Page 94 of Stolen Angels

“I don’t think so,” Ellie said, her anger rising. “You see, Priscilla realized that Kaylee and my victim Ava Truman were abducted exactly one year apart. In my experience, there are no coincidences.”

“What are you saying?” Forrester asked, his tone brittle.

“I want a copy of that file,” Ellie said. “Because I think that the same woman abducted those two children and possibly a third child named Becky Hornsby.”

A long second passed. “You have proof of that?”

“Priscilla Wilkinson and Becky’s mother, Jan Hornsby, decided to go to the media with their stories. They discussed it on Facebook. And then someone posing as Jan tried to kill Priscilla.”

One Hundred Fifteen

North East Hospital

Silas checked the corridor as he slipped down the hall to the hospital pharmacy. Security measures had been instigated to protect supplies from people desperate for drugs, even staff who might sneak some for their own use—or to sell.

Now he had become one of them. If he got caught, his career was over. Everything he’d worked for and stood for would spiral down the drain and he’d be caught up in the sewage of his own weakness.

But he’d already gone too far. Already crossed the line.

In his attempt to atone for his wrongs, he’d stepped onto a landmine that was doomed to explode beneath him.

Still, he loved his wife. Blamed himself for tearing her apart with his mistakes and then his decisions. He deserved whatever happened to him, and he’d accepted it.

He just wanted to give her this last Christmas. And it had to be the last.

His job, his life’s work, had been about saving lives. Not destroying them. He had taken a vow when he’d earned his medical license, just as he’d said vows when he’d stood in front of his wife and pledged to love her for better or worse.

He just hadn’t expected the worse part to be hell and for him to be walking with the devil.

Now he’d broken his vows to his work and… if he did what he knew he had to do, he would break them to his wife.

For a second, he stood in the shadows of the corridor, his lungs wheezing for air as if he was already half dead and was on a ventilator.

The whir and whistle of the machine screamed in his ears, and even though he told himself it wasn’t real, as he dug the keycode for the pharmacy from his pocket, he felt like the life was draining from him second by second.

But, knowing he had to oversee Becky and the other children’s care, he paused to listen for voices or footsteps indicating someone was coming. He wasn’t even supposed to be at work this morning.

Except for the rumble of the air vents, silence surrounded him.

Holding his breath, he punched in the code, opened the door and grabbed the supplies he needed.

One Hundred Sixteen

Bluff County Hospital

Ellie fought anger as the sheriff met her outside Priscilla’s door. “Captain Hale called, told me to come here,” Bryce said.

“Did he explain?”

“No, just said it was urgent.”

Ellie breathed out to keep from lashing into him. “The woman in that room is Priscilla Wilkinson. She called the tip line about her niece’s disappearance. Her name was Kaylee Wilkinson.”

She paused, giving Bryce time to absorb what she’d said. A vein pulsed in his neck as his eyes narrowed. “I told you about the mother. She was arrested and killed herself in prison.”

“She died in prison,” Ellie said. “But I don’t think she committed suicide. I’ve requested the case files for Kaylee’s disappearance, talked with the investigating officer and spoken with her sister.”

“You knew good and god damn well that this Priscilla is probably in denial. She’d lie to cover for her sister.”

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