Page 14 of Save Her Life

“I’m sorry I keep hanging up on you. It’s just that…”

The silence had worked to make Gavin think on his actions. He also sounded more tired than before. All of this was good. “You must be processing a lot in there, Gavin. How are you doing?”

“I’m tired. I… I didn’t want to do this, but I didn’t have a choice.”

From the sound of it, the passing time poked his conscience too. Another positive takeaway. She still wasn’t going to let her guard down and assume he was weakening though. In fact, his repeated claim was striking her as disingenuous and had her wondering if he had hurt someone. “You didn’t have a choice about what, Gavin?”

“I just wanted the meds.” He sniffled.

His avoidance was reassuring. There was most definitely more that he wasn’t telling her, but calling him out would be counterproductive. “You sound like you never meant for things to get to this point.”

“I told you that. They refused to give me my meds.”

“Help me understand. Why did they turn you away?”

“It was my insurance. It should have covered them still, but they said it was canceled. They must be lying, but I don’t have the money to pay out of pock?—”

Ray passed her a note that read,Lost his job?

There was scuffling in the background, and the sounds of a tussle.

Sandra looked at Ray. “Gavin, can you tell me what’s going on?”

The line cut out.

She slapped her headset down.

The door to the command vehicle opened, and Bowen walked in. His gaze traveled from her workspace to her eyes. “I take it things aren’t going well on the negotiation front?”

He had an uncanny ability of showing up at the most inopportune time. “It’s the long game,” she said.

“Uh-huh. Just how long do we have to sit around?”

Bowen was clearly bitter about the chief siding with her, and the team coordinator was really reminding her of her ex, Olivia’s father. Nolan Copeland worked with the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, or HRT, and that unit was mission-based, full-time, and focused on counterterrorism. They were the brawn to the CNU’s diplomatic approach. While the CNU’s motto boiled down to resolution through dialogue, the HRT’s was simply to save lives. It sounded noble and could be, but in saving lives, there were often casualties. Nolan didn’t like being overruled either. “As long as it takes.”

“Hmph.”

Bowen snapped his mouth shut, and turned to leave. He opened the door with such force the vehicle rocked.

She had to shake the negative energy from that man, and the best way to accomplish that was focusing on the job. She turned to the board where Patrick had writtenCanceled insurance.“As Ray pointed out to me, Gavin may have lost his job recently. But he could have paid cash for the drugs…”

“Not if he didn’t have enough money. The medication might be more expensive than he can afford,” Richie pointed out.

“Or that. Could I see the transcript of the conversation?” she asked Richie, and he handed it to her. She scanned down to the part she was looking for. “‘They must be lying.’ He was surprised that he didn’t have coverage.”

“That doesn’t reconcile with him losing a job,” Patrick said. “He’d know his insurance would be canceled.”

“Which he did,” she said. “But Gavin’s words were the meds should be coveredstill. So he wasn’t surprised the coverage was coming to an end, but that it already had.”

“That’s rough,” Richie put in, “losing your job a couple months after Christmas. Who knows if he got himself into debt for the holiday and now has no way of paying it off?”

“Which would only compound his feelings of failure.” From a psychological standpoint it was simply known as an inadequate personality. “We need to paint this guy a rosy future, or this thing could blow up in our faces. Unfortunately, I have a feeling if he doesn’t start cooperating soon, my hands may be tied. Let’s give this another go.” She turned to Ray, and she put the call through.

Gavin answered quickly, screaming into the phone, “I didn’t want to do that!”

Adrenaline flooded her system, and she rode it to a place of flow and acceptance. “It’s all right, Gavin. We can work through this, whatever it is. Just tell me what happened, and I’ll do what I can to help.” She intentionally phrased it so her words couldn’t be twisted and seen as her shifting blame to him. Even if he was responsible.

“I hurt someone!” His voice raised. “There’s… there’s a lot of blood.”

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