Page 20 of Finding Us Again

The sound was so damned different from how he usually sounded. I looked at him for a moment, but then I looked at Foster and asked, “Who is with Jackson? Walker said you were.”

Foster stepped forward, sitting in the chair that Lillian had vacated. “Walker switched places with me. He’s currently sitting vigil in the observation room while Adam and Brock stand guard outside the operating room doors. And before you ask, they are strapped and loaded. The Admiral is also here, and he has people on the doors and elevators to this floor as well as the surgical unit.”

“So, what’s the plan?” I asked.

The team all found seats throughout the room. The looks on their faces told me all I needed to know. We were scrambling, and there was contention about what the plan should be.

“The case is in the hands of the local police and the state troopers,” Foster said.

“And…” I prompted.

I wouldn’t be happy if I had to pull the info out of him piece by piece.

Hayden scoffed. “Fuck this shit. Kit Kat, they have located the house where the two of you were held hostage. They have enough evidence to put both that psycho and the redheaded cunt under the fucking prison, but they can’t find them.”

My eyes slammed shut, and my breath whooshed from my body as panic shot through me like an arrow. Tremors took hold of my body and I gripped the blankets as I clenched my jaw to keep from rattling apart.

“Goddammit, Hayden,” Declan said.

I heard footsteps come toward the bed and shrunk back into the mattress. When the steps continued, my panic burst forth.

“NO!” I yelled.

Everything stopped. I could barely hear their breathing. Keeping my eyes closed, I dragged a few deep breaths through my nose. I counted my inhales and exhales to even the breathless panting into a more normal pattern.

When my breathing settled, and I no longer heard my blood rushing through my ears, I opened my eyes. “A little less blunt next time, asshole. Trembling with a recently dislocatedshoulder and hip is fucking painful. Not to mention all the other fucking injuries.”

Hayden smirked. “There’s our warrior princess. And you should know I wouldn’t know subtle if it smacked me upside the fucking head. Let’s finish ripping off the bandage, why don’t we?”

I stared at him. His eyebrow was cocked, and I wanted to reach out and smack the smug look off his face. The fizzy feeling had flowed back at his suggestion, but I pushed it away and nodded at him.

Smugness was replaced with something akin to pride. “Good. So, fortunately, Danny or Neil rather was found in the house.”

“That’s good, right? I mean, he helped Jackson and me escape,” I said.

Foster sighed. “He was found unconscious when they raided the house. He’d been beaten severely. The doctors aren’t expecting him to make it.”

Tears fell down my face, and I swiped them away. Why I was crying for that man, I didn’t know. He had conspired against me. He’d betrayed me and Jackson, and even worse, he’d stood by and watched while Jackson was tortured and I was… I licked my lips, closing my eyes and trying to force the images away. I swallowed the bile that climbed slowly up my throat.

After a few moments, I looked at Foster on one side of the bed and Hayden on the other. Declan hovered behind Hayden, close enough to touch but not.

“What else?”

They looked at one another as if trying to decide who would drop the next bomb in my lap.

“Damn it! Tell me!” I growled at them.

Hayden said, “Your parents have been taken in for questioning.”

“What?”

Celeste came to stand at the end of the bed. “Your mother commented to your dad that all this is his fault because he’s a horrible father. The detectives were present because they were speaking with the admiral. At first, they casually questioned them in the waiting room, but then they were taken down to the station.”

I tilted my head back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. “Do they actually believe my own parents were aware of this freaking mess?”

“I don’t think so, Katie. I think they are just trying to piece together the whole story,” Foster said appeasingly.

“I don’t know…” I began, but the door swung open, and Dr. Cole entered.

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