Chapter 11
She wanted to call him back but knew it would be useless. He was already on the move. Besides, they needed the wheels. But she wasn’t sure the law enforcement officers would let him grab the vehicle and go. They were likely to shoot him first and ask questions later. At times like this, it was just crazy out there.
Still, acting like a man who knew exactly what he was doing, he walked over and unlocked the truck, got in, started it up, pulled it forward and around the corner. Several policemen converged on him at that point. When he quickly explained who he was, they allowed him to pass. He pulled up beside her and opened the window. “Get in.”
She didn’t need a second urging. She raced around to the far side, opened the passenger door and got in. They were moving before she got the seat belt buckled. “Should we tell anyone we’re going?”
“Send a text to Levi and tell him to inform Robert we’re leaving. Or better yet”—he pulled out his phone and tossed it toward her—“find Robert’s number under the contacts and send him a text.”
She did as he said. The response came in very quickly. “He says, Thanks for the update. And a bigger one for the rescue. I owe you.” She laughed. “There’s a lot worse things than having the DA owe you a favor.”
She glanced around as he drove the small truck through the city streets. “Should we stay and give a statement?”
“Do you want to? I thought you wanted to get home.”
“I want to get home and stay there,” she corrected. “If we have to come back to give one, then there’s no point in leaving just now.” She sat there in frustration. “But then, this might not be settled for hours yet.” She glanced at the time and added, “It’s almost six o’clock. And we’ve already been there once today.”
“We can go to the police station and do something about it right now if you want.”
“It’s an option.”
She could see him wavering. Sure enough he turned the corner and then several more.
They pulled up outside the station. “Let’s go in and take care of our citizens’ duty,” he said calmly. “After that, we’re either grabbing dinner and a hotel, or we’re going home. You decide.”
Only it wasn’t that easy. By the time they walked in and talked to someone, and that person realized they were actually in the building, part of the mess going on downtown, they were quickly ushered into a room and told to wait. Several people came in and asked questions; proof of identity was handed over. And then finally the same man they had spoken to earlier walked in and sat down.
“Rhodes, it’s good to see you again.” He reached over and shook hands. He turned his gaze to Sienna. “Now, young lady, why is it that you were likely to be one of the targets all over again?”
She glanced at Rhodes and then back to the big man. “Same reason as last time. I was helping the DA gather information for a case. Only I was kidnapped and just released from the hospital. We dropped off the DA’s laptop I’d been working on. That’s when we found out the building was taken over.”
“You’ve just had a shitty day then, haven’t you?”
She laughed. “That’s one way to look at it.” After that, she was asked a series of questions. She gave the details she could remember. Several times she just said, “You will have to ask the DA about that.”
When she finally answered all his questions, he turned his attention to Rhodes. “Now, as I understand it, you have a very different take of what was going on. Let’s go through it from the top.”
Sienna collapsed back into her chair, tuning out most of the conversation going on around her. After all the questions, it was like the stuffing had been ripped out of her. She should’ve just stayed in the hospital. At least there she would be resting right now. She was feeling woozy again.
All she wanted to do was sleep. With her head pounding, body aching a whole lot more, she realized a hotel might be the better answer for tonight. It also looked like they weren’t getting there any time soon. She glanced down at her watch and saw it was well past eight and she groaned.
She closed her eyes. Tried to silence her thoughts.
“We’re leaving, now.” Rhodes stood up. “She was only released from the hospital just before three and got involved in that downtown mess within the hour,” he said to the detective. “I’ll take her to a hotel, get her some food. She needs to lie down.”
The detective stood up. “Please stay close. I don’t know how quickly we’ll get downtown wrapped up, but we’ll probably have more questions for you. And I understand that your home is a few hours away. You don’t want to come all the way back here to do this again.” He glanced at Sienna, who was now shaky but standing valiantly and holding on to the table. “You need to rest.”
She gave a half laugh. “I believe I have been trying to do that since I left the hospital.”
Rhodes walked over and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “If you have a card, I’ll call you from whichever hotel we’re at.”
The detective immediately pulled one out of his wallet and handed it to him. “Just send me a text. Let’s make sure you guys don’t disappear off the grid for a third time.”
Sienna stared at him in shock. “Please don’t even joke about that.” She moved toward the door, but it was suddenly looking very far away. Even with Rhodes’s arm around her shoulders, she felt the room spin. “I …” she muttered. She stopped and grabbed the chair for support. She glanced over at Rhodes. “I’m sorry.”
She registered his stare of surprise as her knees sagged.
He quickly swung her up in his arms and said, “That’s it. Back to the hospital.”
With the last of her strength she whispered, “No. No hospital. Just a hotel. Just let me have a bed so I can lie down.”
*
With the detective walking alongside him, holding open the doors out to his truck, Rhodes carried Sienna carefully in his arms. “You sure you don’t want to be taken to the hospital?”
The detective used Rhodes’s keys and unlocked the door. “Head wounds are tricky.”
Rhodes said, “Unfortunately, I know that all too well.”
He carefully placed her in the seat and buckled her in. He turned and thanked the detective, accepting his keys back. He shut the passenger door and walked around to the driver’s side. “I need a place where I can carry her into the room without raising alarms. Any ideas?”
“Several motels about four miles down the road. On the right.”
“Good enough.”
Rhodes hopped in and turned on the engine. Checking traffic, he pulled out and kept going down the same street. It was getting late, so darkness was falling. He didn’t want to be anywhere close to the mess downtown. By now they should have all the gunmen secured, but he wouldn’t count on it. Often they would just hold off, wait and see what the gunmen did. It depended whether they had a whole parcel of hostages or not. They didn’t have Sienna or Robert now, and for that, he was glad for the decision to pull out.
Life didn’t always work out that way.
There were several motels, just as the detective had described. Rhodes pulled into the parking lot of one and went to turn off the engine, but instinct prodded him.
What were the chances somebody might have overheard or that the detective wasn’t on the up-and-up? Suspicious by nature, he couldn’t quite leave it alone.
He pulled back out onto the main road and found another motel on the opposite side, about two blocks down. He pulled into that one. Leaving Sienna locked inside the vehicle, he walked in and booked a room on the main floor. With the key and receipt in hand, he drove around to the far side and parked outside the room with the coordinating number on the key.
“This is good,” he muttered under his breath. “Now for Sienna.”
He got out of the truck and unlocked the room, then returned to carefully unbuckle her. He lifted her in his arms and carried her into the hotel room, laying her down on top of the king-size bed. There hadn’t been any twin beds on the main floor, and he wanted to exit fast if they needed to. So one bed was what they had to share. With the shape she was in, she just needed to be comfortable.
Another trip out, and he brought in their luggage and the picnic basket. He quickly locked the truck and then the hotel door behind him. They needed food, or at least he did. She needed to sleep for as long as she could. But when she woke, she would be starving. There was still some of the traveling food from Alfred. But it was looking less than prime.
He opened the night table drawers for any brochures of fast food places close by. A pizza shop was across the street. If need be, he could make a quick phone call and have that delivered. He didn’t care how close the place was, he wasn’t leaving Sienna’s side again tonight.