Chapter 9
Jack
I jump a mile and a prayer crosses my lips when a strange callerID pops up on my phone.
“J-Jack?” Blake’s sweet voice causes my fucking heart to stop as air whooshes from my lungs.
Thank God.I put the phone on speaker and hold it over the kitchen table so the two FBI agents can hear. Hopefully, her captors aren’t listening in, too.
“Shush, Blake. Where are you?”Please don’t say I don’t know.
“I got myself free. I’m on 43rd, between Fifth and Sixth.”
“Are you hurt?” Dashing out my apartment door, I take the stairs two at a time. “I’m coming, babe. Be there in about ten minutes.”
“Huh? I thought you were in DC?”
I give Pat a thumbs up in the lobby, vault over the ugly-ass chairs, and exit onto the sidewalk. “I’ll explain later. Don’t hang up. I’m on my way.”
She’s okay!Outside it’s frigid but I warm up on my jog to Seventh Avenue. In the street, I raise my arm to hail a cab. “Blake, is our baby…”
Over excited shouting in the background, her voice softens. “We’re both fine, hun. Really we are.”
It seems the two Feds have caught up with me. They pull in front of me in the street so I open the door and jump in.
While Special Agent Diamond drives south like a madman, our call mutes, and the phone bleeps, then I’m back on with Blake. “I’m putting you on hold. Be right back.”
I pick up the other call. “She’s free. I don’t know how the hell she did it but she’s waiting for me midtown. I’m on my way with the Feds.”
“Great news. I’ll meet you there.” Slate hangs up and in the front seat, Diamond places a blue rotating police light on the roof and turns on the sirens.
He flips a switch on the dashboard and his amplified voice startles the hell out of me. “Pull aside. Repeat. Pull aside.”
Valiantly, Special Agent Diamond tries to fight holiday gridlock but we get stuck on South Broadway between Thirty-Ninth and Fortieth. Unable to wait one second longer, I jump out and run as if chased by the hounds of hell. My heart thumps not from the mad dash but by the shitload of overwhelming emotions I don’t know how to deal with.
“Passing on the right!” Pedestrians part like the red sea, some cursing me out but I don’t give a shit.
When I turn onto her block, I see her on the sidewalk, blond hair hidden by a black cap. “I see you hun.”
She turns and I know the instant she sees me. I thought I’d never see her beautiful fucking smile again. By the time I reach her, I can’t talk so scoop her into my arms and hold her close to my racing heart until I’m certain this is not a dream.
Needing to know she’s really okay, I cup her dirty cheeks in my palms. There aren’t words for the depth of shit in my heart so I stare into the ocean of her blue eyes. I didn’t realize I was crying until she reaches up and touches my wet cheek.
“Hey, love. I’m here now. It’s over.” She’s comforting me?
I lock my lips onto hers and thank God almighty for her taste, her feel, and the baby bump between us. We hold the kiss even as horse hooves clop on pavement right beside us.
When the animal snorts, we break apart as an NYPD officer dismounts. “Are you Dr. Blakely Smythe-Taylor?”
She nods as a crowd gathers taking pictures of his horse with their smart phones. Almost simultaneously, Diamond pulls to the curb with his sidekick. His blue bubble rotates and spews blue lights over the gathering crowd and the buildings. In the distance more sirens scream, the beat cop yells for people to give us some room, and ambulances squeal.
As cars honk, unable to get crosstown, New York’s skilled Emergency Services Unit arrives on the scene in a dark armored vehicle.
The Feds approach, I break out of our embrace, and suddenly her eyes go wide. “Oh my God. I almost forgot.”
She grabs Diamond’s outstretched hand and points to an open manhole. “I promised to send help. There’s another victim, a man, down there.”
The two Feds motion over a cop with more bars on his uniform who shouts into his walkie talkie, “We have a two-oh-seven-A. We’re going to need-”
