Knight In Black Leather by Gail Dayton (ebook reader ink .txt) 📕

propped his hands on his hips and studied the curious crowd around them.

"No more than an hour and a half." Her smile got bigger. "A neighbor called it in. Said she went out to the store and the car wasn't there. When she came back, it was. Said she heard the Amber alert on the news and called it in right away, thinking this might be the car."

"Thanks." Jackson turned to the nearest patrol sergeant. "You've been through the house?"

"Yeah. Nothing. It was boarded up pretty good. Not even signs of local kids smoking pot inside. We're checking the neighborhood, but we're a little short-handed."

"I'll see if I can pull a couple of troops from the take-down to give you a hand." Jackson got out his radio. "You'll have them after, for sure, if we don't find our guy."

"Or the kid."

"We're gonna find the kid," Jackson said. "I got a feeling."

Eli hoped Jackson's feeling meant something. His only feelings were sick fear and worry. And a little relief. Flash hadn't killed them before he got them out of the car.

Jackson turned away to use his radio, and turned back seconds later. "It's going down," he said. "I got enough time to get you to the central command point before they go in."

"Central command--that means it's close to what's happening?" Eli slid into Jackson's car.

"Yeah. To everything, all the locations. When we find them, we can get you there right away."

Joey reached from the back seat to grip Eli's shoulder. Eli put his hand over Joey's and held on tight. If he thought God would listen to him, he'd be praying. Hell, maybe he'd pray anyway. Couldn't hurt.

Marilyn had finally worked all three nails loose from one end of the board. She tucked a couple of them into her pocket and set one on the mattress beside her. She debated setting the board there, handy, but decided she really didn't want to be waiting there across the room from the stairs when Flash came back. She wanted to surprise him, attack when he wasn't looking.

She put the board under the stairs, then went to stand beneath the light bulb. She studied the rest of the shadowed room from Flash's vantage point as he entered the basement. The mattress was in one of the darkest areas. Maybe she could...

Hurrying back across the room, Marilyn picked up the icky blanket with thumb and forefinger. She lumped it up in the middle of the mattress--a long, snaky-looking lump--and went back to the light. It didn't look much like a body lying there asleep, but she could work on it. Maybe Flash was nearsighted.

Where was the best spot for her sneak attack? She'd thought under the stairs, but was it? Marilyn picked up the board and took a few practice swings. She should have joined that gym. She was in horrible shape, especially to be thinking about getting into a fight with a man, especially with one the size of Flash, and more especially with one who didn't mind hitting women.

But what else could she do? He would probably come in pissed and get even more so when he saw that Slug was gone. Should she wait around for him to get his temper up? I don't think so.

Marilyn swung the board again, trying to put the force of her whole body behind it. She went back to the light and looked. The shadows were deepest under the stairs. She could hide there while he came down, jump out and whack him over the head while he was still blinded by the light, still trying to see if anyone lay on the mattress.

She hoped Flash did come back, because the longer he stayed gone, the more she worried about just where he was and what he was doing.

Eli kept to the background at the command center, doing his best invisible impression. It had been a useful skill over a lot of years and still came in handy from time to time. If nobody noticed him, they wouldn't make him leave, the way they had Joey, who'd been banished to wait outside for making noise.

He heard the quiet acknowledgements from the teams in place, the brisk "Go," from the guy in charge, then silence. Memories bled through his mind, too fast for him to block them all. He pushed a fist into his stomach to try to ease the pain. Pete had to be okay. He had to be. Eli didn't know what he'd do, how he'd survive if he wasn't.

Jackson had joined one of the teams--many of them volunteers coming in on their days off to help find the kidnapped child. Eli found himself listening for Jackson's voice coming over the radio as teams started checking in with all clears.

"One suspect in custody," a report crackled, and Eli straightened, heart pounding, forgetting he was invisible. "Juvenile subject found. Female. Not the Court boy."

The officers in the room swore the same words echoing in Eli's head.

Two more arrests were reported, another child rescued, but still no word on Pete. Eli was wishing he hadn't tasted that coffee when the radio sputtered again.

"We found 'em! We found the boy and--"

The center erupted in cheers. The commander leaned forward and thumbed the mike as Eli headed for the door.

"Roger that. Identify your team and bring 'em back to command. I got somebody here anxious to see 'em."

"Team Four--"

Eli could hear the chagrin in the voice of the man reporting, then he was out the door and in the street to give Joey the news. "They found them. They're bringing them here."

"Thank God!" Joey caught Eli in a tight bear hug, pounding his back. Eli pounded back.

But he couldn't help wonder how soon it would change, when Joey would tell him it was time to leave.

They paced the street, impatient for the car to arrive, time dragging at a slightly quicker pace because they awaited good news, not bad. Finally, two minutes later, a car with all