Virginia Vaughan - Risky Return

Earlier, this nurse had treated him like a suspect. He felt vindicated but couldn’t dwell on that. She didn’t know him and had been right to be suspicious of everyone, yet saving Rebecca’s life seemed to have garnered him less suspicion by this nurse. Plus, Rebecca had said a woman attacked her. Collin turned to Kent. “Three attempts on her life in one day. Are you sure your boss can’t authorize a guard by her door?”

Kent rubbed his face. “I’ll check into it.”

The nurse continued. “In the meantime, hospital security will be placed at her door. No one will go in or out of that room without permission from me and that includes any service personnel or housekeeping.”

“Thank you,” Collin stated, grateful for her diligence. “May I see her now?”

She nodded. “Sure. She’s out of danger but she’s sleeping. I’d say she’s just plain worn out from the day’s events.”

As Collin headed for Rebecca’s hospital room, he heard Kent tell the nurse he wanted to see all her records and wanted a list of all people who’d been in and out of her room. Good. He hoped Kent’s investigation would lead to something concrete, something that would identify the person or people trying to hurt Rebecca.

He stepped inside her room and his heart broke as he saw her lying so frail on the bed. He shuddered, remembering those letters and the way he’d found her sprawled on the floor. But at least she was breathing okay now. He slid into a chair and watched her, listening to her steady breathing. He wasn’t leaving her side again, at least not until he knew what was going on and why someone was trying to kill her.

* * *

Rebecca awoke in a panic and tried to sit up. Pain ripped through her back and she gasped, causing Collin, who was sitting beside her bed, to jump up.

She grabbed his arm. “That woman! She held me down! She—she—”

“I know, I know. She’s gone now.”

Sobs racked her and she fell into his embrace. As he held her, she noticed the bruises darkening on her wrists and recalled the horror of being restrained by that monster who’d attacked her.

“You captured her?”

She saw by the grim expression on his face that they hadn’t. “Kent is reviewing camera footage with hospital security, but there’s no camera with an angle on this room. No one saw anyone coming or going.”

The contempt she’d seen in the woman’s face flashed through her mind and anger bristled through her. “So she gets away with nearly killing me?”

“She won’t, Rebecca. Do you remember what she looked like? What she was wearing?”

Rebecca could never forget her face. “She was wearing scrubs. Her name tag said Mary. She was here when you left. You don’t remember seeing her?”

He shook his head. “I guess I wasn’t paying that much attention to the staff. I’m sorry. I should have been. I mistakenly thought you would be safe here.”

“It’s not your fault, Collin. She was a tall, heavyset woman. I tried to fight her, but she pinned me down. I couldn’t move. She injected me with something and said by the time anyone found me, it would be too late.”

He squeezed her hand. “It wasn’t. I found you in time.”

She stared up into his green eyes and felt a rush of gratitude for this man. “You came back for me? I thought I was going to die, really going to die this time.” She wiped away several tears that rushed down her face. She didn’t want Collin to see her cry, but she wasn’t sure she could stop it.

“Kent is sending those threatening letters to the lab. I wish you’d given them to him when you first started receiving them.”

She should have gone to the police with the letters, but they hadn’t been particularly helpful when Missy had disappeared. She’d assumed they wouldn’t be any more helpful about anonymous notes. And she hadn’t been able to convince herself, truly convince herself, that her suspicions were anything more than suspicion and speculation.

Until now.

Until Missy had shown up at her door two days ago.

Until someone had tried to kill her.

“I should have. I didn’t show them to anyone.”

“Not even your father? He could have arranged protection for you. Hired you a bodyguard.”

“No, I couldn’t tell him.” Missy had claimed to see Mason Industries on the building where she’d been held, which meant her father might be involved in this. She couldn’t trust him. The truth was she didn’t know who she could trust anymore. Everyone was a suspect.

“Why not? What’s going on, Rebecca?”

“I have a client, a teenaged girl I worked with named Missy, who went missing a few months ago. The police investigated but ultimately listed her as a runaway. But I knew this girl, Collin, and she wouldn’t have run away. I worried something terrible had happened to her, that she’d been a victim of foul play or abducted into a human trafficking ring. Foster kids are especially susceptible to traffickers. I started asking questions of all the people she knew. I put up missing posters and set up a Facebook page hoping someone would have information about her they wanted to share. I even started checking the news online for all the surrounding areas in case her body turned up somewhere else, like if she was the victim of a serial killer.” She’d felt silly even considering that possibility at the time, but no more.

“Did they find her body?”

“No, but I did find a mention of another missing girl who was found dead. She’d recently given birth and, Collin, she was from right here in Moss Creek. She was a foster kid, just like Missy, who went missing one day. I recognized her name immediately, but I hadn’t had much contact with her because her file was transferred to another county not long after I first met her. They found her a hundred miles across the border in Arkansas, and there was no sign anywhere of the baby she’d given birth to.”

“What was her cause of death?”

“The medical examiner ruled it as an overdose.”

“But you didn’t believe that?”

“I didn’t. I also was unable to find any trace of what happened to that child. He or she was never entered into the foster care system either here or in Arkansas. I checked with a social worker friend that lives there.”

“She might have left it at a safe haven or put it up for a private adoption. Then she felt remorse and OD’d.”

“I’m familiar with the adoption process. My cousin adopted her son and it was long and complicated. I realize it’s possible this girl had no connection to Missy, but I kept digging and I found other missing girls, all of them pregnant, and none of them had reason to run away from their foster homes. I became convinced I was dealing with some sort of baby-selling ring.”

He frowned, obviously unconvinced. It was true she’d had no real evidence of a baby-selling operation—not until Missy confirmed her suspicions. Yet, he reached for her hand and squeezed it, a gesture that gave her comfort and assurance that he believed what she was saying. “Still, you’ve obviously stumbled onto something. Someone wants you dead. There has to be a reason for that.”

She took a deep breath and made a decision. She needed to trust someone and Collin had proven himself today. Besides, he’d been out of the country for the past few months. He was the only person she knew for certain wasn’t involved. “There’s more,” she said and he looked at her. “Two nights ago, Missy reappeared. She showed up at my door. She’d been beaten and terrorized. She confirmed everything I’d suspected. She’d been held hostage and had her baby stolen from her.”

His eyes widened. “What? She was here in town?”

“Somehow, she escaped and came to me for help. I’ve been trying to help her piece together where it was they were held, but she was so panicked that she can’t be sure of anything. It can’t be far away because she hitchhiked to get here. She doesn’t remember being in the car for more than an hour or so.”