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

at me in a bloody smile before spitting in my face. I punched him again, and we both fell to the ground as the force of the blow knocked him off balance. I continued to bring my fists down onto his face, desperate to wipe that malevolent smile off his face.

I felt someone grab my arm from behind just as I was about to hit him again. I shook it off, but before I could continue my attack, someone pulled me back by the back of my shirt.

“Charlie!” Patel yelled into my ear as she hauled me off of Davis. “Stop! You need to stop!”

I struggled to break free, but I could already feel the fight leaving me. Davis was lying on the ground a few feet away, still laughing and coughing up blood between chuckles.

“He needs medical attention,” Tucker stated gravely as he stood crouched over Davis.

“You need to go, right now,” Patel hissed in my ear. “Your family needs you right now. The Bermuda Police Service is going to have to conduct an internal investigation over this. If you don’t leave now, you’ll be stuck here.”

I turned to look her in the eyes. Patel was as straight-laced as they came, and the fact that she was trying to convince me to run after assaulting a suspect touched me in a weird way. I nodded and quickly left the room. I knew this wasn’t the right way to handle this, and I’d definitely have to face some consequences later, but right now, I needed to get back home.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket as I left the police station and called Wallace.

“Hills?” Wallace answered immediately as if he’d been expecting the call.

“Did Eliza call you?” I asked without preamble as I attempted to arrange for a taxi through an app. “Is she okay?”

“Yes,” Wallace responded. “Chapman and Castillo are on their way to get her right now. The police should have gotten there by now as well.”

“Did she tell you what happened?” I asked as I finally managed to book a car. It was supposed to arrive in six minutes, which felt like an impossibly long time. “She was panicking when she called me, and I couldn’t really understand what was going on. I figured it’d be better for her to call you since you’re at least in the same country.”

“We’re still not sure about the details,” Wallace admitted. “She called Agent Chapman and told him that she’d gone to Harry’s house to pick up her daughter. When she got there, the door had been forced open. Harry was unresponsive on the ground, and she couldn’t find her daughter anywhere. Then she got a call.”

“What kind of call?” I asked. She hadn’t mentioned that during our short phone call. I glanced down at the app. Four minutes to go.

“She’d just finished calling nine-one-one,” Wallace continued. “Then she got a call from a number she didn’t recognize. It was a man’s voice, telling her that she would never see her daughter again, and that…” Wallace trailed off. His voice sounded oddly strained.

“That what?!” I barked.

“That it was your fault,” Wallace answered. “For ‘sticking your nose where it didn’t belong.’ But listen, Hills, he was just trying to rub salt in the wound. You know you didn’t cause this, right?”

I shook with barely contained rage. I felt an intense urge to walk back into the police station and continue beating Davis. I fought to rein in my emotions. The taxi was only a minute away now. I needed to focus on getting back home.

“Hills?” Wallace called. “Charlie, are you there?”

“I’m here,” I muttered bitterly. “Of course, I know it’s not my fault.” It felt like it was, though. This had happened because I was here investigating. They’d decided to use Amber as a pawn against me, to distract me from the case.

“He said something about agents, and I think something about leverage?” That’s what Patel had said when we’d first spotted Davis outside of the hotel. That’s what he’d been speaking on the phone about. He was using a little girl as leverage against me.

“Aside from the phone call, there’s been nothing else,” Wallace stated, drawing my attention away from my thoughts and back to the conversation. “No ransom note or anything else to indicate who took her. Judging by the timing and the things he said, though, it’s extremely likely that this was the work of the trafficking group.”

“So what now?” I asked, relief flooding through me as the taxi finally pulled to a stop in front of me.

“The plane will be ready to take off the moment you get to the airport,” Wallace assured me. “We’ll keep Eliza here for the time being. I’ll call you as soon as I get any updates about Harry or anything else.”

“Okay,” I answered as I climbed into the back of the taxi and told the driver to head to the airport. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“We’ll be waiting,” Wallace replied. I ended the call. I peered out the window as we drove through the city. The sun had already gone down, but the party was still in full swing. The elaborate and colorful costumes that had seemed so cheerful just a few hours ago now seemed ghastly as they loomed over me as if they were laughing at me.

I sprinted out of the taxi as soon as we made it to the airport. I’d paid on the app, so I didn’t have to worry about that, at least. I was stopped at security. FBI Agents had special permits that allowed us to bypass security, but the person manning the station didn’t seem convinced by my MBLIS credentials.

“Sorry, those are the rules,” the young man shrugged. “They told me everyone has to go through, no exceptions.”

I didn’t know whether I should scream or cry. Considering it was a massive holiday weekend, the airport was packed, as was the security line. I considered calling the police for assistance, but