Page 80 of Rescuing Nathaniel

“Because I messed up. I thought she’d be safe if she stayed in her apartment. Her parents came over with some old guy called Bentley Jones.”

“She hates that guy, he gives her the creeps,” Chelsea inserted.

“Her parents wanted her to marry him as soon as she turned eighteen, but Ava had no intention of being a trophy wife,” Teresa added.

“I didn't grow up in a very good family. Domestic violence, alcoholism, eleven siblings, no money. Things were rough and I always planned to stay single. Until Ava anyway. But I guess I’m more affected by my past than I wanted to believe. When I saw her parents pushing so hard to get Ava to agree to be with the man they chose for her, and I realized everything he could give her that I couldn’t, I snapped. Then he was talking about a bracelet that was worth fifty thousand dollars, and I had to get out of there.”

“It was her grandmother’s,” Chelsea told him. “The bracelet. That’s why she loves it. It’s not that its worth a small fortune, it’s that it belonged to the only person in her family who actually loved her, who Ava loved back.”

Now he felt even worse about his freak out.

“So you threw a tantrum and stormed out?” Josiah asked, his voice cold and hard. Unyielding. Unforgiving.

“Pretty much. I was watching the building, saw that Jones guy leave, then her parents, realized I was being stupid, and decided to head back up and talk it out. But I was too late. Delivery guys were leaving as I crossed the street, and one of them looked like he had blood on his face. I thought it was weird. Followed them, offered to help, thought if they were real delivery guys they would appreciate it, if not then I’d handle it. I saw a lock of her hair. Ava’s. They had her hidden beneath the blankets they used to cover the furniture. They shot me before I could get my weapon. Now it’s too late. Ava is gone. They’ve had her for more than twelve hours already, she’s probably already dead.”

As much as he hated to think that much less say the words aloud, he had to face facts.

Reality was that Ava had cost these people a lot of money, they’d taken her back with a specific goal and purpose in mind. They weren't going to sit on this, they needed to act immediately to start recouping some of their losses.

“We don’t know that,” Chelsea immediately protested.

They didn't but it was a safe bet. If she wasn't she would be soon, and they had no idea where she’d been taken. She could be anywhere in the world by now.

“Maybe, but we have no leads, and no way of finding her before it’s too late.”

“Actually, we haven’t all been sleeping on the job after failing at is so spectacularly,” Josiah said, his tone still harsh.

“What do you mean?” Nathaniel asked.

“I mean that while we were sitting around waiting for you to wake up, we were also working. Some of us take our job seriously enough not to let our personal issues interfere with it,” Josiah snarked.

Given what Nathaniel knew about the former SEALs past and what had happened to him and the rest of his team, he highly doubted that Josiah Fleet did anything that wasn’t influenced by his past. But he wasn't going to argue about that right now. All he cared about was saving Ava, if that was even still on the table.

“One of the doctors that was IDed from the boat has a brother who works in pathology at the hospital where Ava was almost abducted,” Josiah informed him.

“So we have a link, that’s great, but it doesn’t tell us where Ava is right now.” That was all he cared about. As badly as he wanted the ring dismantled, finding Ava was his priority.

“That link doesn’t, but this one might.” Chelsea opened the laptop sitting on her lap and gently set it on his legs. She fiddled around with it for a moment and then looked at him expectantly.

“It’s a map,” he said, not sure what he was supposed to be seeing.

“It’s a map of clinics that their father used to own,” Teresa explained.

“And you think Ava could have been taken to one of the clinics.” That was all he needed to hear. Now he had to get the hell out of there, go find his girl, and pray she might be willing to give him a second chance.

If she was still alive.

CHAPTER21

March 9th

4:46 A.M.

There wasnothing to do but lie there and think.

About anything and everything.

The past, the present, and the future.

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