Page 63 of Booked for Kidnapping

I pointed at where I’d emerged from the forest, wondering how much of my adventure escaping had been an adventure at all, rather than something meticulously planned so I could resume my life. “I came out over there somewhere.”

“Then let us go walk over there to see what there is to see.”

Bradley stared at me with a raised brow.

“What’s that look for?”

“I’m just waiting to see if I have to maintain my current rudeness, or if you will cooperate without a fight.”

“Your current rudeness should be counted as ruthless, cruel, and unusual.” While I hated losing, we’d both win later if I cooperated, so I headed for where I thought I had emerged near the beach. Sure enough, a well-beaten trail curved through the trees in the direction of the manor I’d been held at—or had believed I’d been held at.

I hated not knowing.

Bradley’s father chuckled. “Reward programs work better on your mother, just for your information.”

Hugging me close to his side, my fiancé grinned at his father. “I’m saving the rewards for when I’m absolutely certain she will otherwise fully resist my suggestions.”

“That is not necessarily a bad idea, but I’m warning you it’s a horrible idea doomed to backfire on you. The last time I tried that on your mother, it landed me on the couch for a week. She wouldn’t talk to me for days.”

I could see his mother doing that. “That must have been quite the sin.”

“I suggested we dress Bradley up and put him where he might be photographed before we signed the contract for you. I may have suggested we could get grandchildren in a hurry if we got him onto one of the eligible bachelor lists.”

Bradley sighed. “He really did, too. And Mom really did put him on the couch for that. Apparently, she assumed my father wanted to sell me into sexual slavery.”

“I’d buy you,” I announced. I blinked, realized what I’d blurted out, and sighed. “Of course, at the time, I was fairly willing to sell my body if it meant my parents could have a comfortable retirement.”

“Technically, you did. I am grateful Dad suggested I be put up like a stud on auction, though. It made me consider the contracts. It didn’t take me long to figure out you were the one I wanted.”

“I raised him to actually use his intellect. I didn’t pay for all that damned schooling for it to go to waste.” Bradley’s father angled for the path, and we followed him.

Once to where I’d emerged and spotted the beach, I took a long and slow look around. Everything seemed as I remembered, with one exception. People made use of the trail, but when I’d gone on it, I’d been alone. “Nobody was using the trail when I came out.” Somehow, I kept my voice steady. “I don’t understand why. Why take so much of my life?” At a loss of how or why everything had happened, I gestured to my foot. “Why do all of this?”

“I have an educated guess,” Bradley’s father announced, and he tapped at his phone’s screen before turning the display towards me. “Do you remember this person?”

I narrowed my eye at the young businessman in a perfect suit, and I went cold at the memories. “Yeah. His bodyguard was the one driving the other car.”

It amazed me my voice didn’t betray me. I turned the phone enough Bradley could view the picture, too.

“Yeah, that’s the guy.” Unlike me, Bradley’s tone took on a dark edge, filled with anger.

His father turned his phone back around and tapped at the screen before, showing us the picture of an older woman. “Do you know who she is?”

I shook my head, as did Bradley.

“This is Eulalia Castor, his uncle’s wife. She was born in Spain before moving to the United States to marry his uncle. When his uncle died, she returned to Europe, where she has been living ever since. However, she owns a holiday home here.” After a moment of fussing with his phone, he showed me a picture of the house with the patio and rose garden skirting the trail leading to the ocean. “Eulalia remarried, which is why she is now a Castor, but her second husband also died. He got drunk and killed a car filled with kids in Germany. She has made it her life’s mission to treat victims of severe accidents, where they were not in the wrong. Like you. She, however, typically lives in Europe, skipping between Spain, Germany, and Italy. However, she has been on leave for a period of a year due to adopting a child with her third husband, who opted to take her name rather than give her his. Familial problems, according to the internet.”

“Okay. We’ve been gone from that house for less than twenty minutes. How did you find all of this out?” I demanded.

“Eulalia Castor is one of twenty people globally who is capable of performing the operation on your foot, and we researched all of the known talents. She’s specialized in severe bone trauma repair in addition to organ trauma recovery. Honestly, if the two of you were to join forces, I doubt you’d ever lose a patient on the table, at least a patient who had any real chance of being saved. The only thing she can’t do is blood and lungs. There’s something about it that escapes her abilities. You can do everything she cannot.”

I blinked, and I took the phone from Bradley’s father, tapping at the screen until the older woman’s face reappeared, her dark hair touched with streaks of gray and lines marring her face. Her brown eyes held secrets, as shadowed as the haunting ghost of her smile. “You think this woman is the one who did the work? On my foot? But why?”

“When her husband killed those kids, she wanted to make a difference. Perhaps she felt you were much like her, wanting to make a difference. More details than I like about the accident were revealed after you were kidnapped, as were details of your efforts in the hospital. A lot of people you saved appealed through the media to bring you home safe and sound. They wanted to save you much as you had saved them.”

“But I disappeared before that happened, right? I mean, nobody was making appeals before my disappearance.”

Bradley’s father nodded. “But in the medical field, they knew. Doctors talk with each other, especially about challenging cases. I am of the opinion Dr. Avers disliked you because you could do what he could not. You’re a miracle in the operating room. He doesn’t approve of exsanguinators working in a hospital setting, mainly because he’s one of those idiots who thinks you drink blood in addition to manipulating it.”