Reid - Maddie Wade Page 0,57
clear of any doubt.
“Let them go, and I’ll leave with you,” Callie demanded.
Sophia sneered. “What makes you think you’re in a position to give orders? I’m in charge now, and you’ll do as I say.” She waved at Reid with the gun again. “Lie on the floor.”
Reid held his hands up as he went to his knees and slowly moved to his belly, his eyes never leaving Sophia.
In a swift movement, the crazy agent pushed the mother and child to the floor and grabbed for Callie, pressing the gun to her head.
“You, open that door and make sure the exit is clear.”
The mother did as directed, and Sophia backed from the small room looking triumphant. “Stay here, or I’ll splatter her pretty brains all over the floor.”
Reid clenched his jaw, rethinking every thought he’d ever had about hurting a woman and he knew at that moment if he ever got his hands on Sophia, she would die. Callie kept her sights on him until the door closed, leaving him, the terrified young woman, and her crying son alone.
He moved to her on his knees. “Hey, you’re safe now.” He looked to the door wanting to go but taking the extra seconds to reassure the traumatised mom.
“Go, get her back.” Her face was steady as she held her son to her chest and rocked.
Reid nodded and was moving before she finished speaking. He pulled the door and was at the top of the stairs when he saw Liam and Lopez racing up them.
“Sophia has Callie.” The words were bitter on his lips as he said them.
Liam looked towards the back hallway and staff door. “That way.”
The three of them took off as if the hounds of hell were behind them. They ran through the shocked group of waitstaff and down the back stairs toward the fire exit.
Reid slammed the door open and looked left and right. Seeing nothing, he looked again, trying to figure out which way to go.
Liam took over knowing the town better. “This way, she needs a car, and she won’t have paid for parking.”
His joke wasn’t meant to be funny, merely the truth. As a unit they ran towards the football ground where the car park had no barriers. Each man raced for different ends of ample space.
He dodged around families and students out for the day trying to spot his sunshine and couldn’t. His heart was hammering inside his chest as desperation built. He needed to get to her, to save her. Lopez jogged over to him from the far side and stopped; his breathing barely changed for his exertion.
“Nothing. She must have had a car.”
Reid nodded and took one more glance around. He couldn’t shake the feeling someone had eyes on him. He glanced at Liam as he stopped next to them. “You feel it?”
Liam nodded. “You think it’s Gunner?”
Reid scanned the area again and found nothing out of the ordinary. “Possibly.”
“Let’s get back to Eidolon and get a plan and search in place.”
Lopez clapped him on the shoulder, and he took one last look around before he dipped his chin and followed his friends, his mind on Callie and just how much he’d failed her—the one woman who held his heart in a way nobody else ever had. Maybe he was no better than his useless father after all. At least he’d had the decency to walk before he could fuck up.
As they make their way to his car, his phone rang and he snatched it up hoping to hear Callie’s voice, but it was his boss instead.
“Any reason the panic alarm Will gave your girl is blaring like a hungry new-born?”
Reid stopped dead at those words. “Alarm?”
“Yeah, Will gave her a new prototype that attaches to a person’s shoelace. It looks like any other lace and hers is going wild.”
“Sophia is the stalker. She took Callie.”
“Get back here now, and we’ll make a plan to end this in a way that keeps Callie safe.”
Jack hung up, and Reid walked faster. Hope surged for the first time since Callie had walked into the bathroom.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jack hung up the phone and looked at the electronic map mounted inside a glass desk. It had a 3D module that allowed him to see different angles and manipulate the view to give him an optimal advantage.
He was in the war room, the place he felt the most at home. The heart of any mission was here, and this silent one he fought with an unknown enemy was no