“Sam.” Her sister cried into the phone. “I’m sorry.”
There was a man’s voice in the background.
“What’s going on?” Sam gripped the phone. “Isabella?”
“He said to meet us at the old slaughterhouse on the Ashbend River.” A strangled cry echoed across the line. “He said you need to come alone and no one will get hurt.”
The line went dead.
Sam stared at the phone. What was she supposed to do?
The smart thing to do was to tell Glover, let her alert the cavalry, and let them do their jobs. Except Liam had been attacked, and now the girls had been kidnapped. It would take too long for them to make a plan and execute it. Time she didn’t know if they had.
But it would be completely stupid to go alone. She chewed on her lip. She’d give Glover the location, but she wouldn’t let Glover slow her down. She had to go. She couldn’t sit around and wait helplessly while the seconds ticked down and something happened to Bella.
“Glover!” Sam yelled.
Glover burst into the room. “Are you okay?”
“No. Bella just called. Someone has taken them.” She raced around the bed. “We have to go now.”
Glover snapped to attention. “Where are they?”
“The slaughterhouse at Ashbend Industrial Park.”
“Let’s go.”
The two walked down the hall. The nurse who had performed the neuro exam on her stepped out of the nurses’ station. “You can’t leave.”
“Watch me.” Sam didn’t even stop to talk to the man.
“Ms. Williams, I have to insist that you stay.”
“I’m leaving AMA. You’re absolved of any responsibility.” She kept walking.
There wasn’t much a nurse could do to keep a patient in the hospital.
“Okay.” Disapproval filled the nurse’s tone.
They made it to the elevator bay, and she jammed the button a few times. The doors slid open, and they loaded onto the elevator.
Sam needed to think of a way to ditch her chaperone. How could she distract her long enough to slip away? The marshal was highly trained and would see through just about anything she tried.
So Sam would use that training to her advantage. By distracting her with a potential threat. The doors slid open, and the two stepped out, slowly making their way through the halls toward the exit. She watched the reflections in the doors and windows. Picked out a bystander.
Sam stepped closer to the marshal. “I think we’re being followed.”
“The man in the hoodie,” Glover said. “Keep walking. Do you recognize him?”
“I think he was standing outside the building where I got hurt this afternoon.”
“Okay. I’m going to turn around and confront him. I want you to take cover.”
“Okay.”
“One. Two. Three.” Glover spun around and rested her hand on the gun in her holster. “Deputy US Marshal. Put your hands where I can see them.”
Everyone around them stopped and gawked. Sam took that opportunity to slip away. Hopefully, Glover would forgive her.
