He was talking. Hell, yes.
“Am…”
“We’re taking care of you, sir.” A quick response from the nurse in the pink scrubs. The team began to wheel Frankie toward the hospital.
“Am…bu…” Frankie managed to lift one hand. He pointed toward the ambulances.
“You don’t need an ambulance,” the nurse said. “We have you.”
“Sloane.” Frankie’s eyes closed.
The ice thickened in Preston’s veins. He yanked out his phone. Sloane doesn’t have a phone. Her phone is still locked in her car at the freaking impound. His fingers flew over the screen of his phone even as Frankie was wheeled inside the hospital.
“Where is she?” Noble’s voice cracked. “She…I thought she was with you.”
Josie answered his call on the second ring. “This is becoming a habit…” she began.
“Track Sloane. Now.”
She didn’t say anything else. He heard her fingers tapping. “Grace General.” Quick. Sharp. “Is she hurt? Is that why she’s in the hospital?”
He was bounding back to the hospital. A security guard stood in the doorway, looking nervous. He should be nervous.
“What in the hell happened to that man?” Preston blasted.
“I…I didn’t see anything. It’s been crazy here today. I’ve been called to help all over?—”
“What’s happening?” Josie asked in Preston’s ear. “Talk to me. Please.”
“I need the exact location for Sloane. Can you guide me to her in the hospital? Is the tech that good?”
“I’m that good,” she promised him.
She was. Because, five minutes later, he was standing over the broken chain that should have been around Sloane’s throat. But it wasn’t. It was on the gleaming floor of a hospital corridor, and the lily pendant—the pendant with the fucking tracker in it—was shoved near the wall.
“Did you find her?” Josie asked, excited. Worried. Scared.
His left hand scooped up the pendant. Clenched around it.
“Preston…” Noble was at his back. “What do we do?”
Her eyes flew open. Sloane sucked in a deep gulp of air. She tried to sit up but…
Couldn’t. She was strapped down. Trapped. “No!” Her head twisted as she tried to look around.
“Yeah, that’s cool. Scream. Have at it.” A male voice floated to her. Adam East’s voice. “I’m the only one who can hear you, and honestly, I like screams. Don’t get to hear them nearly enough. Hard to hear screams when your prey is trapped underground.”
Her frantic gaze took in the space around her. Supplies. Medical supplies. Monitors. A familiar scene because she’d been in this exact spot before. I’m in the back of an ambulance. The vehicle bumped, and her whole body jerked.
Strapped down. A strap across her upper arms. Her chest. Her waist. Her thighs. Her calves. Tight, hard straps that dug into her body. “Let me out!” she yelled.
He laughed. “I will, soon. Out of the ambulance, anyway.”
She tried to turn her body, but the straps had been tightened too much.
“Those are usually for a patient’s safety,” he called to her. “In this case…not so much.”
Her fingers were free. Her wrists. Her upper arms were held tightly against her body, but she could stretch out her wrists. Could she reach anything that might help her?
