Until Nico (Until 4)

“We’re just getting in my car. You need me to bring you something?” he asks as soon as he picks up.

“Sophie’s not in the room. I need you back in here. Now,” I tell him, trying to stay calm. Something isn’t right.

“What do you mean she’s not in the room?”

“Exactly what I just said. Get back in here now.” I hang up.

“Did you need something?” a second nurse wearing bright pink scrubs asks, stepping into the room.

“Do you know where my wife is?” I ask, not wanting to hear the word ‘no’ come out of her mouth.

“She’s not here?” she asks, looking at the nurse holding Willow then around the room before walking into the bathroom and turning on the light.

“Get security for me,” I growl impatiently.

“Yes, of course,” she mumbles, looking worried. She leaves the room, and I look down at Harmony then over at Willow.

“Anything?” Kenton asks, coming into the room.

“I’m waiting for security to get here before I go look for her myself. Do me a favor and take Willow.” I motion for him to take my daughter from the nurse, and he does immediately. “Go check and see what’s going on with security,” I tell the nurse, and she nods, leaving the room quickly.

“We’ll find her,” Kenton says with conviction, looking down at Willow.

“I know.” There isn’t any other option.

I know that, wherever Sophie is, she’s scared, and it’s fucking with my head. I’ve made sure since we got together that she always felt safe. Knowing that she just had emergency surgery to have our daughters and is still recovering is only making my anxiety heighten.

It takes about five minutes for security to show up, and once there, they tell me that the nurse explained what’s going on. They’ve put the hospital on lockdown and are searching for Sophie.

I take a second to call my mom to let her know that I need her here and to bring Dad. As soon as they arrive, I give her Harmony and Willow and a strict instruction to not leave the room for any reason. I leave her and Dad in the room, along with a guard at the door, and follow the head of security down the hall to the security office. Once there, we go into a small room holding the CCTVs. An older gentleman with short white hair is sitting in front of the screens, playing back a video from the camera in front of the room Sophie was in.

“You find anything yet, Charlie?”

“Not yet. Still looking,” the guy mumbles.

I watch the screen as well, trying to catch a glimpse of anything out of the ordinary. Five minutes into the video, I’m ready to start breaking shit. I need to be out looking, but I know this is the first step in the process. I watch the video of me leaving the room with the nurse and heading to the waiting area, taking my girls to meet our family. About two minutes after we leave the room, a guy wearing a long doctor’s coat and pushing a wheelchair enters Sophie’s room. He’s facing away from the camera, so I can’t see what he looks like, but I feel bile in the back of my throat as I watch him enter the room. I don’t know what happens when he is in there alone with her, but I do know I will find and kill him. About four minutes after he enters her room, I watch as he leaves, pushing a passed-out Sophie in the wheelchair, and I finally see who the fuck it is.

Rage fills me when I see that the man pushing the chair is the same man who’s had a hard-on for Sophie since she started working at the school. David goes out of camera-view before reappearing in the next shot. He pushes Sophie casually down three halls before wheeling her out of the front door of the hospital. My body is literally shaking with adrenalin. I cannot imagine what he wants with her or how he even found out she was here.

“I know who that is. I’m gonna call Justin and tell him what I know about this guy to see if he can lead us to where he lives or where he might have her.”

“Who is it?” Kenton asks.

“He worked with her.”

“Why would he take her?”

“He wants her. He’s had a thing for her since she started working at the school,” I growl.

“Call Justin,” Kenton says as I pull my phone out of my pocket, putting it to my ear.

“Hidee-ho, Ranger Joe,” Justin answers in his usual chipper voice.

“Cut the shit,” I snap, running a hand through my hair. “I need everything you can get on a guy named David who works at the same school Sophie did.”

“You got a last name?” Justin asks, his voice now all business. I guess he must hear the seriousness in my tone.

“I think it’s Rasmussen, but I’m not sure,” I mumble, hating that I didn’t dig into the fucker when I should have.

“Give me five and I’ll call you back with everything I find.”

“Thanks,” I say, hanging up. “Justin’s on it. He said five, so let’s be ready to roll when he gets back to me.” Kenton nods, and we head outside just as the cops start to show up. “Look, I’m gonna call Leo and fill him in on what’s going on. I don’t what the local PD in on this right now.”

“Agreed. Too much red tape,” Kenton mumbles, typing something into his cell.

I dial Leo’s number once I reach to the truck, and he answers on the second ring.

“Nico?” He sounds tired.

“Yeah, man. Look, I don’t have a lot of time because I’ve got a call coming in, but I’m going to need backup from your boys.”

“What’s going on?” I can tell my words have woken him up and piqued his interest.

“Sophie went missing from the hospital”—I pull my phone away from my ear, looking at the time—“twenty minutes ago. I got footage of the guy that took her. I need you to be ready to roll when I text you the info my man sends me.”

“Shit,” he growls, and I can tell he’s up and moving. “Hit me back when you got something. Do you know who we’re looking for?”

“Yeah, man. A guy Sophie worked with at the school. His name is David, and I think his last name is Rasmussen. He must have been watching her for a while.”

“Fuck. All right. I’ll get the guys rounded up. As soon as you know where you want us, text me.”

“Thanks.” I hang up with him just as Justin calls.

“Go,” I say, opening the door to my car.

“His address is 382 Donner Street in Springhill. It says he has another house over on Commerce in the same area. His background is pulling up all kinds of fucked-up shit, man. He was married twice, and both times, his wives went missing. The first one was when he was nineteen and his wife was eighteen, and they had dated throughout high school. The second wife was when he was twenty-eight and she was twenty-three. She went missing a year after they got married. He was suspect number one in each case, but the police couldn’t find any evidence.”

“Jesus.”

“That’s not all,” he says, and my gut goes fucking tight. I can’t imagine anything worse than what he just told me.

“What?”

“Seems he moves around a lot.”

“And?” I prompt.

“Each pla

ce he has lived, there have been women who come up missing, and not long after they go missing does he move from the area.”

“Fuck,” I roar. That sick fuck has my woman. She’s still recovering from the C-section she just had, and he fucking has her when she’s in no state to fight back.

“Go get her, man,” Justin, says before hanging up.

I look at Kenton, giving him a silent signal to get into the car.

“Talk to me,” he says as soon as I hit the gas.

I don’t know what to say; I don’t want to say out loud the fucked-up shit I just heard.

“We’re going to get her back,” he says, filling the silence. I pray he’s right; I can’t imagine having a life where there’s no Sophie in it.

“The guy who took her has a history of women disappearing,” I choke out, feeling bile crawl up the back of my throat.

“Fuck,” Kenton clips.

“I need you to call Leo and have him go to the second address Justin gave me. Tell him about his history and let him know I want that fucker dead.”

“If he doesn’t get taken out by one of us tonight, the second he’s in jail, he’s dead,” Kenton mutters.

I know he has that kind of power, has people everywhere who owe him. I want that. Either way, the motherfucker’s gonna die for even looking at Sophie.

*~*~*

I stoop, making my way in front of one window then another until I’m at the back of the house. I can hear arguing from inside, and I signal for Kenton to follow. I take three steps, my back hitting the wall near the back door before I turn the handle. It clicks open, and I lift my Glock, pressing the door open with it. I search both ways while stepping into the kitchen. I hear Kenton behind me as we scope out the first two rooms we come to.

“It’s all clear down here,” he whispers.

I nod then point up the stairs. We make our way to the top, and there are two doors; one has a light penetrating from the bottom of it. I gesture to it with a tilt of my gun, and Kenton signals over his shoulder to the door behind him. He cautiously opens it to find it empty, and then I lean forward, trying to hear anything from inside the lit room. I hear two male voices and a whimper.