Page 101 of Target Acquired
“Yeah, just learning a lot about my family history—and Cole’s. I knew our families were entwined all the way back to the late 1940s, I just didn’t have all the details. Reading them is fascinating. And shocking.”
She flipped the page.
Dr. King came to see me today. I knew he would, but it was an incredible relief to see him in the flesh. Betsy wasn’t allowed to come, but he slipped me a note from her. They’re engaged! But the best part is, they have a plan to get me out from under Father’s thumb and into William’s arms. If only it will work.
“We’re here,” James said.
Kenzie snapped the journal shut and followed James inside.
COLE WOKE WITH A START, the feeling that someone was watching him sending a rippling shudder through him. He looked around but only saw a figure in a lab coat putting something in his IV. Wait, what?
“Hey, what are you doing? I just gave blood. I’m not here for anything else.”
“Just flushing the IV with saline before I take it out,” the man said. He sounded familiar.
A strange lethargy started to work its way through him.
“No. This is wrong. Stop.” But the words came out weak, slurred, and darkness approached the edges of his vision. He grabbed his phone and tapped a message to the first person his messages app opened to.
Drugged. Fake doc. Need help.
With a shaky finger, he hit send, then lost his grip on the phone.
“Don’t worry,” the figure said, turning back to Cole and capping the syringe, “I know exactly how much to give you. You’ll wake up in a few hours.”
“But—”
“You’ve been a huge thorn in my side, Detective Garrison. It’s past time that I remove it.”
“Who are you?” He could barely get the words out even as he tried to force his eyes to stay open to see the man’s face.
“All in due time. We’ll have a nice chat when you wake up because I need you to do something for me before you die. But for now, I’ve got to be clever and get you out of here.”
Cole struggled to watch, to take in every detail.
The man shrugged out of the white lab coat to reveal a blue-and-green transport T-shirt many in the hospital wore. The bed started to roll and panic grabbed at Cole. He was helpless. Couldn’t move, couldn’t call out for help. Nothing.
Riley. She needed the blood. Please, God, get that to Riley. And then he gave in to the drug that pulled him under.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Kenzie and the others entered the hospital and wound their way to the lab. The area for giving blood was across the hall. James laid a hand on her arm. “You go on in. We’ll wait out here and take you home when you’re done.”
“You’re not coming?”
“Cowboy, Greene, and Otis will make sure the area is secure and keep an eye on all the things. But I’ll drop by after I find Lainie. I need to ask her a question.”
“You could just text her, you know. She checks her phone a little more often than I do.”
“Ha. I know that’s right, but I prefer the face-to-face.”
“Of course you do.”
“You will too one day.”
She rolled her eyes. “I already do. For everyone.” She waved her work phone at him, briefly thinking she should check her personal one. “Get out of here.”
James left and Cowboy took up residence near the exit, his positioning strategic in that it would allow him to see everyone coming through the front door, the side door that opened into the main part of the hospital, and everyone in the waiting room. Greene settled into a chair on the opposite side of the room and Otis dropped beside him, planting his muzzle between his massive paws. Kenzie smiled, grateful for the crew and wishing Butler would come around—assuming he wasn’t the one trying to kill her—and made her way to the back where Cole would be giving blood. Once at the door, she pushed her way into the room to find three empty beds and a missing one.