Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“Don’t turn on the television, just listen to me, all right? Sam and four other people were taken hostage at Elgin. Apparently, there was a hack that happened early this morning, and a doctor and two others had their identities compromised, so when their credentials were checked and double-checked, as we do, they passed scrutiny, but were then discovered to have been falsified.”
He was being very proper with me, and I had to wonder if he was alone on his end.
“At this time, we know that these individuals were there in order to assist in the release of this prisoner.”
I tried to speak around the lump in my throat, but my words came out raspy. “Where is he now?”
“Sam just negotiated to have Ian Doyle”––him saying Ian’s last name answered my question; he was definitely not alone––“and two other marshals released. They just got to the command center and reported that Joel Osborne, the prisoner who was being transferred, had agreed to let them go in return for a van and safe passage to the executive airport in Wheeling.”
“Okay.”
He took a breath. “During the initial hostage-taking, several inmates were released, and Sam was taken. Ian reported that he was beaten.”
I was back to not breathing.
“A couple of the inmates wanted to…hurt the nurses who were there, and when Sam interfered, he was shot.”
It wasn’t a gentle slope to the floor; I fell. One moment I was standing, albeit leaning, and the next I was sprawled on the tile in my kitchen.
“Ian tried to get to Sam, and he was shot too. Osborne then shot and killed the men who wanted to violate the nurses, because apparently that was not on his agenda, and the two of them walked out with Ian and the other two marshals.”
“But Sam…” I managed to gasp.
He cleared his throat again. “Ian said Sam was shot in the abdomen. Ian was shot in the shoulder. We don’t know the severity of the wound, but Ian said Sam was lying down holding a hand over his stomach when Ian and the others were made to leave.”
My vision blurred as I rolled over and sat up, banging into the cupboard, my head clipping the stainless-steel knob. It hurt, which helped clear my head.
“You’re not going to let them get in a van and drive away, are you?”
“No, we’re not,” he assured me. “Wes Ching and his team are going in ahead of SWAT, and we’re going to retake the ward where they are. The problem is that to get there, they’ll see us coming. Even if we take the camera feed down, that will tip them to the fact we’re breaching. This isn’t the movies, we don’t have time to replace a live feed with a fake one, and as other noncompliant prisoners are also being held hostage, we have to go in. We have no choice.”
“But Sam is already hurt.”
“Yes.” He choked out the word. “And when Osborne sees that we’re not keeping our word, as he’s already shot Sam once––”
“He might just kill him.”
No answer, which basically was one.
“But we have to breach, as Sam’s not the only hostage, and he may—Jory…there’s a possibility he’s already gone.”
I knew that. I’d been married to a man in law enforcement for well over a decade. I understood how things worked.
“But the news doesn’t have these details. That’s why I don’t want you to watch. Don’t answer calls, and don’t talk to the media, who will probably be on your doorstep soon.”
“Okay.”
“Are the kids there with you?”
“No.”
“Good. Wherever they are, don’t have them come home. Have them go somewhere else, all right? I’ll contact you the second I know anything,” he concluded and hung up.
I called Dane then, because it was something I did when I was overwhelmed. “I need a favor,” I told him, and my voice, I was sure, the pain in it, the fear, and the way I couldn’t even out my tone, made him skip the usual banter and simply listen.
“I’ll call them,” he apprised me the second I was done. “Aja and I will be ready. Don’t worry, they won’t go home.”
But I knew my kids. They would insist; they would argue with him and want to be with me; and more than that, they’d want to know what was happening with Sam. Hannah was on her phone constantly, and she had alerts set up for her father and Aaron, for Dane and everyone she knew who could possibly make the news.
“Dane,” I whispered, “you have to make sure.”
“I will,” he promised. And for a moment, just knowing he could make that happen, I was comforted.
He hung up, and the doorbell rang, which startled the hell out of me. No one rang your doorbell in the middle of a pandemic. I reached the door and looked out, and there was a man there in a suit and tie. When he took a step back, I could see who it was, and opened the door—Eli Kohn, who worked for Sam. He was the director of the Public Affairs Division, so I understood why he was there.