Kingston Kidnappings (What Happens In Vegas Book 3) by Matt Lincoln (great book club books .txt) 📗

to make a call. I cursed internally. We didn’t have time for this. By the time he got permission from his boss, Mr. Anderson could have already killed someone.

I looked in the direction the officer had walked off in. He was deep in conversation with someone. I gritted my teeth as I made a decision. I couldn’t believe I was about to do this, especially after I’d criticized Miranda earlier for running headfirst into an uncleared house.

I stepped quickly into the gas station.

“Hey, stop!” One of the officers inside reached out to grab at me, but I sidestepped him and moved as close to Mr. Anderson as I dared.

“Stop!” Mr. Anderson shouted, his voice cracking. “Don’t come any closer!” The hand holding the gun was trembling. Behind him, Mrs. Anderson was wailing as she pounded on the door, tears streaming down her eyes.

“Please,” she called. “Give me back my baby. I just want my baby girl.”

“Mrs. Anderson?” I called softly.

“Shut up,” Mr. Anderson barked, and I had to fight not to flinch as his grip tightened on the gun. “Leave her alone. She just wants her daughter back!”

“I know that,” I replied gently. My heart was pounding, and I could feel a bead of sweat running down the back of my neck. I had placed myself between a manic man holding a gun and a line of armed police officers. This has been an insanely reckless idea, and if I wasn’t careful, I wasn’t going to get out of this alive. “I know that you were just trying to take care of Lakshmi. That’s why you took her from that woman, right?”

Mr. Anderson’s eyes widened in surprise, and behind him, Mrs. Anderson stopped pounding on the bathroom door.

“How do you know about that?” Mr. Anderson asked.

“I’m a federal agent,” I explained slowly as I reached for my ID instinctively. I stopped my hand before I could move too far. The last thing I needed to do right now was reach into my pocket. “I know that you adopted Lakshmi, and I know that you’ve been taking very good care of her.”

Mrs. Anderson finally turned around. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her makeup was running in streaks down her face.

“Really?” She asked. Her voice sounded so quiet and broken.

“Yes,” I nodded. “I know you would never hurt her because you care about her. But right now, she’s in a dangerous situation.”

“That’s their fault,” Mr. Anderson growled, waving his gun toward the police officers behind me. I heard the metallic click of guns as some police officers cocked their guns in response.

“Stop, don’t shoot!” I called frantically. I really didn’t think the Andersons needed to die for this, and besides, they were standing right in front of the bathroom door. If one of the officer’s shots hit the door, I wasn’t sure the cheap wood would be able to stop the bullet completely.

“I know it’s their fault,” I murmured in an attempt to placate him. “They don’t understand the situation like I do. But if they fire, they might hit Lakshmi accidentally.”

“No!” Mrs. Anderson yelled.

“I know you don’t want that,” I insisted. I felt a little bad using her as leverage, but I needed to do whatever was necessary to end this as peacefully as possible. “If you want the police to put down their guns, you need to drop your weapon and step away from the door.”

“But my baby,” Mrs. Anderson protested weakly, fresh tears forming in her eyes.

“I’ll go in and get her,” I nodded. “As soon as you step away, I’ll go in and get her myself. Does that sound good?”

Mr. Anderson looked like he wanted to argue, but Mrs. Anderson nodded and slowly placed her hand on his arm. His shoulders drooped in resignation as he tossed the gun to the side. As soon as he did, two of the police officers rushed forward and tackled the pair of them to the ground. I moved quickly to the bathroom door and knocked.

“Hello?” I called over the commotion behind me. “This is Agent Chapman with MBLIS. I’m a federal agent. Can you please open the door?”

There was a sound of shuffling inside before the door was cracked open, and a woman peered out.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” she sighed as she saw me. She pushed open the door wider to reveal a small girl sitting against the far wall. I moved past the woman and kneeled down in front of the girl.

“Hi,” I smiled warmly at her. “Are you Lakshmi?”

She nodded, and I scooped her up in my arms. She was shaking, and her thin arms were clutched tightly around my neck. I couldn’t imagine how frightened she must be right now. I turned to leave the bathroom.

“My baby!” Mrs. Anderson screamed as I came out. It pulled at something in my heart to hear her yell like that, but I rushed through the gas station without pausing. “No, come back! Bring her back to me!”

I didn’t stop even after we’d exited the gas station and stepped into the hot sunlight. I circled around the side of the building before setting her down. There were a lot of cop cars and flashing lights out front, and by now, people had started to gather and take pictures with their phones. Lakshmi already seemed so scared, and I didn’t want to overwhelm her any more than she already was.

“Hey, are you okay?” Miranda suddenly asked. I hadn’t heard her approach, and I jumped at the sound of her voice. “I saw you run off around the side of the building, and I got worried.”

“I’m fine,” I replied, though now that the adrenaline was wearing off, my hands were starting to shake, and my voice had cracked as I spoke. “I just didn’t want everyone staring at her.”

Miranda looked down at Lakshmi, who was holding on to my hand tightly and drawing shapes in the dirt with her shoe.

“Good idea,” she nodded. “But you know what wasn’t a good idea? Hauling off