AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The weight pressing down on his shoulders instantly became lighter. Ryker took a deep breath, the first one possible since Eli had been shot. Hannah had been right. Prayer was the place to start.
The doors leading to the emergency room swished open. Claire emerged. She came to a stop just inside the waiting room, her gaze sweeping across the various people. Tension practically poured from her.
Ryker handed Charlotte over to his mom and quickly crossed the room to her. “What is it?”
“Have you seen Hannah?”
Worry punctuated her words. Although she’d asked softly, their body language must’ve conveyed trouble because, within moments, they were surrounded by several members of Company A. Weston Donovan, Luke Tatum, and Bennett Knox joined them.
Ryker’s gaze was locked on Claire. “Isn’t she in the interview with Simon?”
“No. Simon gave me a list of places where Dusty might be hiding. I’ve been coordinating with my deputies to check them out. When I went back into the room, Bruce, Jose, and Gavin were there, but not Hannah. Bruce said he stepped into the hall with her, then went back into the room. That was about fifteen minutes ago.” Her gaze swept across the men. “Have any of you seen her?”
Ryker knew with certainty she hadn’t come into the waiting room. His hand balled into fists at the thought of Dusty getting anywhere near Hannah. “Something’s happened to her.”
Weston scraped a hand over his face. “Okay, let’s not panic. She could be in the ladies' room or in the cafeteria grabbing something to eat. Ryker, go with Claire and check the surveillance cameras. The rest of us will split up and search the hospital room by room if we have to.”
Five minutes later, nerves stretched tight, Ryker scanned the footage in the hospital’s electronics room. Thirteen cameras were strategically placed around the emergency room and the nearby parking lots. The footage they captured was grainy. His gaze flickered from one to the other, searching for Hannah’s copper-colored locks. Finally, he spotted her coming out of Simon’s room with Bruce.
“There.” He pointed to the screen. “Slow down. Follow that couple.”
The technician did as he was told. Hannah and Bruce rounded a corner and disappeared from view.
“Do you have another shot of that hallway?” Claire asked.
“Afraid not. There’s nothing down there except a supply closet and some bathrooms.”
Frustration caused a swear word to rise on Ryker’s tongue, but he held it back. Instead, he put his focus on the camera they did have. A few minutes later, Bruce reappeared and walked back to Simon’s room. There was no sign of Hannah.
“Maybe she went into the bathroom,” Claire suggested. “Let’s keep watching until she reappears.”
Ryker nodded, his attention glued to the screen. An orderly wearing scrubs and a mask wandered past, pushing an empty stretcher. He went down the hallway and disappeared from view. After two minutes, according to the timer on the footage, he returned, but this time a woman lay on the stretcher. Most of her face was covered by a sheet so it was impossible to know for sure, but Ryker had little doubt it was Hannah.
Beside him, Claire stiffened. She pointed to the man. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but that looks like Dusty.”
Ryker peered at the screen. The criminal had chopped off his previously long hair, and the mask hid the bottom half of his face, but the identifiable scar creasing his neck peeked out from the collar of his scrubs. “He’s changed his looks, but it’s Dusty all right.”
Dusty wheeled Hannah straight out of the emergency room to a loading dock for ambulances. Someone wearing a paramedic’s uniform and a ball cap hopped out of the front seat and helped him load the gurney. As if the person knew the cameras were there, Dusty’s accomplice purposefully kept his face hidden.
The two criminals hopped into the ambulance and tore off.
“Freeze that frame.” Ryker pointed to the vehicle’s license plate. Fulton County outfitted every one of their state vehicles with a tracking system. “We need a GPS location on that ambulance.” He backed away from the door, yanking his keys from his pocket. “Text it to me, Claire.”
“On it.”
Ryker bolted from the room. The fastest way out of town from the hospital was northbound on the freeway. He instinctively knew that’s the route Hannah’s kidnappers had taken. Heading that way while Claire tracked the ambulance would give Ryker a head start. One he would need. Dusty was on a mission to kill Hannah.
Every second counted.
TWENTY-SIX
Shouting.
Hannah peeled her eyes open. Her gaze wouldn’t focus. Darkness pressed in, the only illumination coming from a faint glow somewhere overhead. Her mouth was dry as a desert and her throat ached. The mattress underneath her was wrong. And those voices…they weren’t familiar. Hannah couldn’t make out the words, just the tenor of the conversation. It was tense.
She blinked, some primal instinct inside her blaring a desperate warning, and willed her gaze to focus. A haze clouded her thinking. Nothing about her surroundings made sense, and her hands hurt. She twisted her fingers. Fear jolted her heart into high gear. Her hands were bound with silver tape.
All at once, the last moments before she lost consciousness hit her. Hannah gasped and sat up. A wave of dizziness tilted her world one way and then the next. Her stomach threatened to revolt.
