SEIZED, A Romantic Suspense Novella (6 page)

“Wilson, is the SWAT team on their way?”

“Not yet, sir. The lieutenant hasn’t told me to watch for them. They may be at the other emergency.”

Jake snapped his head around to focus on the younger man. “Other emergency?”

“Someone called in a bomb threat to the State House just before we got the news from upstairs to evacuate. We were on duty as protection detail for Senator Klein and happened to be here to help get people out of the building.”

No SWAT. That could be a good thing. One less thing for their team to deal with, but who called in the other bomb threat? Was it real? Or had the lone gunman upstairs set it up as a diversion?

“I’ll check in with your superior then.” He started to walk away, paused and looked back at the officer who’d returned to his duty guarding the perimeter. “Wilson, one of my associates will be arriving soon. Blond, about six-two, average build, name of Luke Edgars. He’ll probably be carrying a laptop. Let him in when he gets here, okay?”

“Yes sir, Agent Carlisle.”

As he wove his way through the chaos of stretchers, wheelchairs and staff, he pulled out his phone and hit the button for his youngest brother-in-law.

“Just pulling up behind Castello’s SUV, Jake,” Luke said as he answered.

“Try to get closer to the ER. There’s an officer by the name of Wilson securing the perimeter. He’s expecting you. I’m gonna need you up here.”

“Where’s everyone else?”

“Should be getting close to Judy. See you in a few. Oh, and you work for the FBI today, got it?”

“Woo-hoo, a promotion. Got it.”

Jake shook his head. Luke, the youngest of Sami’s older brothers, was a cross between a college frat boy and computer genius with intuitive field skills. Some day he was going to run into a case that forced him to grow up and harness that brain of his.

He dialed Matt’s phone next.

“You’re on speaker. How do things look out there?” Matt, always to the point, asked.

“Seems someone called in a bomb threat to the State House moments before our guy took Judy and the others hostage.”

“Think it was our bad guy?”

“You know I never like coincidences, so for now I’d say yes. A good way to keep off the SWAT team’s radar. Usually a smart move, only this time he’s done us a favor.”

“How do you figure that?” Matt asked.

“Because,” Dave broke in, his voice strained, “they’d want us to stand down and there’s no way in hell I’m abandoning
my wife
to this maniac, no matter who thinks they’re in charge.”

“Right,” Jake said. “Let me know when you’re outside the OR. In the meantime, The Boy Wonder and I are going to see if we can take over the situation out here. Anything else I need to know since we split?”

“The gunman wants Senator Klein brought up to the main OR door. He gave the nurse ten minutes to see that happen,” Katie added.

“His people aren’t going to let that happen,” Jake said, already scanning the area for the senator and his people.

“You find a way to make it happen, Jake. Judy’s life might depend on it.” There was silence for a moment. “I can’t lose her.”

Jake swallowed hard. He’d done whatever it required to save Sami, just as Dave would do to save Judy. “I’ll get him up there, even if I have to kidnap him myself.”

Jake pressed the off button, pocketed his phone and pulled out his credentials once more. Donning his agent-in-charge face, he strode through the ER doors and straight up to the man Officer Wilson had pointed out. “Lieutenant Brush?”

The older man turned and gave him a once-over from head to toe. “Yes. You are?”

Jake flipped open his credentials. “Carlisle. FBI.”

“Who called you in?” Brush’s eyes narrowed and his gaze swung to the corner where several men in dark suits hovered around Senator Klein and his wife. “The senator’s people?”

“No, sir.” Jake studied the other man a moment. Brush had a lot on his plate with the evacuation and no known backup coming. He was holding his own at being in charge, but there were details he didn’t know and that could get someone, especially those held hostage, killed. The other man returned his steady gaze and Jake made a quick decision to trust him. “I’m going to be straight with you, Lieutenant. I’m not here in an official capacity.”

“Then why are you here?” Brush asked, head cocked slightly sideways.

“One of the hostages in the OR is married to a member of my team. She has been in contact with us from the beginning.”

Brush looked around and behind Jake. “Your team? All I see is you.”

“Currently, four members are stationed just outside the OR backdoor. The last member of my team will be meeting me here momentarily.”

“Damn. You can’t go in there. Whoever is behind this has the place wired to blow if anyone tries to open any of the doors to that suite.” Brush wiped his hands through his thinning gray hair.

“We understand that. One of our team members is a bomb expert. We have a marksman with them, too.”

“Do you know how many bad guys are we looking at?”

“Our person inside the OR managed to get the information to us that we’re looking at one gunman, who has indeed wired all the doors to blow.”

Brush narrowed his focus on him once more. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“He has a timer set to blow. The original time was—”

“Ninety minutes.” Brush let out a long breath, once again running his hands through his hair, then looking at his watch. “By my calculations we have maybe twenty minutes left to clear the building.”

“That’s not the only problem we have.” Jake leaned a little closer and nodded towards the senator’s entourage.

“I’m not going to like this, am I?” Brush said.

“Our gunman has an agenda. He’s already killed a surgeon and he wants the senator brought up to the main OR doorway.” Jake glanced at his watch. “We have about five minutes to make that happen.”

“That’s what the big ruckus was all about,” Brush said, shaking his head.

“Ruckus?”

“Yeah, about five minutes ago, one of the nurses rushed over to the senator’s group and spoke. There was some yelling and hand waving, but I was too busy trying to get people out of here to try to put out that fire, too.”

“Can you get me a vest?”

“Don’t need to do that.”

Jake turned to see Luke standing right behind him, holding a police vest and his laptop. “Had Wilson outside get me one. And I have some information for you guys. Can you patch into Matt’s phone, so I only have to tell it once?”

***

“You’re on speakerphone, Luke,” Dave said as Matt held the phone out between the quartet.

They’d made their way to the stairwell just outside the side entrance into the Operating Room unit. Judy was less than fifty yards away and he still couldn’t get to her. Frustration warred with the fear and anger surging through his veins. The woman he loved was in danger and he was as useless as a eunuch in a whorehouse.

“I did some digging into Wilkes. It took me a while and I had to hack into some databases that aren’t supposed to be hackable, but I found something.” Luke paused as if waiting for accolades.

“What? You want a pat on the back? Judy’s life is in danger. Just spit out the info, little brother.” He felt the others’ eyes on him as he ground out the words, but couldn’t help feeling like taking the hide off of someone, even if it was Luke.

“Seems our gunman and the senator’s lives have crossed once before. Six months ago, the senator’s son was involved in a DUI, details of which were buried deep in both the media and the internet. Both victims were brought to this hospital and the surgeon was—”

“Hodges,” Matt said.

“Right. The other victim was Wilkes’ wife.”

“Dammit.” Dave ran his hand over his face. The guy wanted payback for his wife’s death.

“Apparently, Hodges chose to work on the senator’s son while the senior and second-year residents tried to save the wife.”

“And Wilkes is holding the surgeon and the senator responsible for the wife’s death,” Castello said.

“Well, that, and there’s more.”

“Luke.” Dave growled in frustration.

“The wife was pregnant.”

“Oh, my God,” Katie whispered.

Dave exchanged looks with Matt and Castello. The gunman had nothing to live for and that made him worse than crazed.

“Any news on the senator?”

“Klein and his people are here, but making no move to comply with the gunman’s demands,” Jake said, his voice full of tension.

“But you’re going to light a fire under them?”

“As soon as we hang up, I’ll get a vest on him and drag him up there. How long ‘til the deadline he gave us?”

“Little less than four minutes,” Castello said, studying his watch.

“I’ll have him in the main hallway in three.”

“I’ll meet you there, Jake,” Dave said then Matt pocketed his phone again. “Any way we can get a look at the wiring for the explosives?”

Katie pulled out a slender tool that looked like a small snake a plumber might use. “If this can wedge in the gap between the doors, I might be able to see what he’s got set up.”

Dave nodded at her and Matt. “You two take a look at that while I meet Jake up front. If Judy can get this Wilkes in front of the door, I’m taking him out.”

“Castello?”

“I’ve got your six. Carlisle can keep the senator’s handlers out of the way and I’ll make sure no one gets past us here.”

***

As Wilkes dragged Judy back to the OR suite once more, her mind frantically worked to find a way to use the Succinylcholine on him.

She couldn’t let Dave shoot him. Despite the sudden madness of the hospital orderly, she believed there was a good man still inside—she’d seen it over the past months of working with him. And if Dave killed him while not on duty, Dave could go to prison at worst or lose his job at best. Besides, she couldn’t live with herself if she helped her husband take that shot.

So, Succinylcholine it was.

With Wilkes out of commission and not an immediate threat, she could unbind her co-workers and they could all figure out how to defuse the bombs. Or help Dave do it. Question was, how was she going to get the Succinylcholine into Wilkes?  He wasn’t just going to stand still and let her stick him with a needle and pump drugs into him.

The door to the OR suite slammed open as Wilkes hit it then once more shoved her toward the other hostages. She stumbled in front of them, mouthing the words,
need distraction,
to Karen and Bill. They exchanged looks then nodded.

“You know the police won’t let the senator come up here,” Judy said as she straightened then turned to face Wilkes and stand her ground.

“Shut up,” Wilkes groused at her, pacing the short distance to the OR table and back to the door. “He’ll come.”

“Surely you can’t believe his handlers will let him get close to doors rigged to explode.”

“He’ll make them, just so he can check on his bastard son. And this time
the senator and his warmongering cronies aren’t getting his son out of this one.” Wilkes turned and strode straight towards her, invading what little personal space he’d been giving her, his face so close his spit hit her as he spoke. “Now. I. Said. Shut. Up.”

Judy swallowed hard, didn’t move, but didn’t say anything more. She clenched the syringe in her pocket and wondered again how she was going to get the drug into the man before he either shot them all or the bombs blew.

“Sit with the others,” Wilkes said, leaning in until his breath blew hot on her face, his eyes wild with hatred.

Slowly she returned to her spot on the floor next to Karen.

Her friend’s body shook beside her. Judy turned to see tears streaming down her face, which she had pressed into Bill’s shoulder. For months she’d seen the pair dance around the attraction sparking between them. She’d even teased Karen the week before about arranging her call days on the anesthetist’s regular schedule. Karen had blushed and laughed, saying if she had to come in on her time off, she might as well have fun doing it. While Bill would make jokes and flirt innocently, Judy had to admit he’d always been professional, putting his patients’ needs over any romantic feelings he’d have for the cute brunette.

Perhaps this drama would push them to admit how they felt about each other.

Bill turned his head and whispered something to Karen. She nodded and leaned in closer. His eyes met Judy’s over Karen’s head and he gave her a brief nod that he meant to protect her friend as best he could—just as Dave always protected her.

They’d been driving for hours, winding through the river valley of southeastern Ohio, on their way home from her grandmother’s funeral. She’d hated leaving her mother, so they’d stayed late into the day, visiting with family until she’d finally exchanged one last tearful hug with Mom before Dave took her hand and walked to the car. The dreary fall weather wept right along with her as they’d traveled through the darkening countryside.

“She’ll be fine once your dad gets her home,” Dave said over the soft jazz music playing on the radio.

“I know, but it’s so hard to see such a strong lady like Mom in such pain.” She held her tissue to her nose again, pressing hard to try and stem the tears.

His hand squeezed her free one. “Yes, it is.”

Looking over at him, she read the concern and love in his hazel eyes and knew he was talking about her as much as her mother. She gave him a shaky smile. “We were all very close, you know. When I was a kid I used to call Granny whenever Mom was too busy to talk and she would listen to all the things I had to tell.”

“You still did.” Dave gave a laugh and squeezed her hand once more as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.

“Now I won’t be able to.”

“Sure you will— Geez!” Dave’s words were cut short and he grabbed hold of the steering wheel as a pickup swerved into their lane, the headlights nearly blinding them to the slick road.

“Shit!” Dave turned hard and the spit gravel as they careened off the highway into the small ditch.

“Oh. My. God,” she whispered and clutched the dashboard with one hand and the seat with the other. Trees flew by and the car bounced up the side toward one massive oak.