“What are you talking about?”
The nurse handed her a clipboard. Wynn saw her signature on a change order, canceling her previous move request and changing the new address to one she didn’t recognize.
“When did you get this?”
“This morning, when her care team came for her.”
“I didn’t do this change request.”
“You signed it.”
Wynn shook her head. She didn’t have the time to argue. She had to go find her grandmother. “I’d like a copy of this, please.”
The nurse pulled out a copy from the clipboard.
Wynn snatched it and hurried back to her car. The address was for a house in one of the upscale neighborhoods about twenty minutes away. It was a private residence, still in Cheyenne. How could a mix-up like this have happened? Did the ambulance crew mistake her grandmother for someone else? Was someone else’s matriarch on the way to the other nursing home?
Wynn pulled up in front of a stately neo-Tudor mansion. She hurried up the long, tiered front walkway, then rang the doorbell several times.
A woman in a nurse’s outfit opened the door. “Ms. Ratcliff?”
“Yes. Is my grandmother here? I think there’s been some terrible mistake.”
“She is. Let me take you to her.”
The woman turned down a long hall to a bedroom. It looked, in every way, just like a room in a nursing home, with all the requisite equipment for a stroke patient. Her heart monitor had a steady beep.
Wynn pushed her hair behind her ears and hurried to the bed where her grandmother lay so peacefully. She grabbed her hand, relieved at its warmth, and was careful not to jostle her IV feed. “Grams, what happened? How did you get here?” she asked, knowing her elder couldn’t answer.
A movement on the other side of the bed caught her attention. A man stood up from a chair and pushed the bed curtain back to the wall. “Hello, Ms. Ratcliff.”
Wynn frowned at him, trying to remember if she’d ever met him. “Who are you?”
“I am Jafaar Majid.”
“Why is my grandmother here?”
He looked down at Grams’ peaceful face. “It is a difficult thing, is it not, to see one’s beloved so vulnerable.”
Wynn straightened. “I asked why she’s here.”
“She is—how do you say—leverage. You have something we want. And now we have something you want. The scales are balanced.”
“Are you saying you kidnapped my grandmother?”
“Indeed.”
Cold terror clamped Wynn’s heart. “I’m calling the police.” She scrabbled around in her purse for her phone. When she lifted it out, a woman was standing next to Gram’s IV, holding a needle to it. What were they doing?
“What’s that?”
“Nothing. Only a bubble. Sad that a little air, something so vital to us, could kill your grandmother.”
“Why are you threatening her?”
“I told you. You have something we want. And yes, you can call the police, but before they can get here, your precious elder will be dead.”
“What do you want?”
“It is my understanding you’ve taken a new job, working for a delightful family a little ways up the road. In fact, you now live with them.” The mask of affability he’d worn fell away. “They are enemies of mine. I need you to listen to their plans, let me know what they are up to.”
“I don’t have access to that. I work with their son. I have no idea what they’re doing.”
“Make it your business.” He waved a hand around the room. “As you see, we’ve taken the utmost care to provide your grandmother with everything she might need as she recovers her faculties from the stroke.” His eyes met hers. “But we also have everything we need to make her life a living hell. Fail us, and we will introduce terrible pain that she cannot fight. Help us, and we will assist her recovery process. Go to the authorities, or to your employer, and your sweet grandmother will be killed.”
Wynn could barely breathe. This lunatic would kill her grandmother before Wynn could get any help to her. She looked at Grams, and noticed her eyes were blinking rapidly. Was she silently screaming for Wynn to help her? How could she do anything but that?
“What kind of info are you looking for?” she asked.
Mr. Majid smiled. “I knew we could come to terms.”
Other Books by Elaine Levine:
Red Team Series
(This series must be read in order)
1 The Edge of Courage (2012) 2 Shattered Valor (2012) 3 Honor Unraveled (2013) 3.5 Kit & Ivy: A Red Team Wedding Novella (2014) 4 Twisted Mercy (2014) 4.5 Ty & Eden: A Red Team Wedding Novella (2015) 5 Assassin’s Promise (2015) 6 War Bringer (2016)
Men of Defiance Series
(This series may be read in any order)
1 Rachel and the Hired Gun (2009) 2 Audrey and the Maverick (2010) 3 Leah and the Bounty Hunter (2011) 4 Logan’s Outlaw (2012) 5 Agnes and the Renegade (2013)
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at [email protected]
Published by Elaine Levine Copyright ? 2016 Elaine Levine Last Updated: April 27, 2016
Cover art by Killion Group, Inc.
Cover image featuring Ken Davila ? Luis Rafael Photos Editing by editing720
Proofing by Carol Agnew All rights reserved.
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