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Chapter thirty-four
Silas
Islept.
I hadn’t slept—like, really, truly slept—for so long, I almost couldn’t believe it. Blinking slowly awake, I gazed around the room, the gray light of early morning crawling through the windows as I took in my surroundings.
The semi-private hospital room Stone had secured for Daphne and me was quiet, located at the far end of the floor away from the main areas, and for that I was grateful.
I was grateful for a lot of things today, the most important of those being the woman in the bed across from me right now.
Except, when I looked her way, the bed was empty.
Feeling my heart rate rise, I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed, swallowing down a groan when the fresh stitches in my thigh pulled. I was just about to race out the door when it popped open, and the nurse who had been a near constant fixture in our room entered with a smile.
“Mr. Harrison, what are you doing up? You should be resting.”
“Where’s Daphne?” I questioned without preamble.
“Oh, Miss Pennington? She was taken for a CT scan just a few moments ago.”
“Why did she need that? She wasn’t concussed or anything.”
“I don’t make the calls, Mr. Harrison,” she said, her smile now definitely more of a frown. Reaching for the tablet beside Daphne’s bed, she started scrolling through the digital chart. “I just follow orders. Her chart said she needed a CT, so that’s where she went. There’s no reason to...huh.”
“What?” I asked, standing now, despite the dull throb of my leg. I snagged the shirt Stone had delivered with the lounge pants earlier and slid it over my head. “What is it?”
“The requisition for the CT scan. It’s not on her chart anymore.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I stepped in close, staring over her shoulder, but not really understanding what I was seeing; all the items on the chart were mostly in code and medical jargon. “Where the hell is Daphne?”
“Mr. Harrison, please. If you’ll just get back into bed, I will track her down. She was literally just outside the door a moment ago. The orderly who picked her up will likely get down to imaging and realize that there is no need for the scan, then he will bring her right back. Mr. Harrison! Wait!”
But I was already striding out of the room. I stopped in front of the man Stone had hired, one of the security guys the hotel used for big events and such, and he stared up at me from his chair like he had no idea what was going on.
“Where did she go?”
“Who?”
Jesus fuck.
“Daphne, you moron. The woman you were supposed to be guarding! She had to have gone right past you, so which way did they take her?”
“Oh, you mean the guy with the chair? Yeah, he picked her up and took her that way.” He hitched a thumb over his shoulder, pointing to the elevator. “Just like, two minutes ago or something like that.”
“Come with me,” I snapped, grabbing him by the arm and hauling him out of the chair.
“What the hell, man. I’m supposed to stay by the room.”
“What good is staying by the room if there’s no one in it for you to watch, you idiot.” Moving forward again, I stalked toward the elevator, dragging him behind me. Reaching the elevator, I pressed the button, then pressed it again, as though it could sense my urgency and hurry the hell up.
“Son of a bitch,” I snarled, turning away from the world’s slowest elevator and heading for the stairs, still dragging the useless guard behind me.
“Do you have a gun?” I asked, entering the stairwell and heading down.
“What?”
With a frustrated growl, I spun on him. “Am I going to have to repeat myself every time I speak? I asked if you were carrying a weapon, Deputy Do Wrong.”
“Y-yes,” he stuttered, reaching behind his frumpy brown sport coat and withdrawing a snub-nosed revolver.
“Seriously?” I asked, scowling at the tiny thing in his hand. “What the hell is that?”
“It-it’s a Colt Night Cobra,” he said defensively. “It’s, uh, cool.”
Rolling my eyes, I held out my hand. “Just give it to me.”
The guy hesitated for a second, but after a glance at my face, he passed the gun to me, and I immediately checked it over.
Six shot, .38 special, with a bobbed hammer and a matte black finish; it was a small and tight double action piece. I guessed the thing was pretty cool, but I wasn’t about to admit it.
Gripping the thing tightly, I resumed my limping sprint down the stairs, my leg screaming at me the whole way. As I stumbled my way down, I could hear the clomping footsteps of my hesitant companion slogging along behind me, and I rolled my eyes.
I seriously needed to talk to Stone about his security team in New York.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I yanked the door open and find myself on the busy bottom floor of the hospital. There are people moving in all directions, some with more urgency than others, and so far, no one has noticed me.
Or the weapon in my hand.
Scanning the area frantically, I curse when I don’t see Daphne anywhere. There’s a pounding urgency in my chest that is telling me to hurry, but I don’t know where to hurry to.
Turning in a circle, about to ask someone where the CT department was in case the nurse upstairs was right and she really did need to go for that scan, the sound of screaming reached me. Whirling quickly, I noticed hospital staff rushing to the front door.
“Someone get a gurney out here,” a woman in blue scrubs hollered, running to the door as she held her stethoscope in place with both hands. The main entrance was suddenly chaos with nurses shouting orders and people moving toward the wall of windows at the front of the building, all with their phones up recording whatever was happening out front.
“What the hell?” I muttered, making my way over to the crowd, trying to see for myself what the issue was.
That’s when I spotted her.
Standing in the road, staring open-mouthed at the ambulance parked nearby, was Daphne, still in her pajamas with a look of shock on her face and panic in her eyes.
Something was wrong; I could tell from the way her chest was heaving that she was out of breath, and I knew I had to get to her.
As she turned around, I could see her eyeing the hospital doors, and as she moved in that direction, I headed that way, too.
“Daphne!” I shouted, making my way along the crowd of people now clogging up the hospital entryway. I pushed as fast as I could without knocking people over, keeping my eye on Daphne the whole time.
Which is why I noticed the man approaching her from behind, his face contorted with a look of pure rage.
Just as Daphne reached the door, stepping back to allow the hospital staff to exit with the requested gurney, the man wrapped his arm around her neck and yanked her back, holding her to his chest.
“Fuck!” I could feel the anger swelling inside me like a volcano, ready to blow and ruin anything in my path. Pushing my way out the door, I barreled through, the people in front of me scrambling to clear the path. “Daphne!”
“Ah.” The man, who could only be Davis, looked at me, his teeth showing in a feral grin. “You must be the son of a bitch who fucked up all my plans.”
“Let her go,” I said, raising the gun and holding it steady. “Let her go and I’ll let you walk.”
It was a lie. I’d never allow this fuck to keep breathing, leaving him free to come after her again some day.
“Right,” he scoffed, calling my bluff as he maneuvered her small body in front of his, using her to cover as much of himself as possible.
Fucking coward.
