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

creaking of the door seemed to have startled him, though, as he was now blinking blearily at us.

“Hey, Harry,” I smiled sheepishly. “Sorry we woke you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he responded gruffly as he snatched the respirator off of his face. “Get this dang thing off of me. Bunch of nonsense.”

“Oh, I think you should leave that on,” I argued as I moved toward the bed. I reached for it, but he waved my hand away.

“You back off,” he groused. “I’m a grown man. I think I can take care of myself.”

“Of course,” I smiled. “How are you feeling, Harry?”

“Eh, I’ve been worse,” he chortled. “What’s a little gunshot wound to the lung?”

“The lung?” I asked in shock. “Then you definitely need to keep this on.” I reached for the respirator again, but he held it up out of my reach.

“Is that all you got?” he asked as he continued to move the respirator just out of my grasp every time I tried to take it. “They don’t make federal agents the way they used to.”

I sighed in defeat. I knew he was only joking, and honestly, I was happy that he was feeling well enough to fool around like that.

“Who’s this one?” Harry asked, nodding at Miranda.

“Oh, this is Agent Castillo,” I replied. “She’s--”

“Charlie’s girlfriend,” Harry interrupted before I could continue. That wasn’t at all what I was about to say, and it took me a moment to process the words.

“Kind of,” Miranda shrugged as she stepped forward to shake Harry’s hand. “Miranda Castillo. I’ve been partnering with Junior for our current case since Charlie ran off to Jamaica with Naomi.”

“Hah!” Harry let out a short bark of laughter. “Ran off with another woman, huh? That boy’s always been trouble.”

“Wait, really?” I asked, snapping my head around to look Miranda in the eyes. “You and Charlie?”

Miranda just threw me one of her impish smirks and shrugged again. I’d heard Naomi complain more than once about Miranda’s devil-may-care attitude, and I could see now what she meant.

“Anyway,” she drawled, turning her attention back to Harry. “We didn’t come here to talk about me. We were hoping you could tell us what happened earlier today.”

Harry’s face fell at the question.

“It all happened so quickly,” he began. “Pretty pathetic for a former chief-of-police, huh? Anyway, I went out to check the mail like usual. I was just coming back inside, but before I could push the door closed, a man shoved his way in behind me.”

“Do you remember what he looked like?” Miranda prompted.

“African-American,” Harry shrugged. “Tall, maybe six foot. Broad-shouldered, muscular. He was wearing a dark jacket with the hood up, which, now that I think about it, is suspicious on its own given the heat. At the time, though, I wasn’t really thinking about that. I was just scared because Amber was in the house.”

“What happened after that?” I asked.

“He knocked me out of my wheelchair,” Harry replied bitterly. He sounded so ashamed that someone had been able to take advantage of him like that, and my heart ached for him. “Picked it up and threw it clear across the room. I tried to drag myself over to it, but I wasn’t making any progress. He started walking around the house like he was looking for something. I thought about yelling for Amber to run or hide, but it worried me that doing so would just tip him off that she was there.”

“Anyway,” he continued, “she must have heard the commotion because a second later, there she was, standing at the base of the stairs. I wanted to tell her to run, but before I could say anything, he walked over and just scooped her right up. I yelled at him to leave her alone, but he just started walking toward the door. Then he turned around and shot me, right in the chest. The doctor says he got me right in the lung.”

He leaned back against the pillows on his bed as she finished speaking, looking forlorn.

“Did he say anything at all?” I asked. “Anything that might help us figure out where he took her?”

“So you haven’t found her yet,” Harry stated. My blood ran cold as I realized he must not know anything about what happened after he was attacked. “I figured as much, but I was hoping… Anyway, no. He didn’t say anything at all. He just barged in, took Amber, shot me, and left. I have no idea who he was or what he wanted. Heaven knows I’ve got plenty of enemies. I was on the force for almost forty years. There’s no telling what kind of grudges people are holding against me.”

The three of us lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. Miranda and I exchanged a glance as we tried to figure out how to reveal the truth to him.

“We know why she was targeted,” I finally admitted. Harry’s eyes widened in surprise. “The case we’re working right now revolves around a group of child traffickers. Unbeknownst to us, they’ve been trailing us ever since we started investigating. Charlie thinks he was followed the day that he came up to see you last week. Regardless of how they found out where Amber was, it’s clear that the trafficking group is behind this. We received word earlier tonight from one of our other agents that the leader of the group admitted to having her kidnapped in an attempt to distract Charlie from the investigation.”

Harry’s face had grown increasingly horrified as I spoke, and I had to look away as I finished my explanation.

“So, she was taken by human traffickers?” he asked flatly.

I swallowed painfully as I nodded. I didn’t know what I could say to that.

“Where’s Charlie?” he croaked.

“He’s on his way back,” Miranda said gently. “He got on a plane as soon as he heard what had happened.”

“It’s my fault,” Harry rasped as a tear rolled down his eye. “I couldn’t protect her. I couldn’t do anything but lay there on the ground while that scumbag