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“I talked to a doctor. We’re in the process of getting a wheelchair for you.”
“I want to see her now!”
“You’re not the only patient here,” the nurse said.
“I’m Mrs. Bradford Steel. My son is missing, and I want to see my daughter. Right. Fucking. Now!”
Brad rushed in then. “What happened?”
“She tried to get out of bed, and she fell. Her legs gave out because of the epidural.”
“My legs feel fine,” I said. “I can feel them fine.”
“You can feel them, yes, but they’re not quite ready to walk, as you found out. You need to listen to—”
“That’s enough,” Brad said. “You don’t know what my wife has been through today. Get a wheelchair in here now, and I’ll take her to see our daughter myself.”
“She’s so tiny, Brad.”
“Yes, but her lungs are working well, baby. She has a fighting chance.”
I didn’t buy it. I’d named her Angela for a reason. I was going to lose her. My only hope was that I wouldn’t lose Talon as well.
But I had to brace for that.
I had to brace for a lot of things.
“I wish I could hold her,” I said.
“I know. I do too. But she’s safer in that incubator for now. We’ll be able to hold her soon.”
I shook my head. He didn’t understand. I wanted to hold her while she was alive. I wanted her to feel her mother’s love.
I wanted so much for this beautiful little girl—so much that she’d never have.
She’d never get to watch a gorgeous Colorado sunrise.
She’d never smell the sweetness of a bright yellow tulip.
She’d never taste a juicy Steel Ranch steak.
My sweet little Angela would miss so much.
“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Brad said.
I didn’t reply.
Yes, she was beautiful. She’d been given that gift. But what good would it ultimately do her?
A nurse approached us. “Excuse me, Mr. Steel.”
“Yes?” Brad said.
“There’s a phone call for you. You can take it at the nurse’s station, or we can transfer it to Mrs. Steel’s room.”
I allowed myself a glimmer of hope. Just a glimmer.
“Talon?” I said anxiously.
“I don’t know, baby,” he said. “I hope so.”
He kissed my lips chastely and then turned to the nurse. “I’ll take it at the nurse’s station.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
Brad
“Brad Steel,” I said into the phone at the nurse’s station.
“It’s me, son.”
George Steel’s voice—I hadn’t heard it in over a decade. Nurses milled around me. No one was listening to my call. They all had more important things to do.
“How did you know I was here?”
“I called your home office. Your mother answered. I disguised my voice and said I had to speak to you on an urgent business matter. I’m so sorry, son.”
I cleared my throat. “How much do you know?”
A slight pause. Then, “Everything. I know everything, Brad.”
“Talon…”
“Yes, I know.”
“The baby…”
“I know. I’m so sorry, son.”
“I don’t know what you want,” I said, “but you already know my hands are full. I have to find my son. I can’t let anything—” The words stopped coming. I couldn’t let my mind go to that dark place. That place where my son might be—
No. Just no.
“I understand. But I have information for you. Information I can only give you in person.”
“This is a hospital line, Dad. It’s got to be secure.”
“It probably is. I can’t be sure that mine is, though.”
“I can’t leave Daphne right now. This is destroying her.”
“I know that, and I wouldn’t ask you to if I had any other choice, but my time is limited.”
“How the hell is your time limited? You’re dead, for God’s sake.”
“Not yet,” he said. “But it won’t be long.”
I agreed to meet my father during the night. Daphne had been sedated because she needed her sleep, and the hospital was on their honor to call my car phone if anything changed with Daphne or the baby.
Any other time, I wouldn’t have left, but if my father had information on Talon, I had to get it.
“I tried to stop it, Brad. Please believe me. I tried.”
My father lay in a hospital bed in a makeshift MASH unit on the corner of our property. That lifetime of smoking had finally gotten him. He was dying of lung cancer. Only yards away from the barn where I’d found Patty Watson’s dead body.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your son. Wendy. Everything.”
“I know Wendy’s behind it. Who else could be?”
“He’s alive.”
His statement gave me a glimmer of hope. “How do you know?”
“They won’t kill him. They can’t.”
“Who are they, Dad? Help me. I need to find them. I need to find my son!”
“I don’t know. I only know the corporation behind the veil.”
“Fleming Corporation,” I said.
“Yes. If I’d known…”
“I know. I already know about them.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Please, Dad. Just tell me what you know about Talon.”
“I only know this. They won’t kill him.”
I tried to take solace in his words. But not killing him left a lot of things they could do to him.
