Expired Hero

by Lisa Phillips

  The nurse spoke with the other nurse down the hall. Behind the desk, the one who’d checked him in, shook her head. She looked like she wanted to say something to him, so he moved closer.

  “I thought you were the one coming here to watch Brad since Dean left to follow after Kaylee.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “The one watching the door.”

  “No,” Stuart shook his head. “The “followed after” part.”

  “Oh,” the nurse said. “She ran off that way, and he chased after her.”

  “Call security. Tell them to put a guard outside Brad’s room. No one goes in or out without first informing Sergeant Basuto at Last Chance PD.”

  Stuart raced the direction she’d pointed to the end of the hall. Not where the elevators were. Just more rooms…and a stairwell.

  He glanced around. Dean had chased after her. But where had Kaylee run off to? This made no sense.

  The stairwell door was slightly ajar. Strange, because it was a heavy fire door meant to click closed itself with little assistance.

  A brown shoe was wedged between the door and frame. Stuart pushed on it but encountered resistance.

  Stuart shoved far enough he could peer around the door. “Dean!”

  His friend stirred. Stuart pushed more on the door, knowing he was shoving it into his friend’s body, but wiggled through the small gap and moved to crouch by him. “What happened?” He gently, but firmly, shook Dean’s shoulders. “Where’s Kaylee?”

  Dean blew out a breath, his eyes were glassy. What had he been hit with? He said, “Kay…” Then managed to get out the words, “…took her.”

  The world around Stuart turned a revolution and made him want to throw up. He grabbed the door handle, pulled it open, and yelled, “Dean needs help!”

  He saw the nurses react, let go, and race down the stairs. The direction Dean had pointed when he said those two words that changed everything.

  Took her.

  Who? The men who’d been in the helicopter? But the team was after them. Someone else? He had no idea. It didn’t matter. He was going to get her back and there would be a severe price to pay if anyone got in his way.

  One floor from the parking lot, he stumbled over two concrete steps and rolled his ankle. Stuart caught himself on the rail and managed to keep from going down. He stumbled again across the landing and shoved at the bar on the EXIT door, pulled the gun from the back of his belt, and scanned the parking lot.

  No Kaylee.

  He turned back to the stairwell and pushed the door open. A cell phone lay on the ground by the wall. He grabbed it and opened the door.

  “Stuart!” Dean’s voice rang down the stairwell. He didn’t sound healthy, or happy.

  When he got back to his friend, Dean was on his feet. “You okay?”

  Dean shook his head. “She ran off. He was in here.”

  “Who?”

  “I don’t know. Didn’t see his face.” Dean’s skin was sticky, his hairline damp. Eyes red.

  The nurse shifted her weight. “We need to check you out.”

  Dean shook his head. “I’m okay.” He reached for the sleeve of his shirt and tugged it up. On the outside of his arm was a red dot.

  “We need access to the security footage. Find out what happened.”

  “He stunned me.” Dean worked his jaw side to side like he’d been punched. “She ran through the door, and I followed. The second I stepped through? Zap. While I was fighting off the voltage, he stuck a needle in my arm. Took Kaylee down the stairs and left me here.”

  “Any idea how long you were out?”

  That at least would tell them how much of a head start this person had.

  Dean looked at his watch. “Maybe fifteen minutes.”

  “And you came around?” The nurse clasped her fingers around his wrist and stared at her watch. “That’s impressive.”

  Stuart said, “Any idea what he hit you with?”

  “How could he know that,” the nurse asked, “unless he was told?”

  “Ma’am, with all due respect, some drugs you can just tell. Get hit with something enough times, you come to know how it works on you.”

  Dean said, “I don’t know what it was, but I’m not sure it was for me. Probably it was to knock out Kaylee, and then he probably realized he’d have to put me down if he wanted her. Which explains why it didn’t put me out for longer”

  “Stun gun. Quieter and less mess than a gun.” Stuart said, “Let’s go talk to the security guard.”

  They strode down the hall to the elevator.

  The nurse went behind her desk. “First floor. I’ll call ahead so the head of security knows to expect you.”

  Stuart said, “Thank you.” Even though the comment had been more for Dean than for him, he was still grateful.

  They double timed it to the elevator and hit the button to head down to the first floor. Stuart opened the phone.

  “When did you get a flip phone?”

  “I found this on the ground, bottom of the stairwell.” He scrolled through to messages and saw the thread. “This is them.”

  He showed Dean the conversation and said, “Has to be Kaylee. They want the flash drive.”

  “That has to be why she ran out. But who took her?” Dean said, “This doesn’t say anything about extraction, just that she gets the flash drive and contacts them for instructions.”

  “Zander needs to know she might show up.” Stuart didn’t want to believe she had known she’d get taken, or that Dean would be hurt. “They threatened to blow up all these buildings?”

  She was probably so scared. Now she was gone. Taken.

  By them, or someone else?

  “We’ll get her back.”

  Stuart ignored his friend. He didn’t like false hope, and there was no point talking around and around about this when they needed more information. Dean called Zander, and Stuart went into the security office. The guard had to call Basuto for confirmation, and Stuart spent far longer than he wanted explaining what’d happened, but finally, the guard showed him the footage.

  He watched the closed stairwell door in the parking lot as the guard wound it back looking for Kaylee’s exit.

  “Maybe they didn’t even come out this way. Could be they got off on a different floor, and they’re still in the hospital.” The guard started to twist in his seat.

  So what if he didn’t believe there had been a kidnapping. Yes, hospitals had good security. But these people weren’t your average small-town threat.

  The door opened.

  “There.” Stuart pointed at the screen. The image was black and white and seriously grainy. “That’s her.”

  Kaylee stepped out of the door, led by a man. Shorter than her, but only an inch or so. Suit. Stocky. A frazzled expression on his face.

  And a gun pointed at her.

  He said something, and she stumbled forward.

  Stuart pointed at the screen. “Send this footage to Sergeant Basuto,” and then he stepped back into the hallway where Dean was still on the phone.

  “One sec.”

  Stuart said, “Silas Nigelson was the man who took Kaylee.”

  Dean blanched. “The bank manager? That’s who got the drop on me.” His focus shifted to the phone call and he said, “Okay.” Dean lowered the cell phone and put it on speaker. “Go ahead.”

  “You said it was Nigelson?”

  Stuart answered, “Held a gun on Kaylee. She dropped the phone, and he shoved her into the parking lot.”

  “He isn’t working with these guys,” Zander said. “He’s on his own.”

  “Then he’s going to ruin everything. They want her to get them the flash drive.”

  “They’ll destroy the town, but my guess is Nigelson doesn’t care. He probably wants it for himself.”

  Dean shook his head. “That was just Trina, wasn’t it?”

  Zander said, “I’m beginning to think she might’ve been right about him.”

 
; “That he’s a Russian agent? That’s nuts.” Stuart said, “More likely he’s another one of those crazy founders.” But was that the point right now? “Either way we need to know where he went.”

  It was his only hope of getting Kaylee back.

  Twenty-six

  “You can’t be kidnapping me! They’re going to blow up the town!”

  Silas Nigelson drove the car. Kaylee had been shoved into the front passenger seat, her hands bound with what looked like a wire. Too tight for her to even separate her wrists, let alone have any hope of breaking free.

  “Why are you doing this?” She practically screamed the question at him. “I dropped the phone, or I’d show you.”

  “What phone?” He drove, barely distracted by her. Intent on the road and his thoughts, Silas barely spared her a single glance marred by his furrowed brow.

  “The one Brad had on him when they threw him out of the hospital. They texted me. They’ll start blowing up buildings in town unless I get them the flash drive.”

  And she’d dropped it. Why did you do that? Aside from the fact someone could find it and realize, at least in part, what had happened. It could have been a subconscious cry for help. But she was also pretty sure the cell phone had just slipped out of her hand in the heat of the moment when Silas had shoved her.

  “Forget about the phone. That doesn’t matter now.”

  “Is Dean dead? Did you kill him?” Kaylee didn’t want to think about how awful that would be for Ellie and the whole town, losing him. Dean was a force for good. He’d saved so many lives, no one could keep count anymore. “What was in that syringe?”

  She’d tried to stop Silas from jabbing Dean with it, but he’d shoved her against the wall. She had slammed her head, and before the sparks could clear, he was tossing the syringe down the stairs.

  Silas jerked the wheel to the side and turned a corner. She slammed against the door, and he said, “It was supposed to be for you, but you can’t do anything without drawing unneeded attention to yourself. I had to improvise.”

  “You were going to knock me out.” Realization dawned, and with it, a shudder of cold fear moved through her.

  “Will you shut up?” He shifted like he was going to hit her.

  Kaylee flinched, but he never made contact. She pressed her lips together and tears filled her eyes.

  It was like the night she and her parents had faced down that gunman all over again. Cold fear. Paralyzing terror that didn’t let go. She’d thought she could withstand so much more now. But the surprise was long gone.

  Now she was back to just being scared.

  “What do—”

  “Shut up,” he roared. “You don’t have to keep talking. Just give me a minute to think.”

  “Sorry.” She poured as much frustration and sarcasm into the word as she possibly could. “I can’t believe I’ve been so inconsiderate. How shameful of me.”

  Silas swung out his arm. She braced for the smack she knew was coming, and tried to lean her head away from him.

  Instead of hitting her, he grabbed the back of her neck and slammed her face onto the front of the dash.

  Out cold.

  Kaylee didn’t know how long it had been when she blinked, her eyes adjusting to her new surroundings. The realization that she was awake again slowly spread into her consciousness. Her entire face felt like she’d walked headfirst into a brick wall. She moaned at the pain and tried to shift.

  Her movement was restricted. Her hands still bound by the wire and now tied to a pipe. Her body lay awkwardly. Any movement shot pain through her head, from her nose, and when she licked her lips, it tasted funny. Like blood.

  A moan escaped her lips. She straightened her legs and hauled her upper body up to lean against the wall. Bare drywall. The floor was dusty, and there was a half-used package of rolled insulation on the other side of the room.

  Above her shoulder was a sink. Toilet. Pipes stuck out of the floor in the corner—plumbing for a bathtub?

  Where was she? Some kind of abandoned building, apartment, or house? Paper blinds had been stuck up to cover the window, so she couldn’t see out. For all she knew, she wasn’t even in town anymore.

  The door to the room was shut. She wondered if it had also been locked. But it wasn’t like she could check since she’d been secured to this pipe. Would she die here, her body discovered by her friends at the police department? She’d be another case number. A reason for them to lose control, grieving but still having to do their jobs anyway.

  Ignoring the pain in her face and the niggling thought that her nose was probably broken, Kaylee tugged on the pipe with her hands. The cord was tied around the back of it, the knot tight, and she was too close for her fingers to twist and try to untie it. It didn’t budge. She wasn’t going to be able to get out of this herself.

  She breathed through clenched teeth, able to smell the wetness. It was on her shirt as well.

  Kaylee looked down. Blood had streamed onto her shirt front.

  She gasped and let out a terrible-sounding noise. No. Don’t cry. But it happened anyway, whether she liked it or not. Kaylee had to let out the emotion. Purge it from her body.

  Finally, the emotion subsided, and then she cried because the crying made her face hurt even more.

  She leaned back against the wall. “Silas!” She called his name several times.

  He never came.

  Exhausted, Kaylee sagged down farther. Those men who’d held her brother weren’t going to get the flash drive. She couldn’t save innocent people in Last Chance from being killed, because she hadn’t gotten it from…

  Where was the flash drive?

  She tried to remember what Stuart said he’d done with it but couldn’t remember for sure. Zander? Or Ted? Maybe Basuto had it.

  And those men would storm the police station as the bikers had. What a nightmare that was. She’d ducked and cowered. Tried to pretend she was strong.

  One of the bikers had looked at her, and she’d seen compassion on his face. As though he understood her reaction. Then he’d walked away to deal with his trigger-happy friend. It had been one of the worst days of Kaylee’s life.

  But not number one.

  Nothing would overshadow the terrible preeminence of the day her parents were killed. In her mind, there was nothing worse, and there never would be. Or that was the fear talking. She didn’t have anything to lose as bad as that—even if Brad’s life was in danger. Her parents…for her, that was the ultimate in loss, and she’d faced it.

  Never again would she hold onto something that closely again, only to lose it.

  Was that what she’d been doing? Pushing everyone away, thinking it was for the best so she would be safe behind her peace-of-mind bubble. Thinking she was protecting herself. Living a happy, closed life that meant she didn’t allow anyone in.

  Kaylee shut her eyes.

  She needed Silas to come in here so she could explain to him how the town was in danger. That the threat to the town was bigger than whatever he wanted. He had to understand its greater importance or nothing could be put right. He should never have taken her. Not that he could’ve known she was about to leave and make a trade—save the people of this town—but his selfishness could cost lives.

  “Silas!” She screamed his name over and over again. “Don’t leave me in here! What’s happening?” She’d trusted him once. Had respected him as her boss, the way she’d appreciated having Trina as a friend.

  What a joke that had turned out to be.

  She didn’t care why he was doing it. Only that he’d realize the foolishness and help her to put things right.

  Finally, the door opened. Silas had a phone to his ear, displeasure written across his face. “That’s what I’m doing.” He paused. “There’s no need for you to get all high and mighty. It’s too late for that.”

  He ended the call.

  She wanted him to come close enough she could kick him, but he stayed across the room. Maybe that was for the be
st. Would she be able to attack him and take him down, or would she only fail miserably and end up in an even worse situation?

  This man was nothing like the person she thought she’d known.

  Both he and Trina had concealed the truth. And she’d fallen for it like a chump.

  But he still needed to understand the threat here. “There are men in town. People Stuart used to work with, and they want the flash drive to save their butts—”

  He lifted a gun. “Quiet. You don’t need to worry about that now. All you need to be concerned with is sitting in here. I’ll trade you for the flash drive and be on my way.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Kaylee didn’t want people to die. Not if there was any way for her to do something about it.

  Instead of answering, he smiled. There was nothing funny about it, just cold humor he already knew no one else would understand. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting around for something big enough to come along? Now I have a shot at buying my way back home. You think I’m going to let anything ruin that?”

  “People will die.”

  “Do you think I care?” Silas shrugged one shoulder. “This whole town can burn to the ground. I just want my ticket out.”

  Her stomach rolled over. “Who are you?”

  “Don’t worry about me, Kaylee.” Silas stared down the gun at her. “Stuart will trade you for the flash drive, and I’ll be gone before he finds you.”

  Trade her? “He…you can’t…”

  Her thoughts spun like a dryer, flip flopping until she could make sense of nothing. Silas thought Stuart was going to give him the flash drive in exchange for her life? He wouldn’t do that. There was nothing more important to him than getting justice for him and Brad. Stuart wanted to put the wrong right again. There was no stopping him.

  He would never give that up. Not even for Kaylee.

  “Don’t do this. Please, Silas. Don’t put people at risk like this.”

  He turned to the door, dismissing her. “Nothing is going to stop me.”

  The sound, when he closed the door, echoed in the hollow room. Kaylee shut her eyes, squeezing them tight until it caused an answering throb in her face.

  She hissed an inhale through clenched teeth. Silas was crazy if he thought he’d be able to get the flash drive. Too many people guarded it. More wanted to get their hands on it. He wouldn’t be able to overpower them all.