Free A Baby Before Dawn by Linda Castillo Page A

so much as a sound. She wondered if he’d gone for food. A glance at her watch told her she’d slept just over an hour. For now, the vending machine would have to do.
    She rose, used the toilet in the utility closet, and washed her face and hands. She was midway to the vending machine and digging coins from her uniform pocket when a knock on the door sounded. Alarm filtered through her as she crossed to it. “Chase?”
    “It’s me. Open up.”
    Relief slid through her at the muffled voice. Twisting the lock, she pulled open the door. The next thing she knew a large man set his hand against her chest and shoved her back hard enough to make her stumble. Lily turned to run, but there was no place to go.
    A scream tore from her throat. She darted to the utility closet and tried to slam the door, hoping that small space would buy her a few precious seconds. Time enough for Chase to reach them and put an end to this once and for all. But before she could slam it home, a booted foot was thrust inside.
    “Not so fast,” said a second man’s voice.
    She put her weight against the door, but she was no match for the two men on the other side. The door flew open, shoving her violently back. She struck the far wall hard enough to lose her breath. Two men entered the small room. They were young. One sported a goatee. Both wore long black coats and held ugly-looking pistols.
    One of the men pulled the slide down on the gun, chambered a bullet and shifted the muzzle to her belly. “Now, pretty lady, excuse my rudeness, but you’re going to do exactly as we say or I’ll shoot that little one inside you. You got that?”
    Terror swept through Lily with such force that she couldn’t speak. She couldn’t breathe. All she could think of was the baby.
    Setting her hands over her belly, she nodded. “I’ll do whatever you say,” she said. “Please don’t hurt my baby.”
    “Smart lady.” The man grinned. “Here’s what I want you to do.”
     
    C HASE WOKE to pain, waves of it crashing against his skull. Cold concrete ground into his cheek. Something warm tickled his temple. What the hell had happened?
    A groan escaped him as he shifted. In the background, he heard metal clang against metal. He wanted to know where he was and how he’d gotten there, but he couldn’t seem to open his eyes.
    Then he remembered the ambush in the stairwell. The blow coming from behind. Another sending him into outer space. And Lily…
    Thoughts of her sent him bolt upright. Pain tore through the back of his head, but he struggled to his feet anyway. Nausea seesawed in his gut, but Chase didn’t have time to concentrate on the pain or give in to the sickness.
    Darkness surrounded him. Whoever had ambushed him had taken his flashlight. But from the dim light filtering in through the tiny overhead window, he ascertained that he was still in the stairwell. Steel clanged again, and he realized the son of a bitch had handcuffed him to the pipe rail.
    Bloody hell, how was he going to get out of this one?
    A bigger question pushed into his mind when he remembered the man’s whispered threats. We’re going to hurt her. She’s going to die a slow, painful death. So is that baby of yours. All because of you.
    Panic gripped him. For several terrible seconds, Chase struggled like an animal, yanking against the handcuff, making sounds not even he could understand. He wanted to think it was the blow to his head that was causing him to act so irrationally. But he knew the reason went a hell of a lot deeper than that.
    They were going to kill Lily. They were going to kill the baby.
    “No!” he shouted in frustration.
    Heart pounding, he went still and forced himself to calm down. The fuzziness in his head from being knocked unconscious slowly abated. His mind cleared. With his free hand, Chase felt around for the gun and phones, but they were gone. Cursing, he grappled for the lock-picking kit. It was the one thing the gunmen hadn’t found.
    He tugged the