“Elijah. You were jumped by a couple of tweakers. There is no shame in that. I never wanted you anyplace but on the streets, but I knew you had doubts. I figured a job like this one would put you back out in the field in a controlled enough way that you’d realize you still had what it took to make a difference in a job made for you.”
Elijah turned away from her and walked over to the island. He wrapped his fingers around the cold granite and squeezed until the hard stone made his fingers ache. The bite of pain took his focus off his anger and kept his mind present in the moment. Otherwise, he might forget the respect and friendship he had for this woman who also was his boss.
“Don’t be so fucking proud of yourself when the result of your little game is that my mother is missing.”
“Elijah, let’s not start with the blame game. I’m not the one who had his entire family involved in what was supposed to be a protective custody detail.”
“You blaming me?”
Elijah didn’t want to look at her. He was too afraid she’d say what was already rolling around in his head. He closed his eyes, trying hard to pull himself together. He couldn’t afford to fall apart now. Not when his mother’s life was in the balance.
“Actually, I do. If I’d known your family was here, I probably would’ve signed off on them being here. It was too dangerous to move Warren. But I would never believe you’d be lax enough to not warn them of the dangers. Why was your mother walking the streets by herself? She was missing for three hours before you figured out that something was wrong. Where were you in that time? Why the fuck didn’t you realize what was up before then?”
Elijah swallowed the bitter pill Captain Searlington was shoving down his throat. She asked the same question he would if their roles were reversed, and Elijah knew there was no reasonable answer that would make it all not his fault.
“Officially, I’ll take the flack on this one. But we both know this could only happen because your head wasn’t in the game. It was on Warren.”
He heard her step closer to him, placing a gentle hand on his upper arm when she stood in front of him. “Regardless of whose fault this is, the blame lies solely with the Path. Let’s keep it on them, and focus on how to get your mother back. Part of that is letting me and the team handle it. You’re too close.”
“We may not have any choice in the matter.” Lieutenant Bryan Smyth’s voice pulled Elijah and Captain Searlington’s attention behind them and the ringing phone in Smyth’s hand. “Answer it, Elijah. The monitoring is already set up.”
Elijah grabbed the phone and answered it with a measured, “Hello.”
“We know your cop friends are listening. If you want to see your mother alive again, you’re gonna do exactly as I say. It’s simple really. Him for her.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“HELL,no!”
Camden shook as Elijah’s booming voice filled the room. The sound alone was enough to put his nerves on edge. Knowing Elijah’s refusal to go along with his captain’s plan could result in Evelyn’s death didn’t help his situation either.
“Stephenson, we have little choice in the matter. We’ve got twenty minutes to make it to the drop-off at the I-95/Pelham Parkway intersection. There isn’t enough time to scope things out and make a tactical plan to grab your mom. We’re working on that now, but until we get the info, we need to come up with a counterplan. We have to at least humor these fools. We have to let them think they’re getting what they want.”
Elijah pulled his hair into a low-riding ponytail at the base of his neck. It was a sign of stress for Elijah. The minute he became tense about something, he pulled the ever-present hair elastic off his wrist and swept his hair from his face and his shoulders.
Everything in Camden ached to comfort Elijah. Evelyn didn’t deserve this, and the stress it was piling on top of Elijah was almost unbearable to witness. Camden folded his arms around himself, trying to quiet the guilty pressure building inside him.
“There’s got to be another way, Captain. We can’t just trade one for the other. These people are crazy. They put a bomb under his car and nearly killed him. The moment Camden walks on the scene, they will kill him and my mother. You can’t think you can trust them to not double-cross us.”
“Stephenson, I said nothing about giving Camden to these people. I said we’d let them believe they were getting what they wanted.”
“So, you’re gonna throw our mama to the wolves to protect Elijah’s man?” The room became quiet, and everyone turned to see Emmanuel and the rest of the Stephenson clan standing in the background. They were fortunate the only cops in the room were Elijah, his captain, and Lieutenant Smyth. If anyone else had walked in and heard Emmanuel’s proclamation, things would’ve been so much worse. “That can’t be what you’re suggesting, is it, Captain Searlington?”
Walter placed a firm hand on Emmanuel’s shoulder. “Son, it’s not as simple as that. Captain Searlington and the rest of your brother’s people are doing the best they can.”
Emmanuel shrugged his father’s hand from his shoulder and stepped toward Elijah and Captain Searlington. “The best that they can would be to give these people what they want and save my damn mama instead of protecting Elijah’s boyfriend.”
“Manny, we’re gonna get her back, man. But sacrificing Camden to do that isn’t a plan we can agree to. We cannot ask that of Camden.”
Camden saw worry and hurt fill Emmanuel’s eyes. He hadn’t known the man long. He hadn’t known any of the Stephensons long, but there was something about this family that made Camden’s protective nature flare. Hell, before he’d met these people he hadn’t known he had a protective side. But watching them crumble under the threat of losing their matriarch was cutting Camden inside like hot metal through butter.
“What if you weren’t asking, Elijah? What if I offered instead?”
Elijah turned to him, shaking his head. “Camden. I love that you would offer, and as tempting as it is, I can’t accept it. We do not trade one hostage for another. That is not NYPD policy.”
Emmanuel turned to their father, worry and frustration carved into the lines of his face. “You can’t agree with them. She’s your wife. Do something.”
The usual stoic expression Walter Stephenson wore threatened to fall with each tremble of his squared jaw. “Your brother is not wrong, Emmanuel. Everything in me wants to get your mother now. But sacrificing Camden isn’t the way we do that. If we do that, they’ll both end up dead.”
