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Debra thanked the woman and then Evan was wheeling her out the front doors of the building and around the side to where his car was. He would have to lift her into his car and then put the chair in the back.
He was looking at the back of the chair as he rolled her, trying to see if there was a lever or something to fold it up so it would fit in his truck. He didn’t see Turner Carson coming. Didn’t feel the blow to the back of his head. Didn’t get more than a grunt out as he fell to the ground.
Chapter 33
“Sam put in a call to a friend in the FBI,” Logan called back from the front of the rental car they’d had waiting for them when they landed in New Jersey. “He’s got a friend on the police force in Berkeley Heights. He’s going to have the friend roll by to do a well check on your mom.”
They were only minutes out from her mother’s care home, but Kaeden was glad Samantha had called in the favor. He knew it would make Jane feel better to know a police officer would be headed that way, too. As much as she hadn’t been able to rely on the police in her mother’s town to help them, having one on site when they arrived would be a good thing. Turner Carson didn’t have friends here the way he did back home.
The silence in the car was thick and heavy as they drove the last ten miles and Kaeden kept his hand on Jane’s leg, letting her know he was there for her.
“It’s just ahead on the right,” Jane said, directing Jack.
They had no idea what they were headed into. They could find her mom sitting there perfectly safe knitting or something. Or they might find Turner Carson had beaten them there and her mother was in trouble.
With any luck, there would at least be security he had to get through at the front desk. Surely her mother would be careful with who she allowed through to see her given her history with this man.
They pulled into the lot and Kaeden scanned the front of the building. It was a nice place. Large enough that he felt sure they would have a front desk that required visitors to check in.
Then he remembered the man who was visiting Jane’s mother had somehow gotten in to see her without registering as a visitor on the tour, so there must not be security around the grounds.
Jack parked in the second row from the front and they all got out of the car. Kaeden stayed close to Jane, wishing there was more he could do to support her. For now, holding her hand and being there by her side would have to be enough.
He scanned the lot and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
But as they neared the front entrance, a scream turned his blood cold and turned all of their attention toward the side of the building. Logan and Kaeden were in the lead as they turned to run that way.
Chad called out that he would go around the other side and Jack followed him.
Kaeden and Logan pulled ahead of Jane as they came around the corner. No way did Kaeden want her coming face to face with her mother’s husband without one of them between them. Sure, it was a caveman mentality, but he wouldn’t apologize for it. It was what it was.
Kaeden cursed when they saw what he had to assume was Jane’s mother and her husband a few yards away.
They stood near a wheelchair and it looked as though Turner had just pulled the woman from it. He held her roughly and when he spotted them, he turned pulling the woman up against him, his large hand around her neck as he held her in front of him like a shield.
Another man lay slumped by the wheelchair, not moving. They weren’t close enough to see if there was blood or how the man might be injured, but it didn’t look good.
“Mom!” Jane cried out, but Kaeden caught her around the waist.
Turner Carson looked like a man who hadn’t realized yet that he wasn’t going to be able to walk away from this unscathed. He looked at them like he fully expected them to walk away without helping the woman he so casually tossed around like a ragdoll.
Kaeden didn’t think he’d ever seen such hate in anyone’s eyes. Not in his years in the military when they were in firefights overseas. Not when he was facing down his platoon leader when he stopped him from raping Alyssa. Not when he’d faced the men who were angry at him for daring to speak out against their platoon leader.
And that hate was directed at Jane.
“You thought you could hide my wife from me, bitch,” Turner spat. “No one leaves me. No one hides from me.”
“Let her go, Turner!” Jane yelled, pleading as she tried to pull against Kaeden.
Kaeden put his mouth close to her ear. “Take it easy. We need to get your mom out of there without her getting hurt. And we don’t want him getting his hands on you, too.”
He had a feeling, whether the man realized it yet or not, that Turner now had very little to lose. There would be no denying this time, no covering up exactly what kind of man he was.
Kaeden could see the man’s hand closing on his wife’s neck and her eyes closing as she seemed to sway in his arms.
He heard a car come to a stop and glanced to the side to see the police officer Sam had sent for pulling up to the side of the bulding.
He actually heard the officer say, “holy shit,” before calling in the situation and asking for backup. Wonderful, they got a cop whose response was “holy shit.”
