Chapter 12 - The Nurse on the Wrong Side of the Door
Rafe said no before anyone asked.
“No.”
Agent Cole stood across from him.
“We don’t know what they want with Elena.”
“No.”
“It may be our best opportunity to locate June.”
“No.”
I stepped forward.
“Yes.”
Rafe turned.
“No.”
“You don’t own the word.”
“Elena.”
“June is missing.”
“And I’m getting her back.”
“How?”
He didn’t answer.
“By walking into every warehouse in Massachusetts?”
“If necessary.”
“That isn’t a plan.”
“It’s better than handing you to whoever took her.”
Cole raised both hands.
“We are not handing anyone anywhere. We use controlled contact.”
Rafe stared at her.
“You lost June while she was under federal protection.”
Cole’s expression tightened.
“Yes.”
That honesty prevented the argument from exploding.
“We made a mistake,” she continued. “I won’t make another.”
Rafe looked at me.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“Stop.”
My voice came out sharper than intended.
Everyone went silent.
I walked closer.
“Your sister is missing because somebody knows exactly how you react.”
His expression changed.
“They expect you to refuse cooperation. They expect you to become angry. They expect you to isolate yourself and charge straight toward the threat.”
Rafe said nothing.
“That is how Rourke manipulated Elias. Fear. Anger. Predictability.”
His jaw tightened.
“You’re telling me to be calm while June is somewhere with people who want me dead?”
“Yes.”
He looked away.
I touched his arm.
“Rafe.”
His eyes returned to mine.
“Trust someone.”
A long pause.
“Who?”
“Me.”
That frightened him more than gunfire.
I saw it.
Trust meant surrendering control.
And control had kept him alive since nineteen.
Finally, he nodded.
Once.
“Fine.”
The kidnappers sent instructions thirty minutes later.
A location.
An abandoned medical clinic outside Cambridge.
I was to enter alone.
No visible police.
No Rafe.
Of course federal teams surrounded the area before I arrived.
A transmitter was hidden beneath my clothing.
Agent Cole spoke through my earpiece.
“We’re with you.”
Rafe stood beside the vehicle.
He hated every second.
“Come back out if anything feels wrong.”
“Everything feels wrong.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
He caught my hand.
Unexpected.
Warm.
Strong.
For a moment, the feared man disappeared again.
“Elena.”
“I’ll come back.”
“Don’t promise things you can’t guarantee.”
I almost smiled.
“You’ve been listening.”
“Unfortunately.”
I squeezed his hand once.
Then walked toward the clinic.
The door was unlocked.
Inside, fluorescent emergency lights flickered.
“June?”
No answer.
I moved through the hallway.
Old exam rooms.
Empty waiting area.
Then a voice.
“Elena.”
Adrian Voss stepped from an office.
I froze.
“You’re supposed to be at the hospital.”
“So are you.”
He looked exhausted.
No restraints.
No guards.
“What are you doing here?”
“Trying to fix something I helped create.”
“Where’s June?”
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
“Not yet.”
Anger rose.
“You have ten seconds before half the federal government enters this building.”
“I know.”
“Then talk.”
Voss looked older than I remembered.
“I helped Elias disappear because Thomas Calder convinced me Armitage would kill him.”
“I know.”
“Elias resurfaced six months ago. Rourke found him first.”
“I know.”
“Rourke convinced him Thomas betrayed him.”
“I know that too.”
Voss took a breath.
“You don’t know everything.”
Of course not.
“What?”
“Elias discovered Rourke’s deception before the shipyard.”
I stared.
“What?”
“He suspected Rourke for weeks.”
“Then why kidnap you?”
“To convince Rourke he still believed him.”
My mind raced.
“The kidnapping was staged?”
“Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“He tied the ropes tighter than necessary.”
That sounded like Elias.
“Why?”
“To get Rourke to expose himself.”
“So Claire didn’t know?”
“No.”
“And June?”
“Elias took her.”
My anger exploded.
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“You keep saying that!”
Voss stepped closer.
“Elena, listen. There is someone else.”
The same phrase Rourke had implied.
Someone inside.
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
“Then why take June?”
“Because Rourke was not the person accessing her live schedule.”
I felt sick.
“That means—”
“Someone close to Rafe is still compromised.”
Malcolm.
Victor.
Hayes.
Staff.
Anyone.
Voss continued.
“Elias took June before the real traitor could.”
“Without telling anyone?”
“He didn’t know who to trust.”
“That includes me?”
“He trusted you enough to request you.”
My earpiece crackled.
Cole whispered, “We’re hearing this.”
Voss looked toward my ear.
“I assumed.”
I exhaled.
“Where is June?”
A side door opened.
June stepped through.
Alive.
Unhurt.
Furious.
“You people are terrible at explaining plans.”
I ran to her.
She hugged me.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?”
“I didn’t know Elias was taking me until he put me in the car.”
Elias appeared behind her.
His arm in a sling.
“I apologized.”
June looked at him.
“You used a hood.”
“For operational security.”
“You kidnapped a Calder.”
“I’m aware.”
Rafe’s voice exploded through my earpiece.
“I can hear him.”
June smiled.
“Hi, Rafe.”
The clinic doors opened thirty seconds later.
Rafe ignored every federal instruction and walked directly inside.
June ran to him.
He held her so tightly she made a noise.
“Can’t breathe.”
He loosened his arms.
Then looked at Elias.
I stepped between them.
“No.”
Rafe stared over my shoulder.
“He kidnapped my sister.”
“To keep her alive.”
“I’m considering context.”
June touched his chest.
“Don’t.”
Rafe looked at her.
Then at Elias.
Finally, he stepped back.
Progress.
Painful progress.
Elias placed a phone on the table.
“I installed a tracer on June’s schedule feed.”
Malcolm entered.
“What did you find?”
Elias looked at him.
“One user accessed it seventeen times.”
Rafe became still.
“Name.”
Elias turned the screen.
The account belonged to a Calder Security executive.
Not Malcolm.
Not Victor.
Not Hayes.
Someone no one had suspected.
Natalie Price.
June whispered, “Natalie?”
Rafe’s chief legal counsel.
The woman who had managed Calder contracts for eight years.
The woman who prepared the corporation’s compliance reports.
The woman who had access to every legitimate and illegitimate record inside the empire.
Malcolm swore.
Rafe stared at the name.
Then Elias said, “She accessed one more file this morning.”
“What?”
“Your cooperation agreement with the FBI.”
Rafe’s face changed.
Natalie knew he was giving everything up.
She knew the old Calder organization was about to collapse.
And she had disappeared two hours earlier.
But before leaving, she downloaded one file.
A list of every witness scheduled to testify against Daniel Rourke.
At the top were three names.
Rafe Calder.
Elias Mercer.
May you like
And Elena Ward.
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