Revealing Annie - Freya Barker Page 0,82

beside the ambulance and Cheddar jumping down.

“I’ve got him, Sumo, you get those dogs secured,” Blue says, but I can’t bring myself to get up, even as Blue takes over with steady hands. “Sumo! Get those dogs out of here before we have more patients!”

I notice Daisy started growling again, freezing Cheddar in his tracks. I take one last look at my son’s still face and get up, grabbing the dogs’ leashes dragging on the ground.

As I approach the house I notice the front door open and for the first time I wonder where Annie is. Her car is in the driveway, but where is she?

“Annie?”

I run through the house, look in the laundry room, the garage, out in the backyard. When I return to the living room I see her phone on the floor, the screen cracked.

“Annie!”

I run upstairs, fling open doors even though I already know I won’t find her.

“Sumo!” Tony is at the bottom of the stairs as I come down.

“She’s not here. Her phone…”

“I saw. I’m on it. But they’re loading up your son. You need to get your ass in the ambulance, brother.”

“But Annie…”

He grabs my shoulders and shakes me—hard.

“Right fucking now. Keith and I are on Annie. Go.” He gives me a shove in the direction of the door and I keep going, feeling utterly helpless.

I ignore the additional cruisers starting to fill the street and focus on the back of the rig where Cheddar is closing the doors. I break into a run.

“Hold up!”

Cheddar turns his head and sees me coming.

“Get in the back, brother. I’ll drive.”

Blue is inside, slipping an IV needle in his forearm. His face is pale and his eyes are still closed. I hesitate only for a moment before I shake the paralysis off and climb inside, taking a seat on the other side of the gurney.

“What’ve we got?”

“You’ve seen his leg. Nothing exposed but the bone is displaced. It’ll need to be set. He’s got some abrasions along his left side.”

“His head?”

“No depressions, no cuts, but quite to goose egg on the back of his skull.” I feel her eyes on me and tear mine away from his face. “He’ll be okay, Sumo. His heart is steady and strong, as is his breathing.”

“Okay.”

I sound dubious even to my own ears, and it’s not that I don’t appreciate what she’s saying, but the reality is he could have internal bleeding which is not always immediately obvious.

“Oh, before I forget, I found his phone when I cut off his pants.”

She leans over the gurney to hand it to me. She’s about to sit back down, when we hear in a faint voice, “Is it broken?”

I slide on my knees beside the gurney, grab his hand and press my forehead to the back of it.

“Hey, buddy,” Blue says. “You’ve got a broken leg, yeah.”

“No, my phone.”

“That looks to be in one piece,” she assures him.

“Dad?”

I have to swallow hard before I lift my head.

“Right here, kiddo.”

“He took Annie. Dad, I tried to stop the van. I took a picture with my phone.” I watch his eyes fill with tears. “Look at the picture,” he insists.

I pull up his picture library. The last picture he took was of a delivery van.

“It was from the grocery store.”

I look at Bryce. “Grocery store?”

“Had the City Market logo on the side.”

Jesus. Someone she worked with?

“He had her over his shoulder and threw her in the back.”

I can hear Blue talking to someone, but I’m too focused on my son.

“The guy from the bakery. It was him.”

Annie

Thirty minutes earlier.

“I heard you quit.”

Something about the way he stands—his feet spread, arms down and slightly away from his body—gives off tension. Like a coiled spring, waiting to be released.

“I did. My life is taking a new direction.”

I’m not sure why I’m telling him this but he’s making me a little uneasy, especially when he softly chuckles.

“I’m aware.”

There’s a world of understanding in those two words hitting me all at once, and suddenly I see the threat under the charming, handsome veneer. This man is nothing like the Ted I thought I knew.

Luckily I never let go of the door but the moment I move to close it he springs forward, shoving me back so hard I land on my ass on the floor. He slams the door shut behind him and looms over me.

“Ted, what are you doing?”

“I tried to warn you, Annabel,” he mumbles, pulling a roll of duct tape from his pocket.

I’m terrified. Bryce could walk