Chapter Seven

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Slade pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and tamped down the urge to run inside so he could figure out what the hell was going on.

That could be exactly what Sonny wanted him to do.

So he could attack Marise and him again.

Slade didn't want to risk that. Apparently, neither did Marise because, like him, she didn't bolt from the SUV either. Instead, she was firing glances all around them, and she looked just as concerned as he was.

The parking lot was jammed with vehicles, and added to that, the roof of the three-story building would make a good spot for a sniper. Slade knew for a fact that Sonny had a skillset for that particular kind of strike that the man had honed through years of hunting from a deer stand high in the trees.

Slade didn't see anyone on the roof or anyone suspicious lurking around the parking lot, but he stayed put until he saw a familiar face coming out of the hospital doors.

His brother Nash.

A welcome surprise since Nash was more than capable of being a second set of eyes, and guns, if things turned ugly.

Judging from his brother's appearance—the disheveled hair and blood on the side of his shirt, Nash had just come from an assignment. He looked tired but focused, just as Slade expected him to be.

"Ruby called and asked if I'd make sure Marise and you got safely inside the hospital," Nash explained when Slade opened his SUV door and stepped out. "She also said to let you know that she's getting access to hospital security cams."

Good. That could come in handy for them to spot Rosa. Slade only hoped the colonel hadn't been forced to leave at gunpoint with Sonny.

"Thanks for coming," Slade told his brother.

"Anytime. I can't stay, but someone else should be here soon to get you back out to your SUV." Nash tipped his head to Slade's face. "Who beat the hell out of you?"

"Three somebodies that I beat the hell out of right back," he replied.

"You always did like a challenge," Nash muttered.

The tone was casual enough, but Slade saw the questions in his brother's eyes. What were they going to do about Sonny? Soon, Slade would need to work on that. For now, his priority was to get Marise safely inside.

Nash and he moved together to go to Marise's side of the vehicle, and with Nash in front of her and Slade behind, they got her moving toward the hospital doors. The moment they stepped inside, Slade spotted Stephanie, who was in what appeared to be a heated discussion with a uniformed San Antonio cop.

There was a man beside Stephanie, and Slade knew from his photos this was Julian Randall, her assistant for the two art galleries that she owned. Julian, who was a decade younger than his boss, certainly looked the part for that particular job. He was wearing a slick charcoal gray suit with what Slade supposed was a fashion statement, with a lime green shirt and purple tie. Exactly what fashion statement, Slade didn't have a clue.

Slade had a similar reaction to Julian as he'd had with Stephanie. He disliked the man on sight and figured from the "nose in the air" glance Julian gave him, the feeling was mutual. Slade didn't go over to Stephanie and her trendy dressed lapdog, but he did intend to have a conversation with her. For now, he turned to Nash.

"Is Caroline okay?" Slade asked.

Nash nodded. "Jericho and a new Maverick Ops' recruit are with her now. I'll relieve them as soon as I get home." He glanced around, his mouth tight. "I don't want Caroline to go through any shit with Sonny. She's been through enough."

"Agreed," Slade couldn't say fast enough.

Their brother Bodie had tried not once but three times to kill Caroline. In the end, she'd been the one to end the miserable SOB's life. Now, Sonny's arrival could bring all those bad memories back to the surface.

And the danger.

"I'm going to move Caroline to the Maverick Ops training facility," Nash said, speaking of the large campus-style area that Ruby had set up for her operatives. "She won't like that, but I'll tell her it's for my own peace of mind. I can help you track down Sonny once she's there and safe."

"Let me deal with Sonny," Slade insisted. "You just take care of Caroline. She'll want you there with her at the training facility."

"You've got someone to take care of, too," Nash said, glancing at Marise. "And vice versa from the looks of it. How bad are his injuries?" Nash asked her.

She lifted her shoulder. "He's had worse."

Nash made a sound of agreement and kept his attention on her. "I've read Ruby's reports. Sonny's got you in his sights now. He's a dangerous man, so please don't underestimate him. Stay with Slade until this is over."

"I will," Marise assured him.

His brother shifted back to him, and even though Nash didn't come out and say anything else, some things passed between them. The usual stuff. Be careful. Don't take too many risks.

If you get the chance, rid the world of our bastard of a father.

Slade nodded to all of it and glanced over at Stephanie, who was now making her way toward him.

"Any idea where Colonel Rosa is?" Nash muttered, getting a quick glimpse of Stephanie as well.

"None, but I'm about to find out." Slade gave his brother a pat on the arm as Nash headed out of the hospital.

"Where's my husband?" Stephanie demanded as she approached them. "What have you done with him?"

"We were about to ask you the same thing," Marise countered.

Stephanie threw her hands up in the air while still managing to keep her purse anchored under her right arm. "How should I know? I wasn't the one who helped him leave here."

"We didn't help him either," Slade provided, but Stephanie didn't look as if she believed him. Slade shifted his attention to Julian. He didn't bother introducing himself since he figured the man knew who Marise and he were. "Do you know where Colonel Rosa is?"

Julian looked at Slade as if he'd just asked about a trip to Pluto. "No, of course not. Trust me, if I did, I'd tell Stephanie. You can see how worried she is."

Slade saw an angry woman, not an especially worried one. The fact she was pissed off could mean she truly had no idea where her husband was. Then again, she could be putting on a good act.

He took out his phone, accessing one of the reports Ruby had sent him, and Slade pulled up a photo attached to a background check.

On Sonny.

It was a fairly recent picture taken for his driver's license renewal less than a year earlier. The photo didn't show the man's dark and dangerous edge. Instead, he was more or less smirking for the camera.

"Do either of you know this man?" Slade asked, holding out his phone for them to see.

Julian leaned in for a closer look, but Stephanie stayed put, giving it a mere glance. "I don't. Why?"

Slade was about to tell her that the dipshit could want her husband dead, but he didn't get the chance because Julian gave her a nudge.

"Steph, isn't that the man who was at your house?" Julian asked.

The woman seemed annoyed with the question but had another look. Then, another. Before she nodded. "Yes, he was at the house… visiting with Vince," she tacked on like an afterthought. Or a lie. "Who is he?"

Slade ignored her and went with a question of his own. "He visited the colonel?"

Stephanie had yet another glance at the photo after she shot him an annoyed look. "Yes. Now, who is he?"

"A person of interest," Slade settled for saying. "When and why was he visiting the colonel?"

"I have no idea why," she said on a huff. "And as for when…" She turned to Julian for the answer.

But Julian's response was vague. "A couple of weeks ago, maybe."

"How soon did that man in the photo visit the colonel before he ended up at Patriot's Retreat?" Marise pressed.

Julian and Stephanie exchanged glances. "Around the same time, I think," Stephanie said.

Again, not super certain, but Slade figured the timing was spot on. And that meant Sonny wasn't just a gun hired for clean-up. He could have been in on what happened to set all of this into motion.

Whatever this was.

It was possible Julian and Stephanie had just lied about Sonny visiting the colonel. The dipshit could have been there to see the two of them.

Stephanie's phone rang, and she stepped aside to take it. Rather than stand around with the poster boy of fashion, Slade turned to the San Antonio cop that Stephanie had been talking to when they arrived, and he motioned for Marise to follow him while he headed that way.

"Wait a minute," Stephanie protested, holding her hand over her phone. "Don't you dare walk away until you tell me where my husband is."

Slade and Marise ignored her and went to the cop. According to his nametag, he was Officer Mike Lopez.

"Slade McKenna," he said, shaking hands with the cop. "And this is Marise Brennan. She's in charge of the facility where Colonel Rosa is a resident. We're interested in finding out what happened to him."

Lopez nodded. "I'm interested in that, too, and like I told his wife, I don't know where he is. A nurse came in and took him in a wheelchair to radiology. The nurse said I couldn't go in there, so I waited in the hall. About ten minutes later, the nurse came out and asked where Rosa was."

Slade took a moment to process that. "Who's the nurse?"

"Mindy Callahan," the cop quickly provided, "and I've already done a background run on her, and she's solid. She's worked here for five years, no complaints registered against her."

That didn't mean Sonny hadn't gotten to her. Sonny could have threatened her with something to force her to help him.

"There are three ways in and out of radiology," Lopez went on, "and one of them does lead to an outside exit. The nurses are checking all the rooms and possible hiding places here inside the building, and before Mrs. Rosa intercepted me, I was about to head to the parking lot to canvas for any witnesses."

"Do that," Slade insisted. "But first tell me if the colonel had access to a phone and was he wearing street clothes or a hospital dressing gown."

"He had a phone," the cop verified. "And he was wearing a gown, but it's possible he had his other clothes tucked underneath. The pants and shirt he was wearing when he was admitted weren't in his room."

So, this was likely planned.

But who had done the planning? And why?

Just as Lopez stepped away to head out to the parking lot, Slade's phone dinged with a text from Ruby, and he saw that it was the attachment for the hospital security cams.

"Check and make sure I didn't miss anything. I'm working on getting more footage," Ruby had explained. "There are no other exterior cameras for the hospital so I'm reaching out to local businesses."

Since Slade didn't want to view this with Stephanie and Julian nearby, he glanced around, spotted a small chapel, and Marise and he went there. Thankfully, it was empty and had a door. He shut it and then moved them to the far side of the room so he could keep watch in case someone barged in.

Marise sat next to him on one of the pews, and Slade loaded the feed from the front and back exits and the parking lot. Ruby had already narrowed down the footage of the timeframe when the colonel had disappeared.

And Slade immediately saw the problem.

Along with what Lopez had said about the exits for radiology, there were other ways in and out of the hospital itself, ones that led directly to the parking lot and the street, but the cameras basically covered about half of those possible angles. Slade focused on the camera feed that he did have, and he watched as someone left the hospital and went to their vehicle.

Not Rosa.

This man was much bulkier, and it definitely wasn't Sonny either.

A minute passed before someone else exited. Still not the colonel. And that pattern continued until Slade saw Marise's and his arrival.

Slade shifted to the feed from the other two cameras, and he got the same frustrating results.

"Colonel Rosa didn't go out any of these ways," Marise muttered on a sigh. She looked at Slade. "You think he could still be in the hospital?"

"It's possible, but he'd know that was a risk, that people would be searching for him. If he didn't want to be found, he could have found a way to leave.

Of course, there was another possibility. That the colonel had been taken. If so, his abductor could have been aware of the placement of security cameras and had purposely chosen an exit where they wouldn't be seen.

Slade reloaded the feed from the first camera, ready to go through it again, but his phone rang before he could even start.

"It's Ruby," he relayed, putting the call on speaker.

He expected his boss to say she had managed to get that extra camera feed. Or better yet, for Ruby to inform them that she'd found the colonel. But Slade soon learned it was neither of those things.

"I have Sonny on the line," Ruby told him, her voice as tight and tense as Slade suddenly felt. "He didn't have your number so he called here, and he's asked to speak to you. I can transfer the call to you if you want to take it."

Slade cursed. He didn't want to speak to the dipshit, but he needed to hear what Sonny had to say. Especially if Sonny was calling about the colonel.

"Put the call through," Slade instructed.

He didn't bother to ask Ruby to try to trace it so they could pinpoint the dipshit's location. Ruby was no doubt already doing that. She'd record it as well, so it could be analyzed to give them any additional info about Sonny.

It only took a couple of seconds before Slade heard Sonny's raspy voice ooze through the chapel. "Slade and Marise," he snarled, the tone a sharp contrast to the serene setting.

Slade skipped any form of greeting and went straight to the heart of the matter. "Where's Colonel Rosa?"

Silence. Followed by a sound of surprise. Surprise that Slade knew could be faked since Sonny was almost certainly aware this conversation was being recorded, and he wouldn't want to make a confession about any wrongdoing.

Including the attempt to murder Marise and him.

"Is your brother in arms missing?" Sonny asked in a syrupy, sweet tone.

"Where is Colonel Rosa?" Slade repeated, not changing his inflection and not reacting to Sonny's question.

Not outwardly reacting anyway.

There was a storm brewing inside Slade, and he wished he could beat the answer out of this useless excuse for a human being.

"I don't have a clue. That's the truth," Sonny tacked onto his denial. "I assumed he was at the hospital with Marise and you. Isn't that why you're there?" He didn't wait for a response. "To question the colonel about me? Well, sorry that you can't do that now that he's missing."

Questioning Rosa had indeed been the plan, but Slade did verify that. "Why the hell are you calling?" he came out and asked.

"To talk to my son, of course." The overly sweet tone had returned, but it still had an edge to it now. "My worthless son. Of course, I have two more of those. I saw Nash earlier come out of the hospital so I know he's alive and well. Too bad about that."

"You saw him?" Slade questioned. "Then, you must be nearby. Where exactly?" Of course, that didn't mean the dipshit hadn't come and gone. No way would Sonny want to stay put and risk being seen.

Sonny laughed. "Yeah, right. I'll tell you that so your bitch boss can have cops come and arrest me."

"Arrest you for what?" Slade was quick to demand. "Attempted murder?"

More silence. Clearly, the dipshit was having trouble thinking on his feet. "Too bad I can't have you and your brothers arrested for murder. Caroline, too. All four of you killed Bodie."

So, that's what this call was about. "We stopped a killer who just happened to share some of my DNA." Slade decided to do some prodding to try to get Sonny to say more than he'd probably intended. "FYI, Bodie died, well, let's just say badly. Crying and begging for his life. An asshole sniveling coward."

"Liar!" Sonny shouted. "Bodie was more of a man, of a fuckin' hero, than you'll ever be."

Slade laughed. "Right. You weren't even there when Bodie whined and pleaded, when he pissed his pants."

None of that was true, but, hey, Slade wanted to get in some digs. The truth was Bodie had died damn fast, within seconds, after Caroline had hurled a knife directly into his heart.

"You liar," Sonny repeated, but this time it wasn't a shout. It was low and dangerous. "I was right to come after you and your lover bitch."

"Do you mean me?" Marise asked, and she imitated Sonny's earlier sappy tone.

"Yeah. You, bitch. Of course, I wouldn't have come after you if you hadn't stuck your nose in my business with Rosa."

"And what exactly was your business with him?" Slade asked, trying to get Sonny's venom aimed back at him.

"Nothing I'll tell you about," Sonny snapped. "I just wanted you and your bitch to know that you got lucky last night. You should both be dead. Don't worry. I'll keep trying. Your luck's got to run out sooner or later."

With that, Sonny ended the call, leaving Slade with a tight hot knot burning his belly. He wouldn't have minded the dipshit targeting just him, but Slade hated that Marise was in the middle of a blood war for Sonny to avenge his son's death.

But there had to be more.

Bodie had been dead for two months now. That was a long time for Sonny to wait to get his revenge. And it didn't explain why Rosa was in the mix. To the best of his knowledge, the colonel hadn't even known Bodie.

"Sonny was using a burner," Ruby said, coming back on the line. "I'll search for any—" She stopped for several seconds, and Slade heard her mutter something he didn't catch.

"What's wrong?" Slade asked.

Ruby drew in a long breath. "I just got notice from SAPD. They found a body."

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