“Oh my God. Andrea!” Abbey pushes past me, hurrying in to throw her arms around a dumbfounded Andrea.
“What are you doing here?” Andrea asks, tears filling her eyes.
“What happened?” I ask as the women inside start to relax, although all are still sobbing.
Shit, at least three of them are holding newborn babies.
“We were just finishing up in the nursery with the mums and bubs when we heard yelling. We hurried in here,” Andrea starts, needing to take in a steadying breath as Abbey steps back from her, and she gestures to another door behind them, and I realise this closet has two entrances. “I went to go and see… then I heard a scream. I peeked out the door and saw two cops… they shot Tania and Bernice and dragged Dr Madden out the fire exit.”
“You didn’t hear them shooting downstairs?” JD asks, and Andrea shakes her head. “No… but they had those silencer things on their guns. Like you see in the movies.”
I meet JD’s eyes, and I know he’s thinking the same thing as me.
This definitely wasn’t an MC. Probably corrupt cops, although I don’t think they’d be dumb enough to wear their uniforms on a hit like this. So maybe not real cops.
“You said they took Dr Madden? How long ago?” Abbey asks, and Andrea nods.
“Yes. She fought them, though. Tried to get away, but they were too strong for her.” Andrea shrugs. “It all happened maybe five minutes ago.”
Abbey’s caramel eyes flick up to mine, swimming with concern.
“Why would anyone but me come looking for Dr Madden?” she asks. “Daniel said no one knows.”
“He did. I guess he was lying.”
Abbey’s jaw ticks as she clenches her teeth.
“Why are you here to see Dr Madden?” Andrea asks, gaining my wife’s attention again, and when Abbey smiles, it’s strained.
“Just a follow up from when…” Abbey trails off, and Andrea nods, sympathy in her eyes over Abbey losing her child even though I’m pretty sure she doesn’t believe what Abbey just said.
“We should follow the trail,” JD mutters behind me, and I grunt in agreement.
“Have you called the police yet?” I ask Andrea, and she shakes her head.
“Our phones are in our lockers, and the closest landline is out there…” Andrea frowns in confusion. “But those men were the police.”
“No, they weren’t,” I grunt, wishing I had more time to explain. “All of you remain in here. We’ll contact Officer Zimora. He’ll bring the right men to deal with this.”
Andrea nods. She knows Officer Zimora. He helped Lexi when she was being hunted by her dad and brother.
With another quick hug between Abbey and Andrea, we leave the small space and reconvene out in the hallway where Abbey and I refit our helmets.
“Let’s follow the yellow brick road.” Smitty smirks, and I don’t miss the way my wife rolls her eyes at him through the open visor. “What? It has a better ring to it than‘blood smeared stairwell’.”
JD, Murf and Trunk chuckle as we head for the fire exit.
Carefully checking to see if the coast is clear, we enter the fire escape stairwell and follow the drops of blood down until we hit the basement level.
The morgue.
Abbey’s feet falter as she goes to step into the morgue foyer, and my mind goes back to the day I pushed her through here in the wheelchair,and the way her frail body coiled tight at the sight of Dr Madden standing outside the door, waiting.
I try to remember what the doctor’s expression looked like. If there was any sign I missed that could have hinted at her being a part of stealing Abbey’s baby, but I come up blank.
I guess I wasn’t focusing on the fucking doctor. I was focused on my broken wife.
But fuck, there are so many questions now… Like how the fuck this could have even happened? That day when Abbey and her baby were rushed in, they were separated. I stayed with my Angel. I held her hand and fucking wept, thinking she was going to fucking die.
