The minute I crossed over the threshold, Tom grabbed a hold of me and hugged me harder than anyone ever had before.
“We’re going to find her, Tom,” I kept repeating over and over. I wasn’t sure if I was saying it to assure him or myself. But I couldn’t fail my girl.
Tom nodded, looking too choked up to respond to me. “Tamera is making coffee.”
We followed Tom into the kitchen. Tamera hugged me before we sat around the dinette table, her eyes teary. I knew neither of them had slept a wink since Charlie was taken. They looked exhausted. Looking at Kate, Tom said, “I emailed my list to Neil of anyone I could come up with. I hope he gets a lead.”
Kate put her hand on top of Tom’s. “Neil’s guy is very good. He’s running background checks and has a team going through the information they gather. Neil has rearranged his schedule to devote time to finding Charlie. We’re all going to do everything to find her.”
“What did the police say?” I asked Tom.
“We have to wait for forty-eight hours before they can do anything. Sadly with no leads, I’m not sure how much they can do.”
“They know she’s pregnant, right?” I asked, pissed that every man on the force wasn’t dedicated to finding Charlie.
“Yes, they know. I contacted Charlie’s office and they are working on lists of business contacts she has interacted with as additional leads. Everyone is doing everything they can.”
“I know. I just…Tom, if I had been here, none of this would be happening. Your daughter would be safe.”
Tom looked down. “We don’t blame you, Mitch. Someone took her and you had nothing to do with that.”
“I just wish—”
“We all do. Beating yourself up over what has already happened isn’t going to change it. Charlie needs you to be focused right now.”
I didn’t deserve his kindness, but the truth of the matter was I was grateful he had always been a stand-up guy and in my corner. Especially now. Something I never really received from my father.
“We’re going to head over to Charlie’s office and do some investigating of our own,” Kate informed Tom and Tamera.
“That’s a really good idea,” Tamera said. “Even the smallest detail could be helpful in finding her.”
“Yeah, I have the feeling whoever took Charlie knows her well,” I said.
“We agree. I just hope we find her before he harms her or the baby,” Tom said, tears welling up in his eyes.
“We will, Tom. We will.”
***
“God, Kate. I was so worried Charlie’s parents would be angry with me. We have to find her. I can’t lose her.”
“We will. Like Tom said, we have to focus. You said you might know the voice, so you’re going to have to listen really carefully when we are at her office. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“We have to. If I lose her, my life is over. She’s everything to me. I just want her back. I just want her back.” I was a grown man on the verge of crying. I needed to get a grip on myself. Taking in a few deep breaths, I managed to calm my heart rate. Kate didn’t seem to notice. If she did, she didn’t let on. No doubt Kate was just as petrified as I was. How she was remaining so calm was beyond my comprehension. Mind you, with what she had endured the previous year, it was understandable she knew not to panic.
Kate parked the car and we went in. She had called Charlie’s boss ahead of time, so he was expecting us.
Trace welcomed us into his office and closed the door behind him.
“Any leads on Charlie?” he asked.
Hearing his voice, I knew he wasn’t the one who took her. I took out a small notebook from my pocket and wrote his name. Making a list of who it couldn’t be would get me that much closer to who it was.
“We do have something to go on, but it’s a long shot and we need your help,” I said.
“Anything. Just ask.”
“When I was in my coma, a man visited me threatening to take Charlie and then come after me. I hadn’t remembered it until Kate’s husband Neil called me to tell me Charlie had gone missing. I’m pretty sure I’d recognize his voice. It seemed familiar when I heard it at the hospital.”
“Okay, so I’m assuming your plan is to hear everyone that works here?”
“Yes. At least I can eliminate suspects that way. The police won’t be involved for another day because of their forty-eight hour policy.”
“Is there any way we can get a list of employees?” Kate asked.
“Of course.” Trace punched a few keys on his computer and soon a list was printing on his printer. “You have full access to everything and everyone.”
“Good, but we’re going to have to be covert. The last thing we need is for him to know we are on to him. He needs to lead us to Charlie.”
“I agree. That’s why I printed the directory, so you would have a name, picture, and description. Just mull around and see what happens.”
“Thank you, Trace,” Kate said as he handed the list to her. “We really appreciate your support.”
“Well, we better get to it,” I said.
Kate received a text on her phone. After reading it, she said, “Neil has some men out front to watch in case someone leaves abruptly.”
“How does he manage to think of everything?” I asked.
“It’s just his way,” she said, attempting to contain her smile. She was so good at not flaunting her happiness in front of me. I loved her for that.
Kate and I began walking around the office as covertly as possible. After all, the person responsible knew who I was. One by one, I eliminated nearly every man on the list. Only two were left. Chip Peterman and Dan Mills. We just needed to track them down. Returning to Trace’s office, I asked about their whereabouts.
“Dan is on vacation with his family. He’s been gone since last Friday and Chip should be around here somewhere. I know I saw him earlier today. I can page him and get him to come in my office. I have a question about our new server.”
“Great. Can we hide while you talk to him? I don’t want to spook him. If he’s our guy, I need him to lead us to Charlie.”
“By all means,” Trace said, motioning to a door in his office. “It’s my bathroom, but you should be able to hear him with the door ajar.”
Kate and I went in and positioned ourselves. Within minutes, Chip was in Trace’s office, giving him the 411 about the server. Kate looked at me with her eyebrows raised. I nodded. Chip was the guy. It was his voice in the hospital. I wanted to kill him.
Kate texted Neil that Chip Peterman was the one. He texted back he would get the address for Chip and send a team over to his apartment to find Charlie. Kate showed me the screen so I could see what was happening. I nodded. Now we had to wait. Wait to see if Charlie was at his place or if he had stashed her somewhere else. I stood there, wishing Chip would hurry up and finish talking about the server, but he was explaining everything in great detail to Trace.
Chapter 54: Charlie
It had been a long day on the boat all alone. Chip had left food and water for me, but there was still the issue of going to the bathroom while being tied up. He had locked the cabin door, but clearly he didn’t trust me enough to be untied. I had tried pulling at the door for at least an hour after he left, but it was no use. I wasn’t strong enough to break the lock.
I kept reviewing the entire situation in my mind, my reality becoming bleaker by the moment. Uncertain of how Chip was going to fund our getaway, it didn’t seem like we’d get very far. Suddenly, a conversation a few months ago with April in accounting flashed through my mind. Money was missing from the company, but no one had been able to pinpoint who had taken it. Had it been Chip? I couldn’t do anything helpful with this knowledge and now I knew we could disappear forever, especially if we lived in a third-world country. Chip hadn’t exactly given me the itinerary, but I knew he was very smart and had the capacity to think of everything. At least I had solace in the fact he hadn’t hurt Mitch or my parents to take me.
They all must be so worried about me. Would Mitch be worried? Maybe he doesn’t know. He left, so maybe he wouldn’t want to know.
Placing my hand on my stomach, I wondered what was going to happen when it was time for me to deliver my little nugget. Not knowing if I would have access to a doctor, my heart began pounding in my chest. It all seemed like some sort of nightmare, but it wasn’t. It was real and I was at the mercy of a man that I had no idea what he was capable of.
Chapter 55: Mitch
It seemed like an eternity had passed before we got another text from Neil and we were still stuck in the bathroom, listening to Chip yammer on. His team had searched Chip’s apartment, but Charlie wasn’t there. They did, however find an entire wall of pictures of Charlie. Clearly this guy had been stalking her for a long time, we just didn’t know it.
Chip sounded so normal talking to Trace. I couldn’t hear anything in his voice indicating he was anything other than a computer geek.
Finally, their meeting was over and Trace opened the door to the bathroom.
“Well?” he asked.
“It’s him,” I said, ready to punch the wall.
“Shit. Seriously?”
Kate and I both nodded. “It’s definitely him,” I said.
“How do you want to handle this? Do you want me to call the police?”
“No, Neil has security in the lot, ready to follow Chip and we’re going out to the car right now. We don’t have any proof he has Charlie and Neil already sent men to Chip’s apartment. Charlie isn’t there.”
“Okay, well let me know what I can do to help.”
“For now, as much as I hate to say it¸ we have to wait until Chip leaves and follow him,” I huffed out. I so wanted to kill the guy right now.
“I would imagine you don’t want him to see you, so I’ll show you to the back stairwell. You’ll be able to leave unnoticed.”
Once we were in the car, I looked over at Kate. “Kate, thank you. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know what I’d be doing right now. You’ve kept me calm.”
Kate tilted her head and gave me a knowing look. “I’ll always be here for you and Charlie, no matter what.”
“And we’ll always be there for you.”
“Does that mean—”
“Yes. I’ve been a fool. If she wants me back, I’m hers.” Kate sighed. “There’s the Mitch I’ve been missing. We’re going to find her and Chip is going to prison for a long time.”
Just then, Chip exited the building. He got into his car and I started Kate’s car, ready to follow him. Kate had already been instructed by Neil’s men to let them follow directly behind Chip and then we would follow them. The tension in my body had me ready to boil over. I needed to find Charlie today. No matter what.
Chip pulled out of the parking lot, followed by Ruiz and Snyder. Then, we trailed behind. I had met the security guys before we got into the car. Both men, having been Navy SEALs, made me feel more confident about Charlie being safe soon. They were trained for rescue missions.
After about twenty minutes, we ended up at the harbor. Chip parked his car and began walking down toward the boats.
“He must have a boat,” I said to Kate. “I want you to stay in the car. If anything happened to you, Neil would kill me.”
“Yeah, he is a little protective. I already texted him our whereabouts. He’s on his way with another team.”
“Okay, good.”
I got out of the car and shadowed Ruiz and Snyder. They were up ahead, tracking Chip. I felt pretty confident Chip was leading us straight to Charlie.
Chip boarded a sail boat, and Ruiz put his hand up like a stop sign. I caught up with them and gave them a confused look.
“We need to do a little surveillance before we go charging in. If she’s not there, we’re fucked,” Ruiz said, answering the question I didn’t ask.
“Okay, how do we get eyes on Charlie?”
“Snyder is going in the water, circling the boat, and hoping to get her in his sights looking through the cabin windows. He’ll let us know what he sees.” Ruiz explained this as Snyder changed inside their van. Before I knew it he was in the water, swimming toward Chip’s boat.
“After he sees her, then what?”
“We’re going in. Hopefully Chip doesn’t have a gun.”
“I texted Neil to ask if he had noticed a gun being registered to Chip when he did the background check.”
Neil said no, but of course that didn’t mean Chip didn’t have an illegal gun.
Snyder came out of the water from a different point than when he went in. “She’s there,” he simply said.
Both relief and adrenaline surged through my body. In a few minutes, Charlie would be back in my arms where she belonged.
Ruiz looked at me. “I know you want to go in there and beat the shit out of him, but let us do our job and take him down. Charlie needs you.”
I reluctantly agreed. I knew I could take Chip, no problem, but I also was emotionally involved and I could make mistakes they wouldn’t. Plus, once I started hitting him, I wasn’t going to stop.
“Just hang back until you see us bring Peterman up top.”
“Okay,” I exhaled. Both men were on the boat before I could say anything else. My girl would be safe any second. Ruiz returned up on deck with a confused looking Chip, zip ties securing his hands. Snyder had carried Charlie up on deck and I raced over to her. He set her down in a chair, and I began immediately untying her hands.
“Mitch, it’s really you? You’re here,” she cried. “I didn’t think we’d ever see each other again.”
As I untied the ropes around Charlie’s wrists I asked, “Baby, are you okay? Did he hurt you in any way?”
“No, I was just scared. Scared I’d never see you again.”
I put my hand on her beautiful face. “I might have been acting stupidly for a while, well, a long while, but I love you, Charlie. If I don’t have you, I don’t have my heart. You are my everything. Please forgive me for leaving you.”
Charlie wrapped her arms around my neck. “I’m the one who should be asking for your forgiveness.”
“Baby, what happened with my brother wasn’t your fault. He never should have done what he did. He may have started out trying to be there for you, but he was in the wrong.”
“Right now, can we just get out of here? I want to be anywhere but here. Please?”
“Of course. Let’s get you to the hospital so a doctor can check you and the baby out. Once we know everything’s fine, we’ll have all the time in the world together. I love you so much, baby.”
“I love you, too,” Charlie said, tears streaming down her face.
Charlie kept holding tightly to my neck. I pulled her close to me, practically crushing her, but she didn’t seem to mind. My anger had dissipated with the thought of her being lost to me forever. I’d never been so afraid in my life. It was a good thing Ruiz and Snyder were here to take down Chip. Otherwise, I might have killed him for hurting my girl. I would have done anything to protect her. Now I’d do anything to get our lives back and have the family we always talked about. I had my girl back. All was right in my world. How could I ever have thought I could live without her?
Chapter 56: Charlie
I couldn’t believe I’d been rescued from whatever Chip’s plans were. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when a man came up from behind Chip and knocked him down to the ground, securing his wrists in one swift move. When the other man picked me up, telling me he was bringing me to Mitch, I thought I had to be dreaming. Or hallucinating. But it was real. Mitch had come to save me…he still loved me.
I woke up in the hospital a few hours after being rescued. Mitch was sitting next to me holding my hand and Kate was on the other side of me. My parents were leaning against the wall.
“It was real? I wasn’t dreaming?” I asked, still feeling uncertain.
“Baby, you’re safe. We brought you to the hospital to get checked out and they sedated y
ou so you could rest,” Mitch said while he brought my hand to his lips to kiss.
The IV attached to my arm was welcome. I knew I hadn’t received the proper nutrition for my little nugget the last couple of days.
“Is the baby okay? What did the doctor say?” My heart started pounding rapidly as the worry spread over me.
“Everything is fine,” Kate assured me. “Mitch is the reason we found you.”
My parents were now standing at the edge of my bed. “We were so worried about you, sweetheart,” my dad said. “We’re so grateful Mitch and Kate found you.”
My eyes filled with tears as Mitch and Kate simultaneously told me what had happened. If Chip hadn’t threatened Mitch, they never would have known who had me. I was so grateful.
The doctor came in to discharge me. I couldn’t wait to get home, take a shower, feel back to normal.
“I have an idea, if it’s okay with the two of you,” Kate said.
We both looked at her with anticipation.
“How about you come back to my house and you can have the guest room all to yourselves, have some alone time.”
Mitch and I looked at each other. Nothing sounded better than alone time with Mitch. I really didn’t want our first night back together to be at my parents’ house…but I had given up our apartment when Mitch went to Texas. It seemed stupid to keep paying rent when no one lived there, and I couldn’t face living there.
Mitch nodded while I told Kate we would love to. My parents each kissed me on the forehead, told me how much they loved me, then left. I got dressed and we left the hospital. Other than having my baby, I never wanted to see the hospital again.
***
Walking into the guest suite, the surroundings sang to my soul. It would rival any five-star hotel and somehow Kate had rose petals on the bed, chocolate-covered strawberries on the nightstand, and a bottle of what I assumed to be sparkling cider chilling next to the bed. The air was filled with jasmine and I noticed candles flickering in the attached bathroom.
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