Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

you’ll back the fuck away. Now.’
    Joseph didn’t back up. But he didn’t take any more steps forward. By the time Mitch dragged her into the garage she was seeing black spots floating in front of her eyes from lack of oxygen.
    ‘You want her back, Carter? You get me that car. You drive it up to this door, leave the keys in it, and every last cop clears the premises. I’ll give her back then.’
    The last thing she saw before he slammed the door closed was Joseph’s face.
    Doug backed them up until they were up against the wall with the window. No sniper could get a shot this way. Dammit .
    He let go of her throat and she dragged in a lungful of air, gagging on the smell of death. ‘Why the cat?’ she asked him.
    ‘To mess with you,’ he answered, shocking her with his candor.
    She was surprisingly calm. Ford was safe. Me, not so much . She was . . . terrified. But her mind was clear. My son is safe .
    Doug’s mother is dead . ‘I remember your mother,’ she said quietly, then cried out when he jabbed the gun into her temple so hard she saw stars.
    ‘Don’t you dare mention my mother.’
    ‘Okay, then why are you doing this? Surely you want me to know. You went to a lot of trouble to get me here.’
    ‘You already know.’
    ‘I think I know why you think you’re mad at me.’
    ‘Why?’ he asked silkily.
    ‘Can’t tell you without using the “m” word. So this standoff will end with either me dead and you caught, or just you caught. Either way you won’t be able to gloat. If you want me to know why you’ve done all this, now would be the time.’
    ‘We’ll have time to talk in the car,’ he said, his tone cold.
    She couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or if he really thought Joseph would let him drive away. It didn’t matter. Joseph wasn’t going to let Doug drive away.
    Joseph would come up with a plan. My job is to stay calm until he does .
    They’ll have cops ready to take Doug out. I have to be watching, ready to get away from him for even a fraction of a second . That’s all they’d need.
    Thursday, December 5, 3.00 P.M.
    Joseph paced in front of that damn garage, trying to stay in control. They’d been in there for fifteen minutes without a sound. She could be dead. He’d let Doug take her, just waltz away with her. What the hell is wrong with me?
    At least Doug hadn’t gotten Daphne in his car, thanks to Tasha. The dog crouched in front of the door into the garage, every muscle tensed.
    I know how you feel, girl .
    Joseph stopped pacing when Deacon came to his feet, his laptop open.
    ‘It’s set,’ Deacon said. ‘You can watch everything from here.’
    Deacon had threaded a fiber optic camera under the door and now they could see Daphne sitting on the floor of the garage, Mitch’s gun at her head. She was pale, occasionally stealing looks toward the still-open trapdoor to the bunker, and Joseph thought of her recurring nightmare – a mawing dark hole and Beckett pushing her in.
    ‘As long as he sits there we can’t get a bead,’ Joseph muttered.
    ‘McManus says Doug needs to be about four feet from the window before they can get the right angle. We can’t go through the walls. They’re concrete.’
    The Wheeling detective had his sniper creds and had already positioned himself in a tree with a clear shot through the window if they could move Doug over a little bit. Joseph had also called Kate from the hotel. She was their best marksman.
    ‘We’ll have to try a distraction to get his attention,’ Joseph said. His cell phone buzzed in his pocket, making him hiss a startled curse. He was wound tight. But watching his woman . . . his mate . . . watching her with a gun to her head . . . 
    It brought back a lot of majorly bad memories and messed with his mind. And with his heart, which was beating way too fast.
    He answered his phone brusquely. ‘Carter.’
    ‘It’s Clay. I heard about Daphne from JD. What’s happening?’
    Joseph stared at Deacon’s screen. ‘He’s dragged her into the garage and is just sitting there with a gun to her head.’
    ‘Fuck. Just  . . . fuck.’
    ‘What do you have, Clay?’ he asked impatiently.
    ‘Cole Lynch. JD says he could be a VIP to your gunman.’
    Joseph abruptly straightened. ‘Where are you?’
    ‘In the parking garage of Daphne’s condo unit. Security called to say that Kimberly MacGregor had signed in late this morning. We found her asleep in Daphne’s bed.’
    ‘Hell, Clay, how’d