by Jill Sanders
He’d heard from the Colorado foster care offices that the senator had called and voiced his concerns about the facility, but Kimberly Stifle, the head of the department, had gotten on the line and assured him that she didn’t give a rat’s ass—her words, not his—what that no-good son of a bitch thought anyway.
He immediately invited the woman to the grand-opening event. She’d graciously accepted, and he planned on getting the woman the largest fruit and flower basket he could find as a thank you.
Which brought him back to why he was standing in the middle of a jewelry store searching for Laura’s gift when he’d lied to her and told her he was at a meeting across town.
The woman behind the counter was being extremely patient with him, but the fact was, there were just too many rings to choose from.
He’d probably screwed up when he’d told her the amount that he was willing to spend. She had practically drooled. She’d offered him wine or champagne, which he’d turned down since he would be returning to help set up the family rooms after he was done picking up a ring.
He grew frustrated at the massive, overpriced rocks that she kept showing him and was about to walk out of the store when a simple elegant silver ring and square-cut diamond caught his eye.
“What about this one?” he asked the woman, who quickly turned her nose up at it.
“Oh, I think we can do much better than this simple thing. I mean, it’s nice and all, but…” She pulled it from the case and frowned. “It’s not even in your budget.”
He misunderstood at first and believed the ring to be more expensive than the number he’d given the woman. But when he took the ring from her fingers and held it up to the light, he caught a glance at the price and smiled. It was below his budget. It was perfect. The simple lines, the clearness of the main diamond, which was surrounded by smaller stones. He couldn’t get over how beautiful it was and how perfectly it would fit Laura.
“Is there a wedding band that goes with it?” he asked.
“Yes.” The woman went back to the display case and came up with a simple band studded with smaller stones.
“I’ll take it,” he said with a smile as the woman deflated at the prospect of her large commission shrinking.
Glancing down at the display case, he noticed a matching tennis bracelet and pointed. “And that bracelet and matching earrings as well.”
The woman’s smile grew. “Yes, sir.”
Fifteen minutes later, he walked out of the store with the complete set, each individually wrapped in white wrapping paper held together with a blue bow.
Stashing the items in his glove box, he drove towards the facility and parked next to Laura’s car.
He had needed to run errands first thing that morning, so they had ridden separately for the first time. That had given him the idea to hit the jewelry store before heading back to help her out after lunch.
He walked into the main office area and found Barbara unloading boxes of paperwork.
“How’s it going in here?” he asked her as he set a box of cookies that he’d purchased for the office down on the counter.
“Good, these are the last boxes.” She glanced up and smiled. “Are those cookies?” She got up and opened the lid. “God, I need these.” She grabbed up a cookie and bit into it. “I was running low on energy.”
He smiled. “I figured you would be.” He glanced around. “Is Laura helping you out?”
“She went upstairs to start unpackaging the tables in the family meeting rooms about an hour ago.” Barbara turned back to her work.
When he turned to go, she stopped him. “You might want to take a few of those up there. I don’t think she stopped for lunch today.”
He frowned as he took a couple of cookies and put them on a plate to carry up to Laura.
When he stepped onto the second-floor landing, he could hear the banging of workers putting the bunk beds together on the third floor. It was the last of the work to be done in the children’s rooms before the kids could be moved in.
The main kids’ hangout areas on the second floor were already finished. The theater room, with its massive flat screen television, leather theater-style recliners, and game consoles, which he’d setup himself, was one of his favorite rooms. There were two other rooms on the second floor and a library on the main floor that had been filled with donated books.
The kitchen staff was busy on the main floor preparing planned meals for his and the staff’s approval. Honestly, he couldn’t wait to try a few dishes. If the smells coming out of the kitchen were any hint, he may end up taking meals there himself. Laura had even joked about it herself.
He stuck his head into what would be one of the family meeting areas. There were four such rooms, each one bright and cheery, where families could meet and spend time with prospective foster children. He frowned at the large boxes that had yet to be unpacked.
After poking his head into each of the four family rooms and not finding Laura, he searched the entire second floor, then moved up to the third floor, where there were a handful of men working to put together the bunk beds.
When he noticed that Lee, the man he’d been concerned about earlier, was one of them, his worry for Laura’s safety doubled. He’d looked into the man after that first day. He wanted to know everything about the guy. There was something about the man that Simon couldn’t put his finger on. The man technically worked for Joe McCaw’s company, but that hadn’t stopped Simon from checking him out.
“Have you seen Laura?” he asked one of the other crew quietly.
“Nope, not since before lunch,” the man said as he finished carrying a large piece of one of the beds into another room.
Pulling out his cell phone, Simon punched Laura’s number and frowned when the call went instantly to voicemail.
Rushing back downstairs, he asked Barbara and her crew to help him search the facility for her. He took the rooms on the main floor while Barbara and the other office workers headed back upstairs to double-check for her.
Half an hour later, he was positive that Laura was no longer in the building. He continued to call her cell phone, but each time it went directly to her voicemail. It was as if the phone had been switched off.
Since her car was still in the parking lot, he knew that she hadn’t left the facility on her own. Besides, his security detail was still watching the facility from the parking lot, as if she was somewhere inside.
He walked over to confirm that with the two men he’d hired as security. Normally, if she was at work or home, they would have taken off, but since the night of the limo, he’d kept someone on her twenty-four hours a day.
“She went inside around nine and hasn’t come back out. You’ve said yourself you didn’t want us to be underfoot inside the building,” Evan, one of the security men said. “We haven’t seen her leave yet.”
“Besides,” the other guy said, “her car is still there.” He motioned to Laura’s car, which Simon had parked next to less than half an hour earlier.
He asked them to join in the search and then walked by her car. He noticed that her doors were still locked. He decided to call Logan to see if he’d heard from her recently.
“I’m sure she’s around there someplace. The place is massive. Have you checked each room?” Logan asked.
“I have. Logan, I think you need to come down here. I’m afraid something bad has happened. We need to get everyone looking.”
“I’ll be there in fifteen,” Logan said before hanging up.
Simon walked back to the main door, then sidetracked and decided to walk around the building instead. It was a massive place, which is why he knew it would be perfect for what he wanted to do. There was plenty of outside space for the kids to play.
The snow over the past few days had left more than half a foot in some places. There was a tall snowdrift near the back door. It had to be shoveled each morning, as the wind pushed it across the pathway every night.
Besides the front and back do
ors, there were two more doorways. One was at the loading docks for the kitchen area, and the other left from the side of the building to what would become the playground and sports areas.
Seeing footprints in the snow, he decided to follow them out into the field. He could have sworn there were two prints, one small boot inside a larger one, but they were too melted from the sun that hit the field to be sure.
Making a point not to disturb the prints, he followed them towards a large garage that sat against the hillside. It would eventually house all of the sports and lawn equipment, once spring allowed any of the work outside to be done.
Since he hadn’t purchased any equipment yet, the garage door sat unlocked. Sliding it open, he glanced around the dark room and waited for his eyes to adjust.
He thought he heard something, some kind of movement, and stepped into the darkness before his eyes could fully adjust.
“Laura?” he called out and almost jumped when a bird flew towards him and out the open door. “Shit.” He held his hand over his heart in hopes that it would settle back down. “Laura?” he called out again, this time prepared for any other birds to bombard him.
He blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted, and he moved further into the darkness.
He spotted the dark mound and raced across the space, kneeling beside the dirty blanket. His fingers shook as he pulled it aside.
Seeing her pale blue skin, he cried out and gathered her into his arms. She was freezing. She wasn’t even wearing a coat or gloves. Had someone stashed her there, in hopes that she would freeze to death?
Quickly, he removed his coat and covered her before lifting her into his arms and rushing back to the building.
He must have jostled her awake, because she groaned and cried out his name.
“I’m here,” he said softly between puffs of breath as he ran to get her back into the warmth.
When he came to the back door, he realized that it was locked from the inside. It would take too long to run around the building, so he kicked the door and yelled as he pulled out his phone to call Barbara.
Before she could answer, the door flew open and one of the staff stood there looking at him with concern.
“What happened?” the woman asked.
“Get me some blankets and call the police,” he said, rushing past her.
He gently laid Laura down on the sofa in the main room and covered her in the blankets someone had provided. He took Laura’s hands in his and rubbed them and her arms, willing his warmth into her.
Laura’s eyes were open now, and she was staring at him as if she couldn’t understand what was going on.
“Hypothermia,” he warned the room. “She needs…” He stopped when he heard the ambulance. Picking her up gently, he rushed her outside to the waiting ambulance.
He sat back as the EMTs got to work putting fluids into her and wrapping her in the thermal blankets. They added an oxygen mask with warm air to warm up her airways since she seemed to be having a difficult time breathing.
He rode in the back of the ambulance and shot a text off to Logan, telling him what was going on. He made a point to ask Logan to have the police interview Lee and all the workers.
Logan replied that he’d just arrived and that the police had the entire place on lockdown under Barbara’s orders, and they were interviewing everyone there. They were looking at the tracks in the snow and checking everyone’s boots against the tracks.
“S-S…” Laura lifted her hand towards him.
“Shh,” he said softly. “Try not to speak.”
She held up her hand again towards him.
He took her cold hand and realized that there was something in it.
“Him,” she said and closed her eyes.
With shaky hands, Simon opened the paper Laura had been holding, and read.
I warned you. Get out of my state. Her death is all your fault.
Chapter 19
“He can’t be that stupid,” someone said loudly, causing Laura to pry open her eyes.
“He can and he obviously is,” Simon replied.
“There’s no proof it was him,” someone else said.
“It’s my word against his. He’s said the very same thing to me several times,” Simon replied.
“Did anyone else witness this?” the first person asked.
“No, it was over the phone,” Simon answered. “You can check my logs. I called the number he left with my employee.”
“This email says the number belongs to a Max Duke,” the first person said.
She sighed loudly, getting everyone’s attention.
“Hey.” Simon’s face appeared in front of her eyes. “How are you feeling?”
She quickly assessed her body and realized that everything was numb. Which was better than last time when she’d been frozen, and her skin felt like needles were poking her everywhere.
She shrugged as her answer since her throat was too raw to talk.
“Don’t try to talk,” Simon warned. “Your family is here.” He motioned and suddenly Logan’s face appeared above her, then her mother’s.
“Hey,” both of them said at the same time.
She reached up and took her mother’s hand.
“We’re here,” her mother said. “Rest now. We’ll be right here.”
Laura closed her eyes again and drifted off into a numbing sleep.
The next time when she woke, the room was dark. Very dark. For a moment, she feared she was back in the garage, then she jerked her hand and felt Simon’s in it.
“Hey.” He appeared in front of her eyes again. “I’m here.”
A low light filled the room. “Your family went home for the night,” he said. “They’ll be back in the morning.”
She tried her voice out and found that even though her throat was raw, she could talk. “I’m sore.”
“I can order you some warm tea?” he suggested.
She nodded and he reached down to hit the button on the side of the bed.
“Do you remember what happened?” Simon asked as they waited.
She reached over and hit the button to raise the back of the bed up. When she was sitting up a little, she closed her eyes and tried to play back what had happened.
“I went out to the garage. Someone had told me that there were a few boxes that had been delivered out there. When I got out there, I felt a hand wrap around my throat.” She lifted her hand to her throat and realized just why it was sore. “I fought.” She closed her eyes. “Or at least I like to think I did. I heard laughter, then… a man whispered in my hear that he had a note he wanted me to give you. He put the paper in my hand and then…” She sighed. “Everything went dark until you were carrying me back inside.”
“You didn’t see who attacked you?” Simon asked.
“No,” she said as she shook her head. “He came at me from behind.”
Just then a nurse came in, and Simon requested warm tea.
“The boot prints match a few of the guys on site. It’s a standard size and work boot that most of the men wear.” Simon sighed. “But I’m pretty sure it was Lee.”
Laura frowned. “He’s the one who told me about the boxes being delivered to the garage.”
Simon sat up. “He was?”
She nodded and Simon smiled. “We got ’em,” he said before pulling out his cell phone.
She lay back and closed her eyes as he talked on the phone. She hadn’t realized she’d fallen back to sleep until he woke her to tell her that her tea had arrived.
Swallowing the warm liquid, she moaned with delight at the feeling of it warming her further.
“Better?” Simon asked.
“Yes.” She cleared her throat and relaxed back. “Thank you.”
“Rest,” he said, taking her hand in his. “We can finish talking in the morning.”
“Crawl in here with me,” she suggested, trying to move over in the bed.
He lifted her and laid her on his chest, wrapping his arms around
her. “There, better?” he asked.
She pulled the blankets up over her and sighed. “Yes,” she said before falling fast asleep listening to his steady heartbeat.
The following morning a tray of warm food was delivered to her just before a young female doctor walked in and gave her a quick checkup. She assured her that, once she was up and walking around, she would be able to go home.
Laura desperately wanted a shower. A very hot one, and her own bed again. One where Simon wrapped himself around her and held onto her all night like he had done the last few nights.
Moments after the doctor left, her mother, Logan, and Amy walked in, each of them carrying large bundles of flowers.
“Sorry, sis. They were out of yellow daisies,” Logan said.
It was then that Laura noticed the three dozen daisies that sat on the shelf behind her head.
“From you?” she asked Simon.
He smiled. “I had them delivered.” He bent down and kissed her.
“Thank you,” she said softly just before she started coughing.
The doctor had told her that her throat would be raw for a few days and to get plenty of warm fluids and to stay silent as much as she could.
“See, doctors’ orders,” Logan joked. “The medical field even wants you to shut up.”
Amy slapped her husband’s shoulder playfully.
Laura couldn’t help but laugh, which had her coughing even more.
Her mother had brought a bag of clothing for her to change into. After a quick shower, during which she worried numerous times that she would accidentally pull the emergency cord and have someone rushing in to save her naked ass, she dressed in the borrowed clothes and tried to fix her face and hair.
She noticed a deep purple bruise that wrapped around her throat and winced when she touched the spot.
Thankfully, her mother had packed her one of her turtleneck sweaters.
Her mother’s feet were smaller than her own, but she’d brought an old pair of Uggs, which fit Laura perfectly. Thankfully, they were extremely warm.