Only Her (A K2 Team Novel) (23 page)

“In her office, getting ready to watch the security feed.”

Cody disconnected. “Come with me,” he said to Mike and Brooke. The other employee—Michelle, he thought—was standing behind the counter, tears streaming down her face. “Cancel the rest of her appointments for today and send these people home,” he told her. Fortunately, there were only two women waiting, one with a dog, and the other with what looked like an iguana sitting on her lap. Both were staring wide-eyed at him and Mike.

“What should I tell them?”

“Just say there’s been an emergency and that you’ll call them tomorrow to reschedule.”

Anxious to see the security recording, he headed to Riley’s office, Mike and Brooke following him. “Tell me what happened.” To keep from putting his fist through the wall or going off half-cocked, he fell back on his SEAL training. Get intel. Analyze. Act.

“We were running behind, and I poked my head into the room to see if Dr. Austin needed any help,” Brooke said, two-stepping to keep up.

Cody stopped at the open door to Riley’s office. “And?” It wasn’t easy to curb his impatience, but he managed it.

“And she wasn’t there. Mrs. Napier wasn’t either.”

“Mrs. Napier?”

“Yes. She brought her kitten in. It’s still in the room in the carrier.”

“Have you touched the carrier?”

Brooke shook her head. “No, why?”

He stuck his head around the doorjamb. “See if you can find where Dr. Austin goes missing on the feed. I’ll be back in a minute.” He’d have a talk with Baker about how he’d lost track of Riley later, but he had a funny feeling about exactly what he’d find in the carrier.

At Baker’s nod, Cody turned back to Brooke. “Show me this carrier that was left behind.”

“Unless the woman wore gloves, we can get fingerprints off it,” Mike said.

“Yep, but I’ll have someone from K2 do it.” At Mike’s frown, Cody said, “We can process them immediately. How long will it take the police department?”

“Point taken,” Mike said, “but the detective on the case since Riley was hit on the head is on his way. He might have some problems with you guys ramrodding right over him and the department.”

“Tough shit.” No one cared as much about finding Riley as he did, and he had resources the police department didn’t even know existed, not to mention a team consisting of the best of the best if he needed them.

Mike gave him a hard look. “Should get interesting then, but I’m of the opinion you people know what you’re about, and finding Riley is all that counts. I’ll back you up as much as I can.”

“Appreciate it, man.”

Brooke opened the door to an exam room. “Here it is.”

“Christ, that smells,” Cody said, peering into the carrier. A long meow responded to the sound of his voice. “Grab me a paper towel.” When Brooke placed one in his hand, he used it to open the carrier door so as not to add his fingerprints. A cross-eyed Siamese kitten bounded out and latched onto his arm. “Well hello, Pelli.”

Brooke’s eyes widened. “Oh my God, that’s Dr. Austin’s missing cat.”

“Yes. Where are my dogs and her other cats?”

“In the kennel. They’re together.”

He peeled the kitten’s claws out of his shirt and handed him to Brooke. “Get him cleaned up, and then put him with the others. They know him.” The poor thing was a mess and stunk to high heaven. “See if he’s hungry.” Who knew the last time he’d eaten. To Cody’s eye, Pelli was thinner than when he’d last seen the cat.

“Let’s go see what we can learn,” he said to Mike.

Mike eyed him. “You’re being damn calm about this. If Riley were my girl, I’d be freaking out.” He swiped a hand through his hair. “Hell, I’m freaking out, anyway. I’ve never had a friend kidnapped before.”

“You think I’m fucking calm?” Cody stilled, holding out his arm. “Cut open a vein and you’ll see how furiously my blood is boiling. But rage won’t find Riley. Intel is what we need, and I’m counting on the cameras providing that.” Before he did lose it he entered Riley’s office.

“Start the feed.” At his abrupt command, Baker opened his mouth, then apparently thought better of whatever he was going to say, which was wise of him, since the man currently headed Cody’s shit list.

Baker pushed Play, and a woman carrying a cat carrier entered. She paused and looked around before going to the farthest corner of the waiting room. A dog whined, and Cody shifted his gaze to the opposite side of the screen where it showed Sally straining against his leash, his ears straight up and his tail wagging.

Damn. Sally knew it was Pelli in that carrier. Cody pressed his lips together. If he’d been with Sally right then, he would have understood what his dog was saying.

“Sally was with you? Whose idea was that?”

Baker paused the video. “Dr. Austin’s. She said I’d look like I was waiting for an appointment that way.” He glanced up at Cody. “Look, man. You can’t make me feel any worse than I already do for losing Dr. Austin. It’s not an excuse, but unless I shadowed her every move, which she wasn’t having, there was no way I would have guessed that woman was our target. When she came in, the smell coming from that carrier was god-awful, and I thought that was what your dog was reacting to.”

There was no way Baker could have known that Sally was reacting to Pelli being close. Not only that, but Riley had refused to allow any of her guards into the exam rooms with her. None of them had considered that would be how the woman would get to her. Some of Cody’s anger at the man eased.

“That’s what I would have thought, too,” Mike said. “Your dog knew, though, didn’t he? That the missing kitten was in there?”

“Yeah, he knew.” Cody could beat himself up all day for not being the one sitting in that waiting room when the woman came in, but that wouldn’t help them find Riley. “Where is he now?”

“Brooke put him back with your other dog after we realized Dr. Austin wasn’t anywhere in the clinic,” Baker said.

“Okay, good. Start the video over.” This time, he zeroed in on the woman’s features. She was tall and skinny, with dirty brown and gray hair and a long, thin face. Along with Baker, there were two other women with pets in the waiting room, and both of them wrinkled their noses as they turned their faces away. Did Mrs. Napier—and who the hell was Mrs. Napier?—let the carrier get so disgusting that people would stay away from her?

On the screen, Brooke called Mrs. Napier’s name. “Speed up the video,” he said after Riley entered, closing the exam room door behind her. He watched until the door opened. “Stop it.” According to the timer, Riley was in the room with Mrs. Napier for ten minutes.

A woman stepped out, wearing large glasses and what was obviously a wig. “Stop.” He leaned closer to the screen. “That’s Riley. Start it again.” Right behind her, Mrs. Napier appeared. “Stop it again.”

“She’s got a gun,” Mike said.

Cody took several deep breaths, his hands fisting at seeing Riley with a gun stuck into her back. “Start it.” He had to figure out who Mrs. Napier was and fast. They watched the two women walk down the hall to the back before they disappeared. “Go to the parking lot camera.”

That video showed the women walk toward an older model Chrysler. “Is that a Sebring?”

“Yeah. My dad had one,” Baker said. “Let’s see if we can get a license number.”

Mike huffed out a breath. “Dammit, there’s mud smeared over the tag.”

There was, but Mrs. Napier hadn’t done a good job of it. The partial outlines of some of the numbers were visible. Cody thought they could decipher the tag at K2 with the resources at their disposal. He was counting on it.

The women got in the car, Mrs. Napier driving and Riley in the passenger seat. They drove past the security company’s car that Kincaid had hired, the man sitting in it giving them a wave. Cody wanted to scream at the man to open his eyes, but he’d been hired to guard the building, not the people in it. That had been his job, and he’d screwed up. Again.

A rabbit hole opened up, welcoming him with open arms, and he almost let it take him. He’d let both Asra and Riley down, and how was he supposed to live with that?

A strong hand clamped onto his shoulder. “We’re going to find her,” Mike said.

He took deep breaths, the way Tom had taught him. “Whatever it takes.”

Since an IP camera—an Internet protocol camera—had been installed at his request, he said to Baker, “Send everything to Maria and tell her I’ll call her. You stay here and keep an eye on things. Send Brooke and Michelle home. There’s a kid who comes in around six, I think. He spends the night. Stay with him and guard this place with your life. I won’t have Riley losing this, too.”

“I won’t let you or her down,” Baker said.

Cody nodded. “Good man.” He headed for the door, Mike on his heels. If the cop thought he was coming, the man needed to think again. When they reached the waiting room, Cody said, “We’ll need that cat carrier so we can dust it for fingerprints. Why don’t you go grab it while I call Maria at K2 and tell her we’re on the way in?” Mike wasn’t going to be happy about being ditched, but tough. The last thing he needed was a cop telling him what he could and couldn’t do.

“Be right back,” Mike said.

The front door opened, and the detective that Cody recognized from before walked in.

“I need a status report,” the man whose name he couldn’t remember said.

Cody walked past him. “Your officer’s down the hall. He’ll bring you up to speed.”

“Hey. Where you going? I need a statement from you.”

“Just getting something out of my truck. Be right back.” Cody got in his truck and turned left out of the parking lot, the same direction Mrs. Napier had taken. He instructed his Bluetooth to call Maria.

“It’s Cody,” he said when she answered. “Riley’s been taken—”

“What?”

“Someone has kidnapped Riley. All I know is that it’s a woman named Mrs. Napier. We just sent over the video with the woman’s car in it. There’s mud smeared on the tag, but can you see if Kent can do his magic and laser trace the numbers or whatever it is he does?”

“Where are you?”

He hated lying to her, but if Kincaid knew one of his men was going rogue, he wouldn’t be pleased. “At the clinic. Call me as soon as you have a number for that tag or any other information you come up with.”

“Okay, but you need to come in. Logan will want to start planning a rescue.”

And that was the problem. The boss operated on the theory that there couldn’t be enough planning for an operation. What if Riley didn’t have that much time? “We got some things to finish up here, then I’ll be there.”

“I’ll see you soon. I’m sorry, Cody.”

“Yeah, me, too. Call me when you come up with something.” He clicked off before she could say more. When he came to a traffic light, he pulled over. Which way?

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

R
iley shook her head. “I’m not taking that.”

Mrs. Decker had pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse after leaving the clinic, and now held the gun in one hand and a pill in the other. She pointed the gun at Riley’s feet and pulled the trigger.

Riley screamed, and expecting to feel pain, she squeezed her eyes shut.

“Next time, it will be your knee. Take the damn pill, Riley.”

Nothing hurt, and Riley opened her eyes and peered down, shuddering when she saw the hole in the floor not two inches from the toe of her shoe. Given a choice between a bullet and a pill, she’d opt for the latter. “Pills make me gag. I have to have water to take them.” That was true; she’d never be able to swallow it without something to wash it down.

“You always were a pain in the ass.” Mrs. Decker pointed the gun at Riley’s knee. “You have until the count of three to swallow the damn thing.”

Riley held out her hand, and Mrs. Decker dropped a white capsule into it. “What is it?”

“A sleeping pill so you don’t try to jump out of the car.”

Which was exactly what Riley had planned to do—should have already done—when the gun wasn’t pointed at her.

“One . . .” Mrs. Decker said, when Riley hesitated.

“I’m taking it!” She popped the pill into her mouth, squeezed her eyes shut, and forced it down her throat, gagging as she did so.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Why hadn’t she thought to stick it under her tongue and spit it out when Mrs. Decker wasn’t looking?

“Who’s Mrs. Napier? Is that a name you made up?” How was Cody supposed to find her if he only had a fake name?

“My maiden name, not that it matters.”

And that, Riley hoped, was her first mistake. Surely Cody and his friends, with all the resources at their hands, would be able to find that out. Although Mrs. Decker might be right. Would it really matter if they did? Unless Mrs. Decker had rented a house in Pensacola under Napier, nothing would show up.

“Now another one.”

Riley eyed the second capsule in horror. Two would knock her out cold, and she wasn’t sure she could swallow another one. At least with only one, she might manage to stay somewhat alert.

“One . . . two . . .”

This time, she put the pill under her tongue, making a gagging sound as she pretended to swallow. When Mrs. Decker pulled the car back onto the road, Riley turned her head toward the window and pushed the capsule out, letting it drop onto the seat to her right. She palmed it, dropping it into her lab coat pocket. When her fingers touched her phone, she wanted to slap her forehead for not thinking of trying to call for help.

At a quick glance at Mrs. Decker to see her gaze was on the road ahead, Riley took a chance and slipped out the phone, keeping it to the side of her thigh.

“What are you doing, Riley?”

Riley froze, hearing the suspicion in Mrs. Decker’s voice. How to answer? Something that would divert attention. “I’m hating you, is what I’m doing. You’re Reed’s mother, and I don’t want to hate you, but I do.” Her eyes drifted closed as the pill began to take effect. She forced them open. “Please don’t make me hate you.”

“You don’t know what hate is, but you’re going to find out.”

Riley couldn’t decipher the woman’s words. Her mind was too fuzzy. When her head fell forward, she realized she wasn’t going to be able to fight the sleeping pill, and only had seconds to call someone before she conked out. Pretending the pill had done its job, she closed her eyes to slits, and with her chin resting on her chest, she went to the recent-calls screen and put her finger on Cody’s name. Her fingers lost feeling and the phone slid out of her hand, back into her pocket. As her eyelids closed, she wondered if she’d actually connected with him.

Cody sat in his truck, hidden among other cars at a strip mall, waiting for Maria to call. He needed a location, some kind of hint for which way he should go. Thirty minutes had passed since he’d talked to Maria, and sitting on his ass doing nothing was killing him.

Be strong, Riley. I’m coming for you.

Just as he decided he’d start driving up and down streets, his phone buzzed. “Talk to me,” he said at seeing Maria’s name on the screen.

“Where are you?”

“Who wants to know?” Was Kincaid getting suspicious? The man wasn’t stupid and would be wondering why Cody hadn’t arrived at K2 yet.

“Logan does. You need to come in, Cody. The team is gathered and ready to help.”

Cody did some fast thinking. If Kincaid hadn’t made the call, demanding he come in, then the boss knew exactly what Cody was up to and was unofficially sanctioning it. “Tell the boss I’m doing what I have to do.”

“He knows,” she softly said. “Kent’s still working on getting a tag number. Says he’s close. But I do have something for you. I hacked into some security cameras in the area of the clinic, found the suspect’s car, and then followed it through other security cameras until I lost it. She appears to be headed to either Pace or Milton.”

Yes! He hit the steering wheel with his palm. He finally had a direction to go. “Thanks, Maria. You’re awesome.”

“I know. I’ll call you as soon as I know more. Be careful, okay?”

“Always am.”

Someone was talking to her, but the person sounded as if they were speaking from the bottom of a well.

“Riley!”

“Leave me ’lone. Sleepy.” She tried to push away the fingers digging into her arm, but her hands felt like they weighed fifty pounds each and refused to work right.

“You haven’t changed, Riley. Still a pain.”

She didn’t like that voice. Never had. Always yelling at her, finding fault with everything she did. If she didn’t love Reed, she’d run away.

“I probably shouldn’t have made you take two pills before I had to get you out of the car,” the voice muttered.

Pills? Was Reed taking pills again? She tried to open her eyes, but someone had glued them shut. Her arm was jerked hard, and she was pulled from her bed. She hit the floor, her hands scraping on gravel. Why was there gravel on her floor?

“Damn bitch. Get up.”

She hated when Reed’s mother was angry with her, which was most of the time. Riley managed to get her arms under her and pushed up. With great effort, she forced her eyes open, only to find herself on her knees, staring down at rocks. Where was she? Something hard and cold pressed against her head.

“You can either crawl or walk into the house. I don’t care which, but if you don’t start moving, I’ll just shoot you here.”

A gun pressed against her back as she walked out of her clinic, then a gun pointed at her as she swallowed a pill flashed into her mind. Oh, God. She wasn’t back living in the Decker’s house, and Reed was dead. She needed to be alert and smart, but the sleeping pill Mrs. Decker had made her take made her mind fuzzy. She needed to think if she were going to survive whatever Reed’s mother had planned for her.

“Move, Riley.”

By sheer force of will, she stood on wobbly legs. Hot tears burned her cheeks as they rolled down her skin. She wanted Cody. He wouldn’t let Mrs. Decker hurt her if he were here.

“Cody, please come find me.”

“What did you say?”

“Don’t know.” She didn’t like it at all when Mrs. Decker put an arm around her and helped her walk, but without the support, she would probably have fallen on her face, so she let the woman guide her into a house.

A few minutes later, she was pushed onto a small bed, and she fell over, snuggling her face into the pillow. How long she had slept, she didn’t know, but when she woke up, it was to see Mrs. Decker sitting in a chair, staring at her with those hate-filled eyes.

“I didn’t make him take the drugs,” Riley said.

“No, but you introduced him to them. I’ll never forgive you for that.”

She probably was to blame. Yet, how was she, a teenager, supposed to have known there were people who couldn’t take or leave the marijuana as she could, and would go looking for bigger and better highs? If she’d had any clue Reed was one of those, she would have buried her supply of pot in a twenty-foot hole.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. The slap across her face came out of nowhere, and she jerked, putting her back against the wall. Instead of being cowed, though, she got mad. “He could have said no.” Cody had reminded her of that, and it was true. “I never gave him any hard drugs, he found those all on his own. I tried to save him, but he didn’t want saving.”

The gun that had been resting on Mrs. Decker’s leg was suddenly pointed at her. “Shut up.” She swung the barrel of the gun toward a table next to the bed. “There’s a pill there.” One side of her lip curled in a sneer. “And a glass of water so you can swallow it without all the dramatics.”

Riley shifted her gaze to the table. Another sleeping pill? She was still half out of it from the last one. This one had the letters OC stamped on it. “That’s an OxyContin.” She gave a vigorous shake of her head. “I’m not taking that.”

Could she manage to slip it under her tongue, and then into her pocket? Thinking of the pocket of her lab coat, she remembered she’d turned on her phone. At least, she hoped she had. Was Cody even looking for her? Yes, he was trying to find her. She had to believe that.

“Remember what I said, Riley. Your knee will be the first to go. Take the pill.”

Riley considered her chances of getting the gun away from Mrs. Decker. If she could take the woman by surprise, maybe she could, but as out of it and sluggish as she was, she’d probably end up getting shot.

“Do I have to start counting again?”

“You’re really making me hate you, Mrs. Decker.” Riley grabbed the pill and stuck it in her mouth, slipping it under her tongue.

“Do you think I’m stupid, girl? Swallow it.”

With a glare at the woman, Riley pretended to swallow.

“Open your mouth and lift your tongue.”

In trying to hide the pill in the back of her throat, she swallowed it, but it got stuck. She grabbed the bottle of water, and drank as she gagged. “Why are you . . .” She coughed. “Why are you doing this?”

Mrs. Decker sat back in her chair, and although she rested the gun on her lap, she kept her hand on it. “I want to see you suffer the way Reed did. At first, I was just going to kill you outright, thought I had with the rock, but then I decided that would have been too easy for you. When you’re addicted to the drugs I’m going to make you take, when you’re begging me for them, when you no longer care about food or being clean, then you’ll know what my son’s last days were like.”

“I was there. Believe me, I know. He refused to eat or bathe no matter how much I begged.” Her lips trembled. “I was there! It broke my heart to see him like that.”

“Well, I can tell you right now, it’s not going to break my heart to see you slowly die in your own filth.”

Riley pulled the thin pillow to her chest. God, she was sleepy. “Go away. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

“Not until you fall asleep. Don’t want you trying to throw up the pill.”

There went that plan. If she didn’t do something, and do it now, she would be too out of it to attempt anything. “I need to use the bathroom.”

“Tough.”