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Ethan clicks his tongue. “You’re smart, I’ll give you that. But the fact that you avoided giving me an answer shows what you truly think. I have my answer already.”
Fine and dandy,I conclude in my mind.As long as I don’t say it out loud, we’ll never have to talk about it.
I know the second I admit to Ethan that I have feelings for Lily, he will be all mushy. He’ll be the first to encourage me to make a move, and then I’ll have to give him the one thousand and one reasons why I can’t. I don’t want to deal with that. At least not today.
He pats me on the shoulder.
“But if it’s that you’re worried you’re out of your game, then you have me to help you. Grace and I,” he wiggles his brows, “we keep the fire going. The embers stoked, the flames—”
“Alright!” I cut him short. “Any news on the case? Any updates?”
He clears his throat. “Right. The case. That’s why I’m here. I might have to spend the night, so I hope you have a spare room.”
“You can sleep on the couch,” I say.
“It’s hard to believe we’re best friends. I would let you take the room with the good bed, you know.”
I shrug, feigning nonchalance despite the teasing smile on my face.
“That’s you. I’m Logan Fraiser.”
“Sure. About the case, we did a raid. Unauthorized, but we were able to get a few people connected to the gang that has been involved in these kidnappings.”
I unconsciously shift closer to him. “And?”
“A notorious mob gang,” he says. “Carried out the kidnapping case that went cold. We’ve discovered that the leader died, and the ranks fell apart, which is why they went radio silent. Someone else has taken over, and he’s more ruthless than the former.
There are kidnapping cases in other states that have dropped because the leads went cold that we linked to the gang because the victims had some affiliation with the gang members. The reason we were able to arrest some during the sting operation was due to a tip linked to a killing that happened two years ago.
A doctor was killed at a hospital after failing to save one of the head members—of the gang. The man was far gone in his illness, but they blamed the doctor. Two of them stormed the hospital and gunned him down while he was in the parking lot.”
“Oh,” I say. “That’s crazy. Killing doctors because patients don’t seek medical care until it's too late.”
Ethan shrugs. “Not to them.”
“According to the people in our custody, the leader in charge now is on a revenge spree. Taking down every and anyone he feels has wronged his gang in some way over the years. That’s why we’ve linked cases across states to them.
I don’t have anything on Lily yet, but since we can't pinpoint what happened to her and you’re suspecting she was kidnapped, then it might be them.”
“How?” I ask.
I’m leaning toward his theory, but I know not to conclude on anything without sufficient information or probabilities.
“There’s no reason why anyone would take her. The fact that she didn’t have anything on her, and she looked that terrible when you found her rules out roadside robbery.
"Then there’s the nightmares,” he adds. “Maybe someone close to her might have had bad dealings with the gang, and they came for her. But,” he lifts a finger, “it’s just a theory. I was hoping I could get consent to show her picture to the ones in custody.
I’ll head back after I meet with a detective in Colorado Springs tomorrow. She’d been on to them for a while before they slipped through her fingers. I’m hoping we can work on something to review old leads. Anything.”
Someone close to her might have had bad dealings with the gang.
Ethan’s words echo in my head repeatedly as I remember what Lily told me when I brought her from the hospital. The man on the stretcher. The bullet wound. The fact that she knew he meant something to her.
Could it have been the doctor?
“The doctor,” I say. “Was it on the news?”
He nods. “Yeah. We also have an extensive file on him.”
