“Promise.” I press the call button for the nurse so she can help me take the girls to see my family.
I carry Harmony while the nurse carries Willow into the waiting room. Everyone is excited to see both of our girls, but with the babies being so small and Sophie being out of my sight, I want to get them back to the room as fast as possible. I don’t know how I’m going to stand going back to work. I don’t even like to think about not seeing them for any length of time.
“Where’s your wife?” the nurse asks when we walk into the room.
I look at the bed expecting to see Sophie there, and it takes a second to realize that she’s not in bed. The blankets are half on the floor, and the bed they brought in for the girls is pushed to the side. My heart starts slamming into my ribcage when I see that the bathroom door is open, letting me know that Sophie isn’t in there either. I walk to the bed, pressing the call button before pulling out my cell phone and calling Kenton.
“We’re just getting in my car. You need me to bring you something?” he asks as soon as he picks up.
“Sophie’s not in the room. I need you back in here. Now,” I tell him, trying to stay calm. Something isn’t right.
“What do you mean she’s not in the room?”
“Exactly what I just said. Get back in here now.” I hang up.
“Did you need something?” a second nurse wearing bright pink scrubs asks, stepping into the room.
“Do you know where my wife is?” I ask, not wanting to hear the word ‘no’ come out of her mouth.
“She’s not here?” she asks, looking at the nurse holding Willow then around the room before walking into the bathroom and turning on the light.
“Get security for me,” I growl impatiently.
“Yes, of course,” she mumbles, looking worried. She leaves the room, and I look down at Harmony then over at Willow.
“Anything?” Kenton asks, coming into the room.
“I’m waiting for security to get here before I go look for her myself. Do me a favor and take Willow.” I motion for him to take my daughter from the nurse, and he does immediately. “Go check and see what’s going on with security,” I tell the nurse, and she nods, leaving the room quickly.
“We’ll find her,” Kenton says with conviction, looking down at Willow.
“I know.” There isn’t any other option.
I know that, wherever Sophie is, she’s scared, and it’s f**king with my head. I’ve made sure since we got together that she always felt safe. Knowing that she just had emergency surgery to have our daughters and is still recovering is only making my anxiety heighten.
It takes about five minutes for security to show up, and once there, they tell me that the nurse explained what’s going on. They’ve put the hospital on lockdown and are searching for Sophie.
I take a second to call my mom to let her know that I need her here and to bring Dad. As soon as they arrive, I give her Harmony and Willow and a strict instruction to not leave the room for any reason. I leave her and Dad in the room, along with a guard at the door, and follow the head of security down the hall to the security office. Once there, we go into a small room holding the CCTVs. An older gentleman with short white hair is sitting in front of the screens, playing back a video from the camera in front of the room Sophie was in.
“You find anything yet, Charlie?”
“Not yet. Still looking,” the guy mumbles.
I watch the screen as well, trying to catch a glimpse of anything out of the ordinary. Five minutes into the video, I’m ready to start breaking shit. I need to be out looking, but I know this is the first step in the process. I watch the video of me leaving the room with the nurse and heading to the waiting area, taking my girls to meet our family. About two minutes after we leave the room, a guy wearing a long doctor’s coat and pushing a wheelchair enters Sophie’s room. He’s facing away from the camera, so I can’t see what he looks like, but I feel bile in the back of my throat as I watch him enter the room. I don’t know what happens when he is in there alone with her, but I do know I will find and kill him. About four minutes after he enters her room, I watch as he leaves, pushing a passed-out Sophie in the wheelchair, and I finally see who the f**k it is.
Rage fills me when I see that the man pushing the chair is the same man who’s had a hard-on for Sophie since she started working at the school. David goes out of camera-view before reappearing in the next shot. He pushes Sophie casually down three halls before wheeling her out of the front door of the hospital. My body is literally shaking with adrenalin. I cannot imagine what he wants with her or how he even found out she was here.
“I know who that is. I’m gonna call Justin and tell him what I know about this guy to see if he can lead us to where he lives or where he might have her.”
“Who is it?” Kenton asks.
“He worked with her.”
“Why would he take her?”
“He wants her. He’s had a thing for her since she started working at the school,” I growl.
“Call Justin,” Kenton says as I pull my phone out of my pocket, putting it to my ear.
“Hidee-ho, Ranger Joe,” Justin answers in his usual chipper voice.
“Cut the shit,” I snap, running a hand through my hair. “I need everything you can get on a guy named David who works at the same school Sophie did.”
“You got a last name?” Justin asks, his voice now all business. I guess he must hear the seriousness in my tone.