“Just telling the team about your father.”
She nodded slowly. “Can we return him to the US?”
“Absolutely,” he said, “we can take him by military plane.”
“That would be good,” she whispered, “and I think my mother as well.” He looked at her, back at her mother, and asked, “What do you mean?”
“I don’t think she’s breathing.”
Immediately he leaned forward to stare into the window. “We better go check.” Together, they pushed open the door, and she rushed to her mother’s side. She laid a hand gently on her throat and then looked back at Baylor, tears trickling down her face as she shook her head. “She’s gone.”
She said it so simply and with such disbelief that he knew it would take her quite a while to get over the shock of losing not just one but both parents in a matter of minutes. But, as far as choosing the timing and the way to go, … it wasn’t all bad. He walked over and checked for a pulse himself and confirmed that she was right. He walked back out to the hallway and found one of the doctors and had him come in.
After that, they gave Gizella a few more minutes to be with the two bodies. Then Baylor gently and carefully moved her out of the hospital room, so the staff could take care of things. He walked her back to the lobby area and sat her down.
“I don’t even know what to do,” she said, staring blankly around. “I went for a holiday with my family and came back as an orphan.”
“Well, first we’ll get you back to the safe house,” he said, looking at her worriedly.
She looked at him, blinked several times, and then nodded. “Yes, please. I just want to be alone for a bit.”
He nodded, and, within seconds it seemed, Hudson drove up to the front. He got out, opened the door for her, and helped her inside, then looked over at Baylor, who just shook his head at him. As he got inside the vehicle, Baylor whispered to Hudson, “Her mother is gone too.”
Hudson looked at him in shock, and Baylor just shrugged. Back at the apartment, he helped her to her room and pulled the blankets back, as she kicked off her shoes and climbed in. He covered her up, and, because it seemed like the thing to do, he leaned over, kissed her gently, and said, “Get some sleep.” She didn’t even respond, so he closed the door and walked out to Hudson. Quickly he explained what had happened.
“Jesus,” Hudson said, staring at the door that was closed to them both. “That was a shocker.”
“No kidding,” he said. “She wasn’t expecting that at all.”
“And both of them knew about the mother’s condition,” Hudson said. “So, in many ways, she’s also feeling betrayed on multiple levels.”
“She will get over those in time hopefully,” he said. “I’m actually more worried about the trauma she’s been through right now.” Hudson nodded. “She also asked for her parents to be shipped stateside.”
“Which of course we can do,” Hudson said. “There’ll be some paperwork involved, but it’s the right thing to do for them, and it only makes sense for us to give her a hand with all that red tape.”
Baylor took a long slow deep breath. “Okay, thanks, man.” Then he looked back at the bedroom doorway. “Do you think it’s safe to leave her alone?”
“Since she’s grieving and in shock, I think so,” Hudson said.
“But I’m not terribly comfortable with her state of mind,” Baylor added.
“Are you thinking she’ll do something stupid?”
“No, I don’t think that,” Baylor said. “It just seems that she’s very unsteady at the moment.”
“With good reason, I’d say,” he said quietly.
“Exactly.” He looked over at the table with their laptops and asked, “Any news?”
“Well, we finally caught sight of the man who you met in the apartment—our suspected unpaid middleman,” he said. “And when we contacted the local law enforcement guys, we found that he is wanted by them as well.”
“Great,” he said. “I should have had a longer talk with him.”
“You probably wouldn’t have gotten away with it,” he said. “The guy on the ship looking too much at Gizella has a brother who supposedly also has an unsavory past. They’re actually looking at him for possibly taking out his brother.”
“That sounds a little bit too convenient,” Baylor said.
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. But you just never know with people.”
“I wonder if we should go back to that apartment,” he said thoughtfully.
“If there wasn’t anything the first time, I doubt there’s anything now.”
“No, you’re quite right there,” he said. “But I don’t want to just sit here and do nothing.”
“Yeah, I hear that,” Hudson said. “But let’s find something constructive.”
“I’d like to find our middleman guy and have another talk with him,” he said quietly.
“What do you think you’ll ask him?”
“I don’t know,” Baylor said. “I’m sure it’ll come to me.”
Chapter 7
Gizella woke up, just as the door opened. She sat up immediately and said, “Don’t go.”
Baylor turned and looked at her in surprise, a frown creasing his forehead, as he slowly closed the door and walked back into the room where she sat up in bed. “Hey, you should be asleep right now.”
“I may not sleep ever again. At least not deeply,” she said. “Every time I close my eyes, it’s now a mix of my father, my mother, and the asshole preying on me, while we were held captive,” she murmured, as she crashed back down on the pillow. She scrubbed at her face and stared at the ceiling. “So many deaths,” she murmured.
He walked over and sat down on the side of the bed, nudging her a little farther to the center.
She curled on her side, facing him. “You were going out to hunt,” she said.
A surprised quirk came to his lips, but he nodded slowly. “Yes. The police are looking for the guy’s brother, who possibly killed the
