Yuletide Abduction. Virginia Vaughan

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СКАЧАТЬ of your truck. I’ll have it towed to Carr’s Body Shop.” He pressed a set of keys into Josh’s hand. “Use my Jeep until you get your truck back. I’ll drive the squad car.”

      “Thanks, Daniel.”

      “You probably saved that woman’s life today.”

      At least he could save someone.

      Josh bit back that negative thought and nodded at Daniel as he walked off, but frustration tinged him. His niece, Candace, had been missing for nearly two weeks and he was at a loss to find her. It seemed she’d vanished from the face of the earth while walking home from school. The police, including Daniel, believed she’d run away, but Josh knew better. Something had happened to Candace and, despite his best efforts, he was frustrated he hadn’t yet brought her home.

      He would never be the hero his brother had been.

      Elise moved in the bed and her eyes fluttered. Josh stepped into the room as she opened them and examined her surroundings.

      She glanced his way. “Max? No... Josh, right?”

      “Right. And your name is Elise.” She struggled to sit up and he saw pain flit across her face as she moved her bandaged leg. “Maybe you should take it easy. You’ve been through a lot. I’ll get the doctor to come in and speak to you, and I know Chief Mills will want to take your statement, too. Do you remember what happened?”

      Her full lips pressed into a line. “Absolutely. Some maniac tried to run me down with his car.”

      “Did you know him?”

      She thought for a moment as if trying to recapture the incident. “No. I have no idea who it was.”

      “Well, I’m glad I was in the area.”

      She turned her inquisitive eyes upon him and suspicion filled them. “What were you doing in the area? I know I’m an early bird, but why were you out so early?”

      “I was on my way to the Randolph Hotel. I heard an FBI agent was in town and I wanted to speak with him. My niece is missing and I was hoping the FBI was here to investigate her disappearance. But then I saw the car chasing after you. I didn’t even have time to dial the police. I knew I had to do something or you would be killed.” He glanced down at the bloody shirt he was still wearing and knew he’d made the right call. Someone had tried to kill her. “Why would someone want to hurt you, Elise?”

      She gave a haggard sigh. “I suspect it’s because I’m the FBI agent you were going to speak to.”

      * * *

      “You’re FBI?”

      Elise didn’t care for the incredulous tone of his voice, but she was in no mood to chastise him. Her brain hurt—actually hurt—and she was having enough trouble putting words together for a rational conversation. The doctor who looked to be thirty years past retirement age had told her she’d suffered a concussion, but he might as well have said she’d scrambled her brains. It felt the same.

      “I’ve been with the Bureau for six years. In fact, I owe my career to your brother in a way. I changed my major to criminal justice after my attack.”

      “Are you here because of Candace’s disappearance? I know she didn’t run away. She wouldn’t do that, especially not right before Christmas.”

      Elise visualized a photograph of a young, redheaded girl the police had classified as a runaway. How had she not realized it before? “Max’s daughter is the girl that vanished?”

      “That’s right.”

      Determination settled inside her. She pushed back the blanket and pulled her injured leg over the edge of the bed, struggling to balance as she stood.

      Josh rushed to her side, steadying her with his arm. “What are you doing?”

      “Getting out of here. I have work to do.”

      She owed it to Max to find his daughter.

      The doctor and a nurse rushed into the room. “Agent Richardson, we need to keep you for observation,” the doctor insisted.

      “I’m fine,” she said, wishing her legs were just a bit more steady. But Josh slipped his hand under her elbow and acted as her support. Beneath his gentle touch, she sensed strength and power and was confident he wouldn’t let her fall.

      The doctor sighed. “Well, I can’t keep you, but you’ll have to sign something saying you’re leaving against medical advice. And I insist on having one of my nurses phone you every few hours just to check on you. Leave your number with Nurse Stringer here,” he stated before walking out.

      Elise wrote down her cell phone number then changed into a pair of borrowed hospital scrubs with the nurse’s help.

      “Are you sure you’re up for this?” Josh asked her as they exited the hospital. “You did sustain head trauma.”

      She grunted, already tired of hearing that question. “I’m fine. Candace may not be. Now, please take me to my hotel. I’d like to change my clothes.” She glanced at the shirt he was still wearing, stained red with her blood. “I’m sure you’d like to go home and change, too.”

      He opened the door to a black, four-door Jeep and helped her into the passenger’s seat. “Daniel—Chief Mills—loaned me his Jeep while my truck is in the shop.”

      He walked around and slid behind the wheel then donned aviator sunglasses similar to ones Elise had seen military men wear. He didn’t have the clean-cut look of most of the former military types she knew, but there was something about his manner that was orderly and neat and made her wonder about him.

      “Since I guess I owe you my life, tell me about yourself. What do you do for a living?” She felt silly asking, like a schoolgirl digging for information about the boy she liked, but she tried to keep her tone matter-of-fact because she wasn’t a schoolgirl and Josh wasn’t the object of a girlish crush. She was an FBI agent and he was the brother of the man she’d got killed.

      “I’m a security consultant for an oil company. I arrange and oversee security for the executives when they have to travel overseas.”

      That only confirmed what Elise suspected. “Isn’t that the kind of job former military usually take?” She’d been around enough former military men to recognize the signs.

      He nodded. “I served fourteen years in the army. Discharged last year.”

      “Why did you leave? You could have stayed and retired in only a few more years.”

      He shrugged. “Things change. People change.”

      His guarded expression and suddenly rigid body language told her there was more to that story but he wasn’t going to share it. That piqued her curiosity. Vague people generally had something to hide.

      But she hadn’t come to town to learn about Josh. “Tell me about your niece. When did she go missing?”

      His entire demeanor changed in an instant. His eyes perked up as he spoke about his niece. “Candace is smart and funny and so kindhearted. She often tutored СКАЧАТЬ