“It’s Callie,” I said breathlessly.
Gilly whispered, “No freaking way.”
The ex-reality star-slash-widow twice over was bundled up under a thermal heating blanket, the kind with an extra battery pack attached.A small oxygen mask covered her nose and mouth, the attached tank nestled near the outer edge of the drawer.Two unopened bottles of water sat beside her.Whoever had put her here hadn’t meant for her to die.Not immediately, anyway.They had wanted her alive, just barely.
Her body was still curled up in the fetal position, as if trying to conserve every bit of warmth.Her fingers clutched the edges of the blanket, her knuckles white.Even with the heating pack, she was shivering, her breaths coming shallow and quick through the mask.
“Callie?”
Her eyes widened at the sound of her name, blinking sluggishly against the light.
“Is it time to go?”she mumbled sleepily, her voice muffled by the mask.
“Yes,” I told her.“You’re safe now.It’s time to go home.”
Panic flickered across her face, her muscles tensing as if she were about to fight.Then, recognition hit.
“Nora?”Her voice was barely a whisper.
“Yeah, it’s me,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady.“You’re safe now.”
Gilly exhaled sharply.“I can’t believe it.I can’t believe she’s actually alive.”
“Not so harebrained now, am I?”Although finding Callie alive hadn’t been on my list of things I thought I’d discover tonight.Instead, it was a happy accident.
Ezra reached in, checking the oxygen tank, his movements quick and efficient.“She’s stable, but we need to get her out of here now.”
I placed a hand on the young woman’s arm, squeezing gently.“Can you move?”
She nodded weakly, her fingers twitching against the blanket.“Help me,” she groaned.
“I will,” I said, sliding an arm under her and preparing to lift.“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“What about Sebastian?”Gilly asked.“We have to move his body, right?”
“Moving Callie to a safe location takes priority,” Ezra said.
With our backs to the door, we hadn’t noticed it was closing until it slammed shut.
I whipped around and saw exactly who I thought I’d see.“Hello, Rebecca.”
Security Chief Hansen stood inside the room with us, a taser in one hand and a flare gun in the other.
Ezra raised a brow at the selection.“A flare gun?”
“They keep track of bullets,” she stated.
“Ah,” he said.“Makes sense.”
“You don’t have to do this,” I told her.
“But I do,” she said.Her downturned eyes were wide as she kept us covered.The shape of them made her look almost doll-like “It’s for my…” Her words trailed off.“I won’t explain myself to you.”
“You don’t have to explain anything,” I said.“I know why you’ve done this.”
When Augusta had hugged me, I’d seen the truth of Billy’s birth.He hadn’t come into the world alone.And looking at Rebecca Hansen’s face when she was next to Augusta, I could see the resemblance in not only the shape of her eyes, but in the fullness of her lips and her high cheekbones.The family resemblance was there.
“You’re Billy Grant’s twin, and Augusta is your mother”
