Chapter 23
Rushing inside the house, I quickly find my laptop, set it on the dining room table, and start it up. I’m going to kill whoever took her! They think they can hide, but no one can hide for long. Where do I even start? My mind is racing a million miles a minute. I try to steady my shaking hands. In all the hacking jobs I’ve done, this is the most important, the most critical, and hits me square in the chest, like I’ve been shot. I have to find this baby.
Typing into the computer, I’m hit with firewall after firewall in my attempts to break into the hospital database. Finally, after an hour or so, I hack into the system and find Darla’s information. I exit out of the hospital records and search other sites, including a jail roster of recent arrests. Digging into the Sedgwick County sheriff’s system, I find a recent picture of Darla Holt; she was arrested on a possession charge, but was released. Probably because she’s a fuckin’ rat.
Going back into the hospital database, I type the information I need and pull up hospital surveillance. I spend hours going through footage; it’s well into the afternoon by the time a single screenshot catches my attention. Zooming in on it, I have a clear image of Darla speaking to a man dressed in scrubs. They talk for quite a while, then he flicks a cigarette butt onto the ground and goes into the hospital. Darla stays outside and lights up her own cigarette.
I follow the path of the man as he clocks in, attaches a name badge to his scrub top, and he goes into a closed room. When he reappears he’s pushing a cleaning cart. He walks to the elevator, pushes the button, and the doors close behind him.
He reappears on the screen for floor five. He looks around to see if anyone is paying attention, but they aren’t. The group of nurses just stands there, talking amongst themselves.
He empties a few trash cans, barely cleans shit, then he goes into a room. He’s in there for a few minutes before he walks out, holding a bigger trash bag, and gently places it in his trash holder on the cart. He put her in a fuckin’ trash bag! Anger roars inside of me. He pushes his cart out of the NICU and he rushes back to the elevator. I’m done watching—this fucker has her. I look down at the timestamp. She’s been gone since seven this morning; it’s now four pm. That’s nine fuckin’ hours!
I exit out of the surveillance and bring up employee records.
I search all housekeepers until I find the one I’m looking for. Paul Brighton. I find his address, close out my computer, and run back out to my bike.
I ride to the bad part of Wichita, to an apartment building three stories high. The ground is littered with trash, graffiti is spray painted all across the brick building, and there’s no front door. I walk inside and easily find the staircase to my left, where a couple people are sitting on the bottom step with a glass dick they are passing around, each taking hits of the crystal meth.
“Move,” I demand. They look up in their high state and part without question. Climbing two floors of stairs, I walk down the dark hall until I find apartment 210. I hear yelling and a baby crying loudly.
I pull my Beretta out of the back of my jeans, holding it properly with both hands, and I lift my leg, kicking my boot into the door and busting it open. I walk over the threshold; Darla is pacing the floor, grabbing and yanking at her hair.
She screams, “Why won’t she shut up? Make her shut up!” She stops pacing and turns in my direction. “Who are you?”
Paul sits on the couch with his head leaned back, but pops up. Now that I have gotten a good look at him, I realize he’s the cocksucker that was hitting on Sierra at Stilettos when she first started. I look around the room that’s littered with trash. The coffee table has used needles lying out in the open, dirty spoons, and baggies, some empty and some filled with black tar heroin, covered the wooden tabletop. The baby girl lies on the floor, screaming in discomfort.
I aim my gun at Darla. “You need to give me the baby.”
“No! She’s our daughter, you can’t take her!” she yells at me, her wild eyes furious. When she lunges at me, I stick my leg out, connecting with her stomach. She falls to the ground.
I stride over, standing above her, and point my gun in between her eyes. “Get on the couch.” She scrambles up and does as she’s told. I aim at Paul. “You’re the baby’s father? The same cocksucker that came into my club hittin’ on my Ol’ Lady.”
He puts his hands up in surrender. “Hey, man, I didn’t know she was yours, she looked like a hot piece of ass. You can have the whiney little shit for all I fuckin’ care. I only took her because Darla wanted her back.”
I tilt my head side to side, popping my neck.
Darla screams in his face, “You’re an asshole!” Her crazy, glazed-over eyes turn back to me. “You’re not taking our baby!”
I storm over to her, positioning the gun between her eyes and pressing it into her flesh. “You think you can take care of her? How much have you done since you took her? I’d say not a fuckin’ thing other than get high as a fuckin’ kite.”
I look down at the coffee table one more time, then back up to them. I step back from Darla. “This is what’s going to happen.” I move the gun between them. “Each of you are going to take one of those dirty fuckin’ spoons, you’re going to dump one of those baggies into each spoon, and you are going to inject that shit.”
“That’s too much.” Paul shakes his head. “It’ll kill us.”
“That’s the point. My Ol’ Lady is at the hospital cryin’ over that baby, and no one walks away after hurtin’ my woman.”
“Take the baby. We won’t bother you again, I swear,” Paul pleads, still holding his hands up in surrender.
“Okay.” I nod. He sighs a breath of relief. “I’ll give you another choice. You either go out like I’m tellin’ you, or I put a bullet between your eyes and watch your brains splatter the wall behind you. Your choice.”
Darla hesitantly grabs a spoon, empties a baggie onto it, picks up a half empty bottle of water off the floor, and gets it ready. She pulls the plunger all the way back, filling the syringe with the toxic drug, and tightens a belt around the upper part of her arm. Finding a vein, she pokes the needle into her arm and pushes the plunger down, injecting all of it. Her eyes stay glued to mine as she quickly begins to fade away.
“Ah, shit,” Paul mumbles, thrashing his head side to side with tears in his eyes. “Please just take the baby,” he begs.
“Your choice.” I aim the gun. “Three.” I click the safety off. “Two.” I put my finger on the trigger.
“Okay!” he shouts. I watch him repeat the same process as Darla. Then he falls back, his head hanging at the side, matching Darla’s position.
I walk over and pick up the baby girl; her diaper is soiled and has been for quite some time. She calms some in my arms and I look at her precious little face. My heart beats rapidly against my chest; she’s mine. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I call Jenkins.
“Sheriff Jenkins,” he answers on the first ring.
“Jenkins, it’s Hacker. I have the baby, but I need you to come since I’m on my bike—and bring Sierra.” I give him the address then hang up.
I put my gun back into my jeans and carry her outside while we wait beside my Harley. The sun has now set in the sky. Fifteen minutes later, sirens come blaring down the street and police cars line up outside the apartment building.
Sierra opens the door and full-on sprints over to us. “Oh, my God, Hacker, you found her.” She hugs me tightly, quickly kisses my lips, then takes the baby into her arms. “It’s going to be okay now. You’re safe.” She kisses the baby on her forehead.
Jenkins walks over to me. “What happened?”
I give him the story he can put on his paperwork. “They had already OD’d before I got here. I found her lying on the floor crying.” He knows not to push the issue or ask any more questions.
He nods. “Good work.” He slaps me on the shoulder. “I’ll be just a minute and then we will get this little one back to the hospital.”
We stay outside while he goes inside the apartment building, and when he comes back outside Sierra gets into his car. I straddle my bike and we drive back to the hospital.
When we enter the NICU the nurse takes the baby. “I want a full checkup on her,” Sierra demands.
“No problem, Doctor Greene.” We follow the nurse to the baby’s room.
Sierra called Shelly to stay with Cash so we could stay at the hospital until we knew that her exam came back fine, she got her medication, a bath, changed, and fed. Sierra and I both take turns rocking her and Sierra has had her for the last hour, but they’ve both fallen asleep.
I gaze at them sleeping peacefully; Sierra cradles the baby girl closely to her chest. It’s sweet, yet sexy, and my heart fills with more love for that woman than I ever thought I was capable of. After watching Sierra with the baby this evening, I believe without a doubt she was born to be a mom and she will make a damn good one.
My eyes begin closing as I start to drift off to a dream-filled sleep.
A little dark-haired girl runs around the yard, me chasing after her. “Daddy’s gonna get ya!” I tell her. The sound of her giggling makes me laugh.
Sierra comes out of the back door, leaning against the frame as she watches us with a smile on her face. “It’s time for dinner.”
“But Daddy’s getting me, Mama.” She sticks her lower lip out, pouting.
I grab her from behind and toss her up into my arms. “Listen to your Mama. We’ll play after dinner.” I kiss her cheek and begin carrying her into the house. I stop at the doorway and, leaning in, I kiss Sierra softly on her lips. “Cash home?”
“Yeah, he just got back from seeing Mark.” She smiles.
The dream ends too soon, but the sounds of a baby’s cry wakes me. I take her from Sierra and wait for the nurse to give her the methadone.
I push the for-sale sign down further into the front yard of my house. Even though I’d moved in with Sierra and Cash I kept my house. But as time goes on, this is just one more thing from my past and it’s time I let go. This is the house I shared with Tisha and it’s time to close this chapter. I stare at the small white one-story home, remembering the good times we had, but I have new memories to make with Sierra now.
We wanted a fresh start, both of us moving forward and starting our lives together, so Sierra also put her house on the market, and we just moved into our new home last week.
The two-story, five-bedroom house that we chose was perfect, and Cash loves it. It’s even got three bathrooms, for when we extend our family. Now we just need to bring our baby girl home.
It’s been three weeks since she was stolen from the hospital. She is growing stronger and stronger each day we see her, and she is slowly being weaned from the methadone. The NAS is becoming less and less severe as time passes. We couldn’t be prouder of how much fight our little girl has in her.
I straddle my Harley, glance at the house one more time, then ride home to the woman that changed my life forever. The woman that I once hated, that I thought didn’t belong in my world but who proved me wrong in so many ways. Sierra Greene bulldozed her way through my dead heart and embedded herself into my soul—and once again changed my life forever.