Ultimate Courage (True Heroes #2)(24)

Mary stepped back, a flush in her cheeks. “Of course. I’ll just be in the kitchen.”

Putting the phone to his ear, Joseph didn’t take his gaze from the hallway mirror. The reflection showed him Mary standing in her kitchen space, busying herself with straightening postcards and pictures on her refrigerator.

How quaint.

“Yes?” He answered his phone.

A man cleared his throat on the other end of the line. “Got a hit on Elisa Hall, sir.”

Finally. It’d been days since he’d last had a confirmed report on her whereabouts.

“Is the item of interest accessible?” Conscious of Mary still within earshot, he kept his choice of words ambiguous.

Locating and reacquiring Elisa was becoming critical to his business interests. He’d given her time to run, but he was done waiting for her to come back to him on her own. And she should have. She would understand that once she was back under his supervision.

“No. I mean, not currently. Sir.” The man didn’t have the quality of his usual employees but Joseph had hired him more for intimidation than for professional polish.

“Explain.” Joseph allowed his impatience to come through in his tone.

“I tracked her to a hospital in Pennsylvania.”

“Is there damage?” Joseph stood and began to pace. She shouldn’t have been injured. He needed to know if it was permanent, if there’d be scarring of some sort. The nature of her injury was important.

“Don’t think so.” The man coughed. “I can send you the name of the hospital, but it looks like she went into the ER and left the same night. She wasn’t admitted. I found her car in a nearby town parked in a shopping center.”

Joseph stopped pacing. It couldn’t be serious if she hadn’t been admitted. Good.

“I’m watching her car now. It’s only a matter of time before I have eyes on her,” his employee continued.

“We’ll want to have a means to track the shipping container.” Hopefully unnecessary, but his Elisa was perceptive. She might run again, and there was no time to waste searching for her further. “Then keep an eye on the item for me. If you have the opportunity, collect it and hold it for me. I’ll pick it up personally.”

“Understood.” There was a pause. “Should I still send you the hospital details along with the location of the car?”

“Send all of the information to my phone.” Joseph ended the call and turned toward the kitchen where Mary stood, peering around the doorjamb. “It seems I have to leave now.”

“So soon?” Mary stepped back into the living room. “It must be hard, your work. Always so busy.”

“Yes.” He didn’t deny it. His work was a priority, and so was retrieving what was his. “I’ll have a word with Elisa the next time I speak with her and make sure she knows to give you a call.”





Chapter Eight



Okay. Sleep had been good. Better than good. Elisa felt rested for the first time in a while. But no epiphanies had come to her in the middle of the night. She still wasn’t sure what her next step should be.

So here she was standing in front of a donut shop a few doors down from Revolution MMA. Gary had been in the office, but on the phone when she’d come downstairs. He’d given her a wave as she pushed out the front door, and it’d felt awkward, but she’d returned it with a smile. He and Greg were genuinely nice people, and she hated just slipping out the front door without even a thank you.

She took a careful sip of hot coffee with enough sugar in it to complement her freshly baked donut and figured being unpredictable was a good thing. So she wasn’t going to give herself a hard time for not having decided what to do yet. Instead, she was going to enjoy her breakfast and the morning—just as they were right now.

The air had a cold bite to it, and she wrapped the fingers of one hand more securely around her cup to ward off the chill, relying on the wrist brace to keep her palm from getting burned. She made quick work of her donut, then held the cup carefully with both hands to nurse the warmth as much as the caffeine. This was autumn on the East Coast, and already colder than it got back in California.

A few thoughts crystalized with the clarity of caffeine. Apple cider donuts were amazing. Maybe she’d try following up with hot apple cider next time, but coffee had definitely been the right choice this morning. And she definitely liked the contrast of seasons here.

That established, her next choice could only be great, right?

She sighed. Maybe. It was still early.

Then she caught sight of a random guy in a hoodie and sweatpants leaning against the wall. Just…there. No coffee or paper in hand or any reason to be where he was. The store he was next to wasn’t open yet. He could be waiting for it, but somehow she doubted he was dying to get into a beauty supply shop. Nope. Everything about him was creepy, especially with the hood pulled up over his head.

She took another sip of her coffee and willed her hands not to shake. Looking out over the parking lot, she saw that only a few cars dotted the blacktop. Because it was still early. People were arriving to open up the bigger stores, but there weren’t many shoppers yet. Her car was parked where she’d left it, all the way on the other end of the shopping strip past the school because she’d wanted to leave it under a streetlight.