Save Me (Taken Series Book 1) (25 page)

“I will send the doctor in to speak with you and let your family know you are awake. There will be another nurse who will be taking over for me and she will bring you some water and food. Feel better honey.” She turns and leaves the room with the squeaking of her shoes against the linoleum floor.

Still no answers and still no Sierra. Why isn’t she here? Did she just leave to get something to eat? I bet she raised hell with the nurses making sure I was well taken care of. I close my eyes and imagine her asking a million questions about what’s going on and why they aren’t by my side every second. She may be sweet, quiet and innocent but she will also be the one to make sure you’re taken care of.

“Mr. Levine, I’m Doctor Shin. I was the leading surgeon for your case and I will answer all your questions in just a moment. Let me go over what’s happened while you were out.” My eyes shoot open at the sound of his voice. I never even heard him enter.

What? Surgery? What the hell happened to me? I scan my body quickly moving the dressing to the side and seeing the bandage around my shoulder. Now that I see it I start to feel sore. The pain in my head must have masked the throb in my shoulder. I touch it lightly, causing me to wince.

“You might not remember what happened to you but I’m here to fill in the gaps and let you know what procedures have been done to save you.” I turn my sight back to the doctor as he continues on.

“You lost a lot of blood from a gunshot wound to the head, abdomen and shoulder.  The bullet to the abdomen is where you lost most of your blood. The bullet went straight through your body so the damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been but I had to go in and repair some things. There were no complications during your surgery which is surprising with the amount of blood loss you had. We had to also stitch your head where another bullet grazed it but no real damage was done. It didn’t hit your brain, only chipped the skull so all in all you were very lucky it wasn’t a centimeter over or else you would be dead now.”

I didn’t realize that my head had been wrapped until just then. Reaching up I finally notice the bandage wrapped around the top of my head. I figured I probably just hit it or something but with the throbbing it was hard to tell exactly where it was originating form. I don’t remember being shot. I don’t remember anything happening that would put me in the hospital. What happened to get me shot and who shot me? Is Sierra ok? Was she hurt too? The doctor continues on not noticing my struggle with the facts that he just shocked me with.

“There was some swelling of the brain but it has gone down so all in all everything looks good. You’re healing on schedule and you’re awake now. Those are good signs. I will want to keep you for a few more days to make sure that there are no other complications and I want to run a few tests now that you’re awake. Just an MRI, vision and memory tests and as long as you pass those then you will be sent home.”

“Where is Sierra? Is she here? Is she ok?” The look on his face nearly kills me. He looks at me with sorrow and pity.

“I’m sorry. You and one other were brought in but no Sierra. There was no girl found at the house with you guys when the police arrived. But there is a federal agent who will be in shortly to speak with you about the events that occurred at the house.” Problem is, I don’t remember anything. How can I help him if I can’t even remember what happened to me?

***

“Sir. All we know is that you and Sargent Brownsfield were both shot by someone who knew one or both of you. Brownsfield says he doesn’t know the man who shot him because it happened so fast and that the man escaped with the girl.”

“What was Brownsfield doing at the safe house in the first place? He wasn’t supposed to be there unless there was a problem. Did he say he was there for a specific reason? I don’t remember anything except for falling asleep with Sierra next to me. That’s it.”

“I understand sir. I don’t know why he was there. He said it was classified information that he will pass to my superior to look over. You should probably ask him those questions. If you remember anything, anything at all, here’s my card. Just give me a call with what you remember and we will try to solve this puzzle and find the girl. We just have to check all angles when an officer is shot to make sure there isn’t some sort of conspiracy going on. Hopefully that’s not the case this time.”

“Thanks. I will.” I take the card from him and look it over. Agent Shane Little is scrolled across the middle with the company logo in the corner and his cell and office number at the bottom. Simple with little information on it.

Not knowing what happened to Sierra is like a punch to the gut. I hope she’s ok. I doubt it but I hope that wherever she is she knows I will find her. I will rip apart every house, building and town from here to the other side of the country if I have to but I will find her. I have an idea of who it is but how he found her is what I want to know. Someone had to have told him where we were hiding. There was nobody who followed me and only two others who knew of what house we went to which means it’s one of them and I think I know which one.

When I find the bastard who took her from me again, I’m going to kill him. I will break every bone in his body before I burn him alive while I revel in his screams. He has no idea who he’s messing with. He has no idea how far I will go to protect Sierra. I’m his biggest nightmare. I have become the monster and I will be feared.

The nurses check on me like clockwork every hour to take my vitals and see if I need anything.  My family hasn’t visited me but not for lack of trying. I’ve been told that until their backgrounds check out I will get no visitors. Apparently I am thought to be dead and the federal agent I spoke to wants to keep it that way so that nobody tries to finish the job. Only my family know I’m alive and the one man who I believe to be the mole we’ve been looking for.

Brownsfield had us all fooled. There’s no doubt in my mind now that he was sending us on a wild goose chase looking for the rat giving away all the Intel that our small team provided him. Does that mean he is in on the buying and selling of girls? I wouldn’t doubt it. That also means he gave the heads up to Jeremy so he wouldn’t get caught. But what’s in this for him? I’ve been to his place before and never seen any evidence of women being held there, unless of course he has place somewhere else. Maybe it’s the place that Jeremy planned to move Sierra when she was at the whore house.

I need to search his house again. I need to go through his house and see what he’s hiding. I need to go through every inch of his office and see if he has something there. Anything to help me get a location on Sierra. There’s no way he doesn’t have something somewhere that can help me find her and when I find the evidence I will take Sierra back and kill that fucker for daring to touch her and then kill Brownsfield. He knew what she meant to me and yet he had a part in her abduction. I always had a bad feeling about him but I just figured it was because he was an asshole. I should have known better.

“Oh my god. Oh my god.” Her voice brings me out of my dark thoughts as Sierra and Damon’s mom rushes to my side and rest both hands on either of my face looking intensely at me with tears in her eyes. She may not be my real mom but I believe she loves me like I was hers. She’s been like a mom to me since the first moment I met her. She treated me like I was one of her own giving me support, praising me and scolding me. She made me a better man than I probably could have ever been had I stayed with my mom or anyone else for that matter.

“Oh my god.”

“Alright, alright. Enough with the ‘oh my gods’ mom. He’s fine. Nobody can take this bastard down ain’t that right fucker.” Ah Damon. Such a gutter mouth but I know that’s his way of saying he’s glad I’m alright. He doesn’t get touchy feely and neither do I. The most I might get is a ‘good to see you’re not dead’ with a man hug.

“Oh hush.” Mom says slapping Damon on the shoulder.

“Awe. No need for that mom.” Damon whines.

“Oh honey I am so glad you’re ok. I was scared out of my mind. I thought we were going to lose you too.” My heart stops. She can’t mean that Sierra’s dead can she?

“Sierra?”

She whimpers as tears fall down her rosy cheeks and steps away. Damon and dad both are looking down with sullen faces. But if Sierra was dead then wouldn’t the agent have told me when we spoke?

“She was taken and there are no leads. They believe that whoever took her probably already sold her or killed her. It’s just a matter of finding the body to confirm death.” Damon informs me.

“How long have I been in the hospital?” Maybe I should have asked that earlier but it couldn’t have been that long could it?

“You’ve been here going on three weeks. You were in a drug induced coma for a week after your surgery and in and out of consciousness since but they informed us after the first week that we couldn’t visit until our background checks went through and because you are now a high risk patient. They put you under a different name so that whoever did this can’t find you. Nobody is supposed to know you’re alive.”

“Three weeks?” Unbelievable. Anything could have happened to her in that time. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save her.” I choke up and try to hold my tears at bay. This is no time to break apart. They lost their daughter twice and because of me.

“Now son, none of this is your fault. I know you would give your life for our girl. You nearly did. We are just glad you are ok. We couldn’t handle losing her and you. I just hope that we can find her and soon.”

“What’s the name they have me under?”

“James Smith.” Well that’s generic.

“I need you guys to do me a favor and don’t ask questions and don’t argue.” They all look at each other. I know they won’t like what I have to say but I need this. I can’t let them get hurt too. Finally they nod and I go on.

“I need you guys to not come back here again.” They start to protest but I speak over them. “You need to not come back because if you do then someone will know I am still alive. Why else are you coming to the hospital? You’re all ok so they will get suspicious and figure it out.” I pause before making my promise that I’m not sure I can keep.

“I need you to have a funeral for me so people will think I’m dead. I need them to think I am dead because I plan to find Sierra. I can only do that if nobody is looking for me. Hence the funeral. I will find her and bring her home there is no doubt about that.” Taking a deep breath because I know this will be the hardest part for them to hear I continue. “I won’t be home until I find her so I won’t see you for a while and I won’t contact you just know that I am ok.” My family all answer in unison.

“No. You will not endanger yourself like that. Let the police do their job.” Dad’s voice speaks loud and with authority.

“Oh god.” Mom cries putting her face in her hands as the weight of what I just said sets in.

“I’m going with you.” Of course Damon would say that.

“You can’t. I need you guys to act like life goes on. If you go with me then I might not be able to keep you from getting hurt and they need you now more than ever.” Indicating to mom and dad.

“I don’t care, I’m helping you. You can’t stop me.” What the hell. I guess I may need help. Who better than my best friend and Sierra’s brother? I know he will do everything in his power to bring her back and I know he is on my side. Plus I doubt that no matter what he will do it with or without my help but this way I can keep an eye on him.

“Fine. Come back tomorrow by yourself and we will discuss it.” Pointing at each of them to get my point across I say, “I still need you guys to have the funeral. It’s the only way to convince whoever is watching that I am no longer a threat.” Mom is still crying. I know she loves me like I’m her own and this is hard for her to hear but when I find Sierra it will make up for all the bad shit I put them through. Dad knows I will go to the ends of the earth for Sierra and as much as he hates what I am going to have to do I know he understands. I know when I finally come home I will need to explain my self and how I got into all of this. I just hope they understand and can forgive me. At least I was doing it as one of the good guys and not because I was part of the trade.

As much as I don’t want Damon in this mess I do need help from the outside. He can by my eyes and ears while I do the more dangerous part of this mission. Having the sergeant most likely be the mole I can’t trust him. He may even tell whoever is looking for me that I am still alive so I need to figure out my next move with him. Maybe I’ll fake my death so he will think that the funeral is real just like everyone else. Now I just need to figure out how I’m going to do that.

“You know I love you guys but you need to walk out of this hospital and not come back.” My eyes burn. I haven’t cried since I was a child. Not since the day I was taken from my mom. As much shit that she put me through I still loved her then and didn’t want to leave her to go somewhere I didn’t know but I am grateful for them taking me. I wouldn’t have this family now if it wasn’t for CPS which is why I have to blink away the tears that threaten to fall and take a deep breath before I break in front of my family. They don’t need to see how hard this is for me because they are already having a hard enough time as it is. I need to show strength.

“You know we love you and don’t you forget that. Please, please bring our baby girl back. Please be safe. I can’t lose you too.” Mom pleads with me and I nod because I don’t think I could speak without breaking the tight hold I have on my emotions and balling like a baby. I’m supposed to be a man and men don’t cry but if you haven’t been placed in such a fucked up situation you have no idea how this feels. I won’t let them see me cry.