Gone (Deadly Secrets #2)(67)

“It was only a bump,” Raegan said with a note of irritation in her voice.

Hunt chuckled. “One hell of a bump.”

Raegan sighed. “Ethan said you were on the phone with Alec when it happened. Did the police catch the person who did this? Do they have any leads?”

Alec winced as the nurse pushed the catheter into his vein.

“Don’t know.” Hunt slipped his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “I’m sure they’ll be here soon enough to get Alec’s statement.” He glanced over his shoulder at Alec as the nurse pulled the elastic band from his arm. “Do you remember what happened?”

“Yeah, I remember.” Alec’s jaw clenched as the nurse placed a sticky plastic cover over the IV. “I remember everything, even that asshole’s face.”

“You saw him?” Hunt turned Alec’s way. Behind him, Raegan stepped close, glancing at his IV and then looking quickly back up to his face.

Alec nodded. “It was John Gilbert.”

The color drained from Raegan’s cheeks. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” A bitter betrayal whipped through Alec as he looked up at Raegan. He had plenty of reasons to hate John Gilbert, plenty of reasons to suspect Gilbert had been involved in Emma’s disappearance, but he never in a million years would have expected that his father—his own flesh and blood—would try to murder him in cold blood in the middle of a downtown street.

Alec’s vision turned red, and he wanted to reach for Raegan’s hand to soothe him, but she was standing hear his injured shoulder and the nurse was still messing with his IV. Forcing himself to look at Hunt, he focused on the facts, not on the hatred brewing inside him. “I was crossing the street, talking to you on the phone, when I heard a baby on the far sidewalk cry. I looked up, and that’s when I saw him. He was standing behind the woman and child in the opening to the alley.”

“Did you tell the cops?” Hunt asked.

“Yeah. But by the time they got there, he was already long gone. I should have expected something like this.” Alec shook his head, feeling like a complete idiot. “He left that note for Raegan. He roughed her up in that alley and threatened her. I’m just glad it was me and not her.”

From the corner of his vision, he watched Raegan pull something out of her coat pocket and look down. Her cheeks paled even more. Worry seeped in to mix with the hatred as Alec glanced at her. “What?”

“I . . .” She lifted a piece of paper. “Someone left this for me in the lobby of the station. I . . . I didn’t think to read it until just now.”

She handed it to Hunt, who read it and scowled, then held it up for Alec to see. Only one line was scribbled on the page.



YOU DIDN’T LISTEN BEFORE. MAYBE TODAY YOU FINALLY WILL.



Rage bubbled through Alec, a familiar rage linked to years of abuse and taunting, only now it was fueled by what had happened today and the fact that fucker had gone to Raegan. “It’s Gilbert’s handwriting.” He looked up at Raegan. “He was at your station?”

“I don’t know. I never saw him.”

Hunt tugged his cell phone from his jeans. “I’ll call my guy down at Portland PD and get them to send someone over to KTVP to get a statement. Who gave you the note, Raegan?”

“Anna Chapman.”

Hunt nodded and stepped out of the room so he could get a signal.

Alone, Alec looked over at Raegan only to see both hands covering her face. A little of the rage ebbed, replaced with a wave of relief that Gilbert hadn’t touched her.

“Hey,” he said softly, desperate to reach for her but still unable to because she was standing on his injured side. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay.” She dropped her hands. “You told me it was him, and I didn’t listen. When he left that note. When he . . .” She pointed to her face, unable to say the words. “I didn’t want to believe it could be him, so I ignored it. He’s your father. Fathers aren’t supposed to do those kinds of things. And now you’re lying in this bed, and—”

“Don’t do that.”

She swiped angrily at her cheek. “Don’t do what?”

“Don’t blame yourself for this. If you want to blame someone, blame him.”

“They don’t even know where he is, Alec. And if he had something to do with all these missing kids—”

“Then we’ll catch him. He’s not a smart man, Raegan. He’s a drug dealer and an addict. If he’s involved in whatever this is, I guarantee he’s not the mastermind. He’s a grunt, and grunts like him make mistakes. Like today. Today was a massive fucking mistake. I guarantee no one told him to take a shot at me. He did it because I went to see him the other day. He feeds off shit like that, knowing I’m upset.”

Alec looked up at her worried face, sick to his stomach because he had a strong hunch none of this would be happening if he hadn’t gone to that prison. “I triggered this. I basically told him we were looking into these missing-kid cases, and he jumped on that because he knew it would get to me. The same way he knows going after you will get to me because I still love you. If I hadn’t gone to see him, I doubt he would have left you that note on your car. He wouldn’t have gone after you in”—his stomach pitched at the thought of John Gilbert alone with her—“that alley. He wouldn’t have gone to your station today.”