Keeping Gemma (Holiday Cove 2)

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” I jerked out of my chair, stuffed my phone back into my jeans pocket, only to rip it back out seconds later. This time, I dialed the hospital, and after working my way—without losing my shit—through the phone tree, I made it to the nurse station in the ER. “Hello, this is Aaron Rosen. I was a patient there a few days ago and was hoping to get in touch with one of my doctors, Gemma Henderson. Is she available?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Rosen, Gemma isn’t here this afternoon.”

My heart jumped into my throat. She wasn’t there? But I’d just seen her less than an hour before.

“At all?” I said, cringing at the desperation creeping into my voice. “I mean, uhm, she’s not there at all?”

“Well, she was,” the nurse confessed with a small sigh. “She left a little while ago.”

“Do you know where she was going?”

“No. I’m sorry. Would you like me to get one of the other doctors? I’m sure they will be able to assist you.”

“No, no. That won’t be necessary, thank you.”

Fuck!

I clicked off the call before the nurse could prod for more information. Where was she? She’d left the hospital in the middle of her shift. She wasn’t answering her phone. And the most chilling piece of the puzzle…O’Keefe had just threatened her minutes before.

My heart squeezed into a tight ball even as it raced. A gripping hand made of ice and fear had wrapped around it and refused to let go. As my mind ran wild, the intensity increased, until I thought I was going to collapse.

I gathered myself, shaking off the grisly scenarios running through my mind, at least as best as I could, and forced my focus into making a plan. I had to find her. Maybe she’d gone home sick?

I decided to start at her house. Even if she wasn’t there, it would give me a chance to go and make sure O’Keefe or his henchmen weren’t there watching her.

As I started out of the office, I regretted not asking Talia for more information about the men she’d claimed were following her. If anyone knew what O’Keefe’s men looked like, it would have been her. But no, all I’d seen was a problem that I was eager to get rid of and had barely listened to what she had to say. The warnings she’d tried to give me.

I shook my head at myself, stalking down the hall, out to the side door.

“Mr. Rosen?”

I stopped walking at the snap of Gary’s voice but didn’t turn toward it. Instead, every muscle tensed. It was a familiar sensation, each fiber locking into place like plated armor. I hadn’t felt this way in years, but my body remembered it all too well. It was the height before a battle. The second before walking into a hot zone. Weapon drawn. Senses on high alert. Every inch ready for action.

“Where are you going?” His footsteps hurried to catch up to me.

“Out. Last time I checked, I wasn’t being held prisoner here,” I snarled.

Gary reached my side and I jerked my chin to look down at him. He squared his broad shoulders. “You’re not. But with everything you just told us, it would be good for you to stay close, in case we find more for you to review.”

A hollow laugh escaped my throat. “What for? I just handed you a nice little gift-wrapped package with the name and motive of the fucker behind this, but that wasn’t good enough. You’re still here, looking for evidence. A trail.”

Gary sighed and his eyes drooped, showing me the first hint of a crack in his walls. “I know, Mr. Rosen. I know this is an exhausting process and sometimes it doesn’t make sense. At least, not from the outside, but I assure you that we’re not discounting the intel you provided. But, as Agent Montgomery and I said, without something solid to go on, there’s nothing we can do to pursue the lead. Everything is circumstantial. At best.”

“I bet if you searched his bank records, you’d find it. Or his contacts. Something is gonna point him back to this.” I threw my hand back toward the hangar. “I’m telling you, Gary, this was him.”

Gary held up his hand and nodded. “I hear you. But no judge is gonna give us a warrant. That’s why we need to keep looking.”

“Fine! But I’m not going to sit around here and wait.” I started off again, my steps charged and furious.

Gary didn’t try to stop me, but when I was a handful of paces away, he called out to me, “Be careful, Mr. Rosen.”

Gemma’s house was empty. At least, from the looks of it. The heavily tinted windows on her garage made it hard to confirm, but from what I could see, there wasn’t a car inside. I’d rounded the house, hoping to check every window, and knocked on both the front and back doors repeatedly, but it was radio silent.