but whoever is behind this had to stake out the church beforehand.”

Grady pointed to a small room near the entrance. “In there.”

Felicity nodded. The electronics room was small, but ruthlessly organized. A security guard watched a live video feed of the parking lot. He glanced up as she camein and she flashed her badge. “I’d like to review the video from the last several days.”

Fifteen minutes later, she was scrolling through footage from an hour before the kidnapping. The security guard requested to get a cup of coffee and disappeared from the room. Felicity barely heard the door click behind him. Her gaze was locked on the screen, watching parishioners arrive for church service.

She spotted Imogene in a pantsuit with Amber. The teen had pulled her hair back in a braid. Harper was nestled between them, cute as a button in a frilly white dress and Mary Jane shoes. Felicity’s chest tightened, but she shuttered the emotions. No good would come by falling apart.

She kept moving the tape forward. About fifteen minutes before the kidnapping, the screen became static. That must’ve been when the kidnapper started scrambling the feed. But no one had recently arrived in the parking lot.

The kidnapper had already been in the building.

Felicity rolled the tape back and, this time, watched every single parishioner as they walked through the parking lot. Her heart skipped a beat as a familiar individual stepped out of an old Chevy truck parked close to the alley.

No. It couldn’t be.

Her cell phone rang. The number on screen wasn’t familiar. Still, Felicity answered while searching for a way to zoom in on the individual in the footage. She had to be sure before telling Grady and Noah. Sending themdown a rabbit hole could cost Harper her life. “Ranger Capshaw.”

“You’ve got two minutes to do exactly as I say, or the little girl dies.”

Felicity’s muscles froze. The voice on the phone was muffled and distinctly male. “Daniel?”

“Who I am doesn’t matter. Your actions do. We’re down to one minute, thirty seconds.”

She whirled out of the chair and went to the door. Stuck her head out. No one was in the hallway or at the temporary command center. “How do I know you have Harper?”

Her phone dinged with a text message. A video. Felicity quickly pulled it up. Harper lay on a beige carpet. She was unconscious, but her chest was moving. Alive. Relief was short-lived though. She pressed the phone to her ear. Anger colored her words. A deep-seated rage Felicity hadn’t known she was capable of. “Don’t you dare hurt Harper.”

“Don’t make me. There’s a truck at the edge of the church parking lot. Keys are in the cup holder, instructions taped to the visor. Leave your cell phone and slip away without anyone noticing.” His tone was hostile and chilling. “Be careful, Felicity. If I suspect you’ve disobeyed my orders, I will slice this little girl’s throat.”

The threat was real. Felicity felt it in her bones.

“Thirty seconds. I’ve tapped into the church security feed and I’ll know if you try to trick me.”

She had no way of knowing if that claim was true. Felicity couldn't draw in a full breath. “If you doanything to Harper, I will hunt you to the end of the earth.”

“You control her fate. If I were you, I’d get a move on.”

Her phone dinged with another message. A photo. Harper was still sleeping on the same beige carpet, but a hunting knife pressed against the smooth column of her sweet throat. Felicity literally saw red. She clenched her teeth. “I’ll do as you say.”

“Hurry up. Twenty seconds.”

TWENTY-TWO

It was his worst nightmare.

Noah had a stranglehold on his emotions, but barely. It seemed bizarre that less than half an hour ago, he and Felicity were declaring their feelings for each other. Now the family he’d started to envision was in danger. His little girl—his baby—had been kidnapped.

“I’m so sorry.” The volunteer teacher, a grandmother named Barbara Flanagan, twisted tissues in her wrinkled hands. Her gray hair was speckled with blood from a wound on her forehead, and a small lump was forming. Her skin was turning black and blue at an alarming rate. “One minute, Harper and I were entering the bathroom, and the next, I was on the floor.”

Imogene wrapped a set of paper towels around an ice pack and pressed it to Barbara’s head. “It’s not your fault.” She gave Noah a beseeching look that was filled with heartbreak. “No one blames you.”

“Of course not.” Noah caught Tucker’s eye. Thedetective had initially interviewed Mrs. Flanagan and was currently coordinating a more thorough search for Harper with Grady. “Get some paramedics in here.”

“No, I don’t want?—”

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