Page 62 of Her Honorable Hero

She pushed away from her desk and yanked her drawer open. She grabbed out her black purse and slung it over her shoulder as she kept her phone to her ear.

“Susan!” she yelled again. When she got to her office door and yanked it open, she and her friend ran into one another.

“What’s wrong?” Susan cried. “Is it Livvie? Griff?”

“Livvie. I have to get to the daycare. I need your car.”

“I can drive,” Susan said. She turned to her desk and fumbled for her bag from under her desk.

“No, just give me your car keys. “Is Hope still using a booster seat?”

“Yep.”

“Great. You’re in your parking spot?”

“Yeah. Please let me come with you,” Susan begged.

“No, I need you here to handle things.”

“What’s wrong. Is she injured?”

“No, she’s not. I’ll call you later,” she snatched the keys out of Susan’s hands and flew through the glass doors at reception and pressed the down arrow at the elevator.

“Miranda? This is April Marsh. Is there some sort of problem I need to be aware of?”

Ah hell, she’d forgotten she’d had the phone to her ear.

“I don’t have time, April. Just only release Livvie to Griff or me. Make sure we have ID. I’ll explain more when I get there.”

She got in the elevator.

“Do I need to call the authorities, or is this a family matter?”

The elevator door closed, cutting off the conversation.

“Dammit!”

Why hadn’t Griff called her? She’d forwarded him that text what seemed like twenty minutes ago. But she knew it was only two or three.

Her mind raced. Finally the elevator door opened, but it wasn’t to her garage door level, it was the lobby. Nobody got on. She banged on the button but the elevator wouldn’t cooperate.

She rushed out of the elevator, down the flight of stairs from the lobby to the garage and went straight to Susan’s mini-van.

“Dammit all to hell!” she screamed, as she waited for the seat to push back so her face didn’t touch the windshield. As she waited she gave a voice command to her phone to call Griff and it went to voicemail. How was that possible when they just went over security?

“Griff, I forwarded you a text from Heinrich. He took a picture of you and Livvie from last night when you were at the grocery store. It’s in your phone. Then he sent another pic of Livvie’s daycare. I know you told me not to leave the building, but you’re too far away in Coronado. I took Susan’s car. I’m picking up Livvie and taking her home. You have that place set up like Fort Knox. We’ll be safe.” She got the seat into position and started the car. “Why the fuck aren’t you answering?” she wailed then hung up as she pulled out of the garage.

Her phone beeped, and she glanced down. It was the blocked number.

Play it cool. You have to play it cool. This is Livvie we’re talking about.

“Heinrich, you’re beginning to annoy me,” she said dryly.

“No, I’m beginning to scare you. Now be a good girl and come meet with Daddy.”

She pressed her foot down harder on her accelerator, as she came up on the freeway entrance.

“I’ve called the police,” she lied. “But then I did worse. You’re about to meet your own personal nightmare. And he’s going to rain Armageddon down on your ass.”