groaned and parked my ass on the massive concrete barrier that surrounded the rather large light pole that’d been erected to light the area.
The generator that was fueling it was a few feet away, making it nearly impossible to hear anything that was being said across the parking lot.
But I’d had to back even farther away when people were watching me instead of listening to what was being said by the incident commander, Tatum.
Officer Briggs had introduced himself to the lot of us and then deftly started back on his work.
Even in my nauseated state, I couldn’t help but be wowed by his appearance.
He was tall, built, and captivating.
His eyes, even though I hadn’t been all that close to get the full effect, held you practically enraptured when he spoke directly to you.
He had a black ball cap on that was covering his black close-cropped hair, and he was tanned to the point that I had a feeling he spent a lot of time in the sun. That, or he was naturally that tan and he didn’t have to work to maintain it at all.
But it wasn’t necessarily his looks at all that made me realize he was really good at what he did. It was his confidence that she—Ames’ little girl—would be brought home safely.
Another wave of nausea rolled through me and I moaned, catching the attention of an elderly woman that was hanging back like me.
Though, she had seemed to do it the entire time.
I wasn’t sure if me puking just didn’t bother her or what, but through the course of twenty minutes, she’d slowly gotten closer and closer to me even after I’d moved to get farther away.
I looked up to see her eyes on me, and she smiled.
“You’re the woman that helped save that other little girl, aren’t you?” she asked.
I turned, stomach still roiling, and nodded, smiling slightly. “I am.”
“You know, you cost me a half mil.” She turned fully then, her walker forgotten, and stared deeply into my eyes.
“I’m sorry.” I patted my belly, hoping the movement would calm it down. Sadly, it didn’t. “I don’t understand your comment.”
The elderly woman’s eyes were ice cold as she repeated, “You cost me a half a mil. A half a million dollars. You stole that girl from me, and I had to pay back her buyer.”
Shock wormed its way through me.
Then revulsion.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” I took a step back.
Ready to run. Ready to scream. Ready to…
“Don’t move,” she whispered. “I told myself after you cost me that girl, I’d find a way to pay you back. There was your smiling face on that television screen, and I wanted nothing more than to murder you right then and there. All that work I’d gone through, and you did that.”
Shock.
I was in utter and complete shock.
How could this woman do this?
“Why?” I asked. “How?”
If I’d been thinking straighter, I would’ve just run. I would’ve done anything in my power to get away before shit went south like it was bound to happen.
But I didn’t.
Stupidly, I stayed right where I was and asked questions instead of doing what any other sane person in my predicament would’ve done—run.
“Get them to trust me.” The woman smiled, explaining exactly the atrocity as if she was explaining quilting and not kidnapping a child. “Who doesn’t trust an elderly grandmother?”
The thought made me pale.
She was right.
If I was lost or scared or alone, I would for sure trust an elderly woman that talked about her grandkids over just about anyone else.
Sick to my stomach, I tried to surreptitiously look for help, but realized rather quickly that everyone was too engrossed with a ‘possible lead’ and they weren’t looking at me.
I could see the back of Sin’s head as he leaned over a table and pointed at something, and I could see the side of Lynn’s face as he talked to a cop.
What I could not see was a single person looking our way.
A single person but Ames, that was.
Ames was very much aware of what was going on and where I was.
When Sin stood up, she purposefully caught his arm and gestured for something on the table, keeping his gaze directly focused on the table in front of him.
My bottom dropped out of my stomach.
“Had to come up here and do the job myself,” the elderly woman at my side explained. “She did right in the end.”
I had no clue what she was talking about again.
All I knew was that I was