Stitch by Jaime Lewis (ebook reader online .txt) 📗

time like this. He was quite sure if he had a sister, he’d want to be as close to her as he could to keep watch over her.  “What are the others doing?”

“Alex, Autumn, and Bailey are making up the beds in the other rooms.  Tenley is pitching a fit because Potter won’t let her help.” Ace snorted a laugh. “On my way up the stairs, I heard Potter threatening to tie her to the chair.”

Stitch raised one of his eyebrows. He found it hard to believe that anyone could tie Tenley down, although it would be Potter if anyone could accomplish that feat. Ace must have seen the question Stitch was asking himself because he smirked. “Tenley was refusing to listen to Potter, so he picked her up and put her on his lap. She isn’t going anywhere.”

Stitch just shook his head. “Who would’ve thought Potter would be so pussy-whipped.”

“Shit, who thought any of us would be. Hell, we are all dropping like flies.  If the trend continues, there won’t be any bachelors on the team.”  Ace then shook his head. “In all seriousness, I want to thank you again for everything you’ve done for Mia.”

“You don’t have to thank me, Ace.  I love your sister and would move heaven on earth for her.”

“I know you would, and that is why I am so damn happy for the both of you.”

Ace’s phone rang with an incoming call. He looked at it, then glanced at Stitch. “That’s strange; it’s Paul from Bayside.”

Stitch didn’t move from where he stood. Paul wasn’t a very talkative man, so his calling wasn’t to just shoot the breeze.  He just listened to the one-sided call.

“Hey, Paul, what’s up? He’s there, at the bar? Yeah, I know him, and he is legit.  Really?”

Stitch heard the floor creak behind him and saw Alex moving in with her phone to her hand, and judging from the expression on her face, she wasn’t coming to deliver good news.

She looked at Stitch.  “Who is he on the phone with?”

“Paul.”

“He must be calling Ace about Terek.” She looked up at Ace. “Terek just called me; you need to call him. But before you do, I need to show you something.”

Ace finished up and disconnected from Paul. Alex hit some icons on her phone, and the video surveillance from Bayside appeared. Both Stitch and Ace looked down at Alex.

“What?  I had Paul send me a couple of the video feeds. I wanted to take a look myself and see if I saw anything or anyone hanging around Mia.”

“And,” Ace asked.

“And…see for yourself, and you tell me.”

Stitch leaned in to view the feed. Alex was able to manipulate the video a little more, but Stitch didn’t recognize anyone. Ace, on the other hand, had. He looked back at Alex.

“Is that who I think it is?”

Alex nodded. “The guy that we passed coming into the clinic when we were leaving?”

Stitch asked them about the guy, and they explained. Stitch hardly believed in coincidences, and he stood his ground in this instance as well. What are the odds a guy seen at Dr. Walters office was at the bar in their small community?

“So, are we all saying this has to be the guy? Can we call Paul and see if the douche is still there?”

“Hang on and let me call Terek,” Ace said and dialed his phone and put it on speaker.

“Hey, Terek.”

“Hey, man. Alex wouldn’t say, but please tell me you guys have Mia someplace safe.”

Stitch looked at Alex, and she just grinned and shrugged her shoulders.  He shouldn’t be jealous of the guy, especially when he was only trying to help Mia out, but he couldn’t help it. Even though he knew the reason behind their breakup, he still wasn’t happy with how it all played out.

“Mia’s safe. We left the beach and headed up into the mountains; what’s wrong? I just got a call from the owner of the joint we hang out at. He said you were just there.”

“Yeah. Look, things have taken a turn in the case I’ve been working on.”

“What does that have to do with Mia?”

Terek explained about being ambushed and what he had overheard.

“Shit! Are you okay?”

“Just a minor flesh wound. I my damn phone just started working about  thirty minutes ago or I would’ve called sooner. Look, from what I heard, Dr. Walters is looking for Mia. He has to be in Virginia. The police went to his penthouse to arrest him, but he’s gone. His staff said he left with four bags. The police also picked up the two guys who abducted Mia. They confessed to everything and gave up a lot of information on Dr. Walters. Mia wasn’t the intended target. It was Willow, the receptionist from the clinic. When Elijah found out that the guys had picked up the wrong woman, Claus, Elijah’s second in command, apparently got rid of her.”

Ace swallowed hard. Shit, he knew that Willow was Mia’s friend.

Terek continued, “I found out Elijah has some inside help at the NYPD. One of them is in your town.”

“I think I know who you are talking about. There is a guy we just saw on a video at the restaurant we frequent, and he is the spitting image of a guy Alex and I saw at Dr. Walters office.”

Ace described him, and Terek agreed it could be the same guy.

“He’s supposedly attending a law enforcement conference.”

“Yeah, I know about it. It’s over in Norfolk. A bunch of our friends from Virginia Beach PD were attending. Actually, we saw some of them tonight.”

Stitch felt the goosebumps crawl along his skin. He met Ace’s glare, and he knew Ace was thinking the same as he was.

“Terek, this is Stitch.  Are you still at the bar?”

“Yeah, I’m sitting in my car in the parking lot.”

“Alex is going to call Paul right now. Go back in there. He can pull up the video feed from tonight. There was an incident earlier. Mia suddenly had a flashback,