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The boy stopped and turned.
“Kevin!” Raina’s shout echoed and people stopped to look. “No! Michael, run! Get away from him! Someone get Michael Harrison now!” From the corner of her eye, she saw a man she recognized. John Tate. “John!” The word was a gasp, but her attention quickly swung back to Kevin, who turned. Familiar eyes locked with hers, and for a brief moment, time stood still while Michael froze, unsure what was going on.
Then Raina was within ten feet of the man who’d almost killed her. The man who planned to kidnap her son.
Security and John Tate pounded toward Michael and Kevin. When Kevin realized he was almost surrounded, a snarl curled his lips, and he lifted his hand with something in it. He aimed it at Michael, but Raina lunged the rest of the way and threw herself into Kevin. His scream of rage mixed with Vince’s holler for her to stop.
Then something liquid hit her in the face. Her muscles went weak and she wobbled. Hard arms hoisted her over an even harder shoulder, then she was falling, felt the thud of her body hitting the floor of the van. She heard the door shut, tried to call out, but the darkness swept over her, and she had no choice but to give in.
????
Vince was in shock. That was the only word he could come up with to explain the paralyzing numbness that rendered him unable to move for a good second. Then he grabbed the nearest security officer and pointed. “Radio someone and tell them not to lose that van! He just kidnapped a woman.” The officer was on his radio almost before Vince finished speaking. “Raina, can you hear me?” He could only pray she still had her comms in and her abductor hadn’t noticed it. “Raina?”
Silence, then static answered him. She was already out of range. The radios for the security team probably only reached around the perimeter of the event and not beyond.
“What happened?”
He turned to find the sheriff running toward him. “He took her.”
Joseph tensed. “Her?”
The driver of the van hurried over to them. “He stole the van!”
“She saved me,” Michael said, his eyes wide, voice shaky. Michael’s father didn’t look much better, his dark skin pale, brows furrowed in a deep frown. “Did you see what she did, Dad? She pushed the guy away from me, and he sprayed her with something, then took her.”
“I saw, son.” He pulled Michael into a tight hug, and even in his panicked, distracted state, Vince noticed the boy didn’t pull away.
Local police on scene and part of the security descended, and Vince got on the phone with Holt.
It only took him a few seconds to bring the man up to speed. “There’s a BOLO out on the van, of course, but I need you to use any influence you have with the Bureau in this location to get them looking for Raina.”
“Of course. I’ll make some calls.”’
Vince’s phone beeped with an incoming call. “I’ve got to go.”
“I’ll be in touch.”
He tapped the screen. “Gabrielle, I’m here. Just so you know, Raina’s been taken.”
“What?”
He gave her the short version. “What do you have?”Please have something that’ll help find Raina.
“I looked into the Baldridges and you might find it interesting. He has two sons. Christopher and Keith. No rentals, hotels, or plane tickets that would raise suspicion—nothing.”
“Why did Simon hire a PI?”
“I don’t know. One thing interesting, I can’t find any pictures of Keith Baldridge other than a fuzzy driver’s license photo.”
“Send it to me.” Unfortunately, he hadn’t gotten a look at the guy who’d stolen the van and taken Raina away.
“Sending.”
His phone pinged. “Keep digging, please. Find whatever little detail you can about every single family member. I feel like the answer’s there, it’s just going to take some effort.” And time. Time Raina might not have.
“Will do. Also, something interesting. That lawyer who was killed in California. The one Raina called?”
“Yeah.”
