Eliana straightened out of her crouch. “We need to go after them!”
“This guy hasn’t been dead long.” Tony pulled out his phone. “Let’s go, but I’m first, and you are not my backup. You’re the one I’m protecting.” He darted down the stairs.
Eliana scrambled after him, bringing Carlos’s phone with her.
Tony put his phone to his ear as he raced down the last couple of floors to the exit door at the bottom of the stairs. “Yeah, it’s me. Someone may have just kidnapped Carlos Ryson. They killed his partner in the stairwell at the hospital and took him.”
Considering they didn’t know for sure what had happened, Eliana thought that maybe it was too soon to make declarative statements like that. But was that only because she didn’t want to believe what was plainly obvious?
Carlos was gone.
Like Luci had been, and now Carolena.
Was she going to lose him the same way she was losing everyone else in her life? Maybe not her family, but the people she cared about in Chicago appeared to be in genuine danger.
Tony pushed out the exit door at the bottom of the stairwell, his phone now put away and his gun in one hand. He swept up with the barrel, aiming as he rushed outside.
She hesitated for a second, then saw over his shoulder that a dark four-door car idled in the alley.
The driver hit the gas, and the car started to speed away.
Carlos’s face appeared in the back window, and she saw his mouth move but couldn’t hear what he was saying.
Eliana pushed past Tony and ran after the car. Within two steps, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to a stop, lifting her off her feet with one arm and spinning her back toward the door. It clicked shut behind them, no handle on the outside.
Eliana screamed out her frustration and tried to push out of his hold, still determined to go after Carlos.
He didn’t let go of her. “There’s nothing you can do!”
“I’m not just going to stand here! They’re kidnapping him!”
Finally, he let her go but swung her around to face him. He leaned in, glaring at her. “And I suppose you’re going to single-handedly race after the kidnappers with no vehicle, catch up, and somehow disarm them and get your friend back?”
She stared at him, breathing hard.
“Instead of trying to do things all by yourself, maybe it’s time to actually lean on your family for once, realizing that the peopleyou know care about you and Carlos are all-in to help you find him. But if they don’t even know he’s missing, what can they do to help?”
She didn’t even know what to say to that.
Tony said, “Call Maizie.”
“What does my sister have to do with this? She’s a cop in Milwaukee. She doesn’t have any jurisdiction down here.” But she got her phone out and unlocked it with her thumb.
Tony snatched it from her.
“Hey!”
He put the phone to his ear. “It’s not Eliana. It’s me.” Grief flashed across his face.
Eliana didn’t think it had anything to do with Carlos. More likely something else entirely. But it gave her the momentary distraction she needed to grab the phone back from him and walk away with it, putting it to her ear.
“… happening.”
“Listen to me,” Eliana said. “Two cops just kidnapped Carlos. Somehow, you’re supposed to get him back?” She squeezed her eyes shut.
“What kind of vehicle was it?” her sister asked. “Do you know the license plate number, make and model?”
“It was a dark color. Maybe Tony knows more than that.”
