Page 5 of Deadly Holiday
“Because Jana Ortega was recently an inpatient here and was pulled from treatment. I think Basilio may be her father.”
“I wonder if that’s who Amber was upset about?” Celina’s eyes widened. “She was just telling me about a patient who was checked out AMA several days ago. She’s worried sick about her. It could be one and the same. If it is Basilio’s daughter, he’s probably protecting her.”
“Hey, are you really taking a break or just making out in here? I’ve got a bunch of kids who aren’t too happy that Santa skipped out.” Ronni pushed her way through the kitchen doors, hand on hip. She had a slightly frazzled look that said it was probably a good thing she wasn’t packing tonight. All the taskforce members had been asked to not carry weapons under the circumstances, though Cooper was fairly certain they had something hidden on them. They were his agents, after all.
“We think Basilio Ortega’s daughter was an inpatient here, and that he recently withdrew her from care.” Cooper waited while Celina filled Ronni in, watching her eyes turn from frazzled to serious in a heartbeat.
“Have we confirmed this?” Ronni whipped her cell phone out, thumbing through her contacts and pressing a number.
“Not yet,” Cooper admitted.
Ronni spoke in clipped tones to the person on the other end of the phone. A few tense seconds later, they had their answer—JanawasBasilio’s daughter. She suffered from a rare bone cancer and had been undergoing pre-surgical treatment in preparation for her blood and bone marrow transplant that was supposed to take place the following morning. Only Ortega had pulled her from treatment after his wife was murdered, and the girl hadn’t been seen since.
Cooper’s gut twisted. If there was anything he couldn’t stand, it was a case involving a kid.
“Do you think we need to alert the team?”
Cooper knew what Celina was really asking; did he think this was a threat. Novia was there, as was baby Jett, along with a room full of guests. If there was a chance that these people could be in trouble, they would need to act quickly.
“I need to talk to Amber, find out the details, and then bring the director up to speed since the Ortega case has been high-priority for the past week, but yeah, the team also needs to know so we can follow up.” He rubbed at his fake belly, nerves in his stomach making it cramp.
What he really wanted to do was grab their daughter, clear the room and make sure no traces of Ortega were left behind. The man was bad news times a thousand.
But he couldn’t do that, not when they had no evidence of a clear threat. Jana was no longer a patient there. In theory, Ortega would have no reason to come back to the hospital. It was just the idea that he had been here, around all these innocent kids. “Just be discreet, we don’t want to cause unnecessary panic. There’s no threat, I just need to find out the details from Amber and see if we can get a lead on—”
A scream sounded from the other side of the door and an icy chill ran down Cooper’s spine. What the hell…?
Celina’s face paled as more screams split the air, followed by yelling. “Oh God. What’s going on?”
They raced to the metal door and Cooper’s heart dropped to his still cramping stomach as he peered through the round window. Celina gasped and he grabbed her before she could barrel into the main room. Ronni crowded in to peer out the window too, nearly pushing them both aside.
Men dressed in camo pants and dark colored shirts were everywhere, herding frightened guests to one side of the room. Semiautomatic weapons hung at their sides, occasionally shoved in the face of a guest when they refused to do as they were told. Who the fuck were these guys, and what did they want?
Amid the chaos, one man stepped forward, and Cooper instantly recognized him from the mug shots in the folder sitting on his desk; Basilio Ortega.
“Ortega’s here.” He jerked back before he was seen. If that son-of-a-bitch so much as touched a single hair on Novia’s head…
“Holy shit.” Eyes wide, Celina batted his restraining hand away, her voice a piercing whisper. “What the fuck is he doing here? Cooper,Novia’sin there.”
Ronni and Cooper both reached for Celina’s arms, once more stopping her from flying into the room in full battle mode.
“We can’t go in there half-cocked.” Cooper fought to keep his shit together. He couldn’t lose it, not when Celina and Novia needed him the most. “Let me think for a second, will you?”
The Beast in him rose up and he welcomed the calming, methodical presence it brought. As The Beast he could handle anything. Hewouldhandle anything.
It didn’t take two guesses why Ortega was here.Jana. The little girl was sick and possibly dying.
As if the man needed even more reason to be dangerous. “Are you both packing?” he asked the women.
“Really, boss?” Ronni slipped a hand beneath her skirt and withdrew a gun. “I’m always packing.”
“I’m covered too.” Celina confirmed, patting her upper thigh. “And I’m going to kill every one of those bastards.”
God he loved her.
Cooper toed off a black boot and withdrew the gun he had stashed there, shoving the boot back on. What he wouldn’t give for a pair of jeans and a t-shirt about now. “Okay, so we’ve got fire power. Now we need to be smart and get help in there.” There were highly trained agents in that room who wouldn’t go down without a fight, but they wouldn’t take a chance when there were so many innocent people involved.
There was a back door next to the walk-in freezer, but Cooper stopped Ronni before she could open it. Already he could see men up and down the hallway through the small window on the door, and he pressed the women against the wall to keep them from being spotted.
