Last Resort--Tactical Crime Division Collection by Carla Cassidy

Author:Carla Cassidy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

No payment demand or instructions. No proof of life. Whoever’d taken Benning’s son wasn’t following typical patterns for an abduction. Which meant this was more than a simple kidnapping. They wanted to hurt Benning, manipulate him. Or they wanted something from him. The question was why.

Ana scoured the parking lot two more times. A gunman couldn’t fire a shot into a hospital without exposing himself, but there was no movement. Nothing to give her an idea of who’d pulled the trigger, or if they were still out there. She locked her grip around her weapon and turned toward Benning. Either way they were sitting ducks in this room. “Get her out of the bed. We’ve got to move.”

He shook his head. “Olivia’s not going anywhere. She needs rest. Her head—”

“You see these bruises around her wrists? How thin they are?” She closed the distance between her and the side of the bed opposite him. Ana flipped his daughter’s hand over as gently as she could. “There’s not enough skin damage for them to be caused by a rope or handcuffs. These are from zip ties, Benning. Someone bound her wrists while she was in that SUV, and she tried to get free, but she’s not strong enough to get out of them herself.”

He took a step back. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying he let her go.” She steadied her attention on him, tried to keep the warning out of her voice as much as possible. Benning was a smart man, but sometimes the fear of losing a child hazed over a parent’s ability to string reality together. “Whoever took her, whoever took Owen? They wanted Olivia to be found. They wanted you in this room and planted the device we found to ensure you followed whatever instructions they’d given you the first time they contacted you.” She studied his expression for any hint she’d hit the nail on the head, and her heart rate spiked as he flinched against the accusation. She was right, and the phone call he’d received seconds ago confirmed it. The kidnapper had warned him not to involve law enforcement, on threat of harming his son, because they weren’t finished with Benning. “They knew exactly where to find you. Do you really want to put Olivia’s life in more danger by staying here, or do you want to save both your daughter and your son?”

One breath. Two. Benning grabbed the near-empty IV bag, then scooped his daughter gently into his arms. Olivia’s small body fell limp against his muscled chest as she continued to combat whatever sedative her doctors had put in that IV. He rounded the end of the bed, those bright blue eyes settling on her. Warmth shot up her neck and into her face as the veins in his sinewy arms fought to break through skin. He hadn’t changed much over the years since she’d last seen him, but there was a new roughness to him, a strength that hadn’t been there before and she couldn’t look away.

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