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The eyes under Toby’s eyelids tracked right and left. He moaned again, sighed.
The door slammed against the wall as Colin rushed in, carrying a doctor’s bag, followed by Emma.
“Toby!” he cried.
Well, the cavalry had arrived. Raul stepped back. Colin’s gloved hands were assured as he efficiently checked Toby for further injuries, the steady hands of a surgeon. Quickly, he checked Toby’s blood pressure, opened his eyes and checked the pupils, counted heartbeats. Toby’s eyes stayed open of their own accord, unfocused, mouth slack. Suddenly, he blinked and seemed to realize what he was seeing.
“C-Colin?” Toby’s voice was a hoarse whisper, raw and filled with hope. “It’s you? Oh my God, it’s you! You came!” He let out a great, wrenching sob.
“Oh, honey.” Colin’s face melted. “Of course, I came.” He bent and hugged Toby who leaned his head against Colin’s shoulder and started crying.
Toby had been through a lot and Colin had been worried sick. Raul met Emma’s eyes and they turned their backs on the couple, to give them a private moment.
Emma leaned so close to him that she was practically in his embrace. He didn’t want to cry but he did want to kiss her. Later. There’d be plenty of time for that later.
“So.” Emma’s voice was barely above a whisper. “Those guys work for a security company. Like yours. That’s pretty heavy ammunition to point at Toby.”
It was.
“It’s not like my company. Sierra’s known for cutting corners and they hire people who would do anything if the price is right. But you’re right. Toby must be really dangerous to someone if he – or she – is willing to sic a security company known for its lax morals on him. I hope he’s capable of reporting what it is he found. I don’t know what they pumped in him.”
“We will know,” said Colin, and they both turned around to see Colin untying the tourniquet around Toby’s arm, and putting a plastic stopper on a beaker. He held the beaker full of blood up. “I came prepared. I know a lab where they can analyze this in less than an hour and tell us what they shot Toby up with.”
Toby’s head hung loosely. “Shots,” he mumbled. “Lots of shots.”
Colin’s arm tightened around his shoulders. “I know, honey, I know. But Raul and Emma are going to find them and make them pay.”
“Damn right,” Raul muttered. The fuckers. “Colin, we can debrief later. I’m anxious to get Toby out of here, as soon as we can.”
Toby’s features tightened with alarm. He was still slurring his words, but some clarity was coming back with each passing moment. “Out! Oh God yes, get me out of here!” He grabbed onto Colin’s shirt sleeve. “Don’t take me to the hospital! They’ll find me! I couldn’t stand going through this again, I’d die.”
Colin put his hand over Toby’s. “I won’t take you to the hospital, unless I feel you need an MRI. But your pupils are the same size. I think you are suffering more from the drugs that were injected into your system than any physical injuries. So yeah, we’ll take you to my house.” He looked up and met Raul’s eyes. “Right?”
“Right.” Raul nodded. No way would he let Toby be taken to Emma’s apartment. They didn’t know about Emma but he wasn’t risking her. He liked Toby but he more than liked Emma and … no. No danger was getting near her. She could work the case at Colin’s place and on her computer. “Let’s get going.”
“Come on, honey,” Colin coaxed, pulling Toby’s pajama clad legs to the side of the bed. “Stand up. Let’s get you out of here and get you safe.”
Toby nodded, pushed off with his hands, tried to stand and collapsed. He would have sunk to the floor if Raul hadn’t grabbed him. He had Toby under the arms and could feel his legs shaking. No way could Toby make it back to the vehicles under his own steam. Colin was thin, spindly. Raul didn’t think he could carry an adult male that far. Raul could, no problem. SEALs regularly trained with packs weighing 50 lbs. They’d trained carrying fellow SEALs weighing 220 lbs. If Toby weighed more than 140 lbs. he’d be surprised.
He strengthened his hold on him. “Toby, I’ll carry you to the car. Will you let me?”
Toby nodded, breathing heavily.
Raul bent forward and slid Toby into a fireman’s hold, one forearm holding Toby’s legs down against his chest. He could have carried him in his arms but he wanted at least one hand free. They’d eliminated the guards but there was no guarantee other men weren’t coming. Now that they had Toby, they had to get out as fast as they could. Emma was holding the drone.
Raul looked around carefully. “You sure you guys didn’t leave anything behind that could identify us?”
Emma and Colin both shook their heads. They were smart people. Raul trusted that they were leaving a clean environment that would mess with the heads of the fuckers who had kidnapped and drugged Toby. He wanted it to appear that aliens had beamed in from outer space, grabbed Toby, took out the security guys and left.
“OK then. Let’s go.”
Toby weighed nothing at all. Raul broke into a trot back to the Black Inc vehicle. He couldn’t wait to get out of there. He trusted Emma to have done a good job of blocking out all vid cams and of looping the cams back at the house where they’d been keeping Toby, but the less time they stayed, the better.
Colin placed Toby carefully into the front passenger seat of his car, strapped him in, gave them his address and took off.
Emma watched them go with a frown. She looked worried. Raul rubbed the frown away from between her brows. He hated seeing that look on her – anxious and lost. They’d made progress, mainly thanks to her, but the heart of what was going on – that was still a mystery.
“It’ll be OK,” Raul said. “Toby clearly has some knowledge they want and when he tells us, we’ll know, too. Only we have two big security companies on our side, all made up of good guys, and ties to the law enforcement community. Nobody will come after Toby again. We’ll figure out what Toby knows and stop whatever he’s found out and everyone can go back to their lives.”Except you, he thought, but didn’t say. Emma was never going back to that bank.
