"Yes. He did a lot of beatings there—like the one Stix went to prison for."
"The kid from Northwestern."
"The one you gave Johnny an alibi for."
"The night of the fashion show," she murmured. "Oh, my God—the newspaper photo was from that show. I didn't put it together. I should have figured that out sooner."
"This is about that night," Nathan agreed.
"Revenge," she breathed. "Against both Johnny and me."
"Which means that it's either Stix or the kid from Northwestern behind this."
He'd no sooner finished speaking when another text came in. They read it together: Come alone. If you're not here in fifteen minutes, she's dead.
"Let's go," Nathan said.
As they ran toward the door, gun shots echoed from the shop below, followed by shouts and more firepower.
"What the hell is that?" she asked, as Nathan managed to break open the door.
"No idea," he yelled. "But there's a fire escape off the storage room. It's how I got up here."
She ran down the hall, staying close to Nathan. More shots were fired. It sounded like they were coming from an automatic weapon.
Nathan grabbed her hand and pulled her into a small room, then pushed her toward the window. She climbed over the sill and made her way down the fire escape as fast as possible.
When they reached the ground, they took off running, dashing between buildings and down alleys to where Nathan had hidden his truck. It sounded like a war back at the auto shop, and she didn't know what to think about that. But thankfully, they were out. Now they just had to save Hayley.
Nathan gunned the engine, as they took off. She looked in the side view mirror for any sign of a tail, but there wasn't one.
"If Johnny doesn't survive whatever is going on back there, he won't be able to help us," she said.
"Maybe that's the point."
Her phone buzzed again, and she saw another text coming in. This time it was a video message. Hayley was facing the camera and no longer tied to the chair. She looked right into the camera and said, "Mommy, please come and get me. I'm waiting. Hurry."
It was the first time she'd ever heard her daughter's voice and tears streamed out of her eyes. She played the message again, her heart twisting in agony. "I know she's not talking to me; she's talking to Lindsay, to her mother, but it still hurts."
Nathan put his hand on her leg. "Hang in there, Bree. We're going to get her."
"I know I'm going to see Hayley; I just don't know if I'm going to be able to rescue her," she said, overwhelming fear running through her. "I'm afraid whoever has her is going to kill us all."
"We won't let him. As I recall, there are at least three entrances to the school and a lot of broken windows. There will be multiple ways to get in and out."
"I'm sure there will be multiple guards watching those doors and windows, too. It's not going to be easy."
"We've never had easy. We've always beaten the odds."
She met his gaze. "You're right. We've been through a lot together."
"And we'll do this together, too."
"I have to go in alone, Nathan."
"I understand that. But I will not be far behind. You saw what happened to Mark yesterday when he went by himself. He'd be dead if it wasn't for you."
"I've been thinking about that." She opened a new text on her phone and typed in a lengthy message.
"Who are you writing?"
"Agent Tracy Cox, my Chicago nemesis, but also a good agent. I want you to send this as soon as I get out of the car. I want the kidnapper to think he's getting his way at first, so you have to keep out of sight. I'm sure he knows by now that you're working with me."
"I can stay hidden."
"I'll probably have a ten-minute head start before the agents show up. Hopefully, I won't need them. But if I do, I have to trust they'll come in the right way."
He pulled the truck around a corner and turned off the engine. The school was still out of sight, but she knew exactly where it was. These were the streets of her youth: the dark, barren, depressing, run-down neighborhood which she'd somehow managed to survive once. She had to make it twice.
She looked over at Nathan. "This is it."
"Be careful, Bree. I don't want to lose you."
"I don't want to lose you, either." She gently touched the side of his bruised face. "Don't be a crazy-ass hero."
"Don't worry about me. Go get your daughter."
She leaned over and gave him a kiss, then got out of the truck and ran down the street.
*
Nathan watched Bree leave with tremendous misgivings, but he reminded himself that she was trained for situations like these. She'd just never had her daughter's life at stake before. But she would keep it together. She was smart, tough, and determined.
And he would be right behind her.
He sent her text to the FBI and then got out of the truck. He went in the opposite direction from where Bree had gone. Fortunately, there weren’t many people out. A lot of the buildings in this area had been destroyed by a fire several years ago, and others were either out of business or closed on the weekend.
Howard School was three blocks away and located next to the river. It should have been a picturesque location, but it wasn't, and on this gray, gloomy day, he felt nothing but foreboding.
The school had been one of their favorite places to get into trouble or shelter them from the snow or get drunk on a hot summer night. The police and the city would periodically try to lock the building down, keep people out, but it never lasted long.
The truth was that no one cared about this part of the city; they never had. Maybe one day the whole area would be redeveloped, but that was a long way away. For now, the abandoned buildings, many filled with dangerous asbestos and inhabited by rats, would continue to be a blight on the city.
It wasn't a coincidence that Hayley was here. The school was where Johnny had conducted business. It could be Stix behind the plan, or the kid Johnny had almost killed for stealing his drug business. It could even be Sierra. She'd told him earlier that she'd saved him by calling in the fire department. She'd known where Johnny was then.
Maybe Sierra was behind the whole thing, he suddenly wondered. What if she'd found out Bree had had a kid with Johnny? What if she'd wanted to torture her former rival? What if she'd wanted to get rid of the one person who could take Johnny away from her—his daughter Hayley?
The way the kidnapper had played on Bree's emotions seemed almost feminine in nature, not that he wanted to discredit women, but another woman might certainly know that Bree's most vulnerable point would be the loss of her child. And Sierra had known Bree when she was in her teens. She'd probably known about the shelter. She'd definitely known about the fashion show, because she'd been jealous of Bree's photo in the paper.
But would Sierra really go against the man she'd loved for years? The man who had probably financed her salon and was letting her live the life she always wanted?
Frustrated, he decided to put the guessing aside. He was probably going to find out soon enough. What he needed to worry about was how to enter the school without being seen and how he was going to save Bree and Hayley.
As he neared the building, he kept a wary eye on the windows and doors facing him.
All was quiet. He couldn't see anyone moving behind the broken windows.
The building backed right up to the water, just a narrow cement path between the structure and a low retaining wall.
He hid behind the adjacent building, waiting and watching for a long minute. There were no guards outside, but who knew how many people were waiting inside?
Time to find out.
He didn't head to one of the doors, instead aiming for a window on the ground floor. There were plenty of those around, and he didn't think they could guard all of them. Hopefully, he was picking the right one.
Nineteen