Ava had already caught an elevator by the time Maddie made it to the vestibule. She cursed inwardly and debated which would be faster, elevator or stairs. But the stairs were at the other end of the floor, and then she’d have twelve flights down.
She dialed Chase again, and still, she couldn’t get a line out.
She kept trying as she paced and waited for the elevator. In her mind, she kept seeing the flash and plume as the bridge collapsed.
She was going to be sick. Josh.
The elevator doors opened, and she jumped inside and jabbed at the Lobby button, cursing every time it stopped on another floor to pick up another person. The expressions on the faces of the new passengers were as bleak as her own must be.
The car was full by the time it reached the fourth floor.
When they finally reached the lobby, she was trapped in the back and too short to see if Ava was still in the building while the passengers in front of her were disgorged.
Finally freed, she scanned the lobby. No Ava.
She hurried to the west hotel entrance, which faced the park. But her escape from the building was blocked by hotel staff making announcements that the area around the bridge had been cordoned off for safety.
“Have you seen a young woman—under twenty—tall, with dark hair in a ponytail?” Maddie tried to remember what Ava was wearing, but her mind had gone blank.
Josh. Josh. Josh.
“I don’t know, ma’am,” the man said. “The entrance on the other side of the building is still open, but you won’t be able to go to the park.”
Maddie turned and ran for the exit on the east side of the building. She stepped out into the street with a dozen other hotel guests. As warned, the street leading to the park was closed.
Had Ava made it through before a police officer was in place? Had it taken her a long time to reach the lobby too, or had she zipped down, ahead of the crowd because she hadn’t hesitated?
“Please,” Maddie said to the officer redirecting traffic. “My niece is in the park. She’s only seventeen. I need—”
“Sorry, ma’am. Only first responders are allowed through.”
“But my boyfriend was under the bridge! I need—”
He gave her a sympathetic look. “Sorry. The bridge is unstable, and you’ll only be in the way of first responders. Police are having enough trouble clearing out the rally crowd.”
“If I can’t go to him, I need to find Ava. She’s a minor—”
“Ava? Dark hair? Ponytail?”
“Yes! You’ve seen her?”
A siren on the street behind her that ran parallel to the one that fronted the hotel and river drowned out all sounds as it crossed the intersection.
“She was here a minute ago,” the officer yelled, his voice dropping as the sirens passed by. “Her dad was here.” He pointed to the corner to the east, close to the park. “He saw her talking to me and ran up. Said he has a car parked in the public lot two blocks north, in the containment zone. I let her through since she was with him and he was giving her a ride out of here.”
“Her father? You’re sure?”
“He said he was her father, and she didn’t deny it.”
Maddie doubted Chase would pass for being old enough to have a seventeen-year-old kid, which meant it really had been Ari. And Ava had used him to get past the barrier. But did she manage to elude him once she was out of sight of the officer? Was Ava in danger from her father?
Maddie’s gut said yes. The first night she met Josh, he’d said Ari believed Ava had revealed his embezzling on purpose.
He could want revenge. How had he gotten out of jail early, without anyone notifying his daughter?
“Please. Ava could be in danger from her father. I need to find her.”
“Sorry, ma’am. She was eager to go with him. Why do that if she was afraid?”
“To get past you, because she’s worried about her uncle, who was under the bridge.”
The bridge.
Josh.
Panic threatened to engulf her again.
She thought of the man who’d held her last night and told her he loved her. The man who moved across the country to take care of his niece. The man who’d told her from the get-go that Ava came first and meant it.
Josh would want me to stuff my grief and fear for him and go after Ava.
But how?
Then she remembered. Josh put a tracker in Ava’s purse. Had she grabbed her purse on her way out? Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.
Maddie turned on her heel and ran back into the hotel. This time, she opted for the stairs instead of the elevator. It was only two flights down into the underground parking garage. Josh had left her the keys and authorized Maddie’s thumbprint on the Raptor vehicle’s key fob this morning, just in case something happened and Maddie and Ava needed to leave while Josh was busy with the rally.
She pressed her thumb to the back of the fob and unlocked the door, then hit the power button the moment her butt landed in the driver’s seat. The vehicle came to life, the touch screen computer offering a full menu of options.
She couldn’t figure out how to get it to find Ava’s tracking signal, however, so she pulled out her phone and called Trina, thankful she was able to get a line out this time.
Trina answered right away, “Maddie, I just heard—”
“I need to speak to Keith.”
“He’s on the phone with—”
“It’s urgent. Ava’s missing. I think she’s with her dad. I need to find her through the tracking device Josh put in her purse, and I don’t know how to use the computer in Josh’s SUV.”
She was desperate to know if there was any news about Josh, but she buried the questions.
Find Ava, then ask about Josh. It’s what he would want.
“I’ll tell Keith,” Trina said.
A moment later, Keith was on the line. “There’s a menu on the project screen where you can find phones, computers, cars, and trackers,” he said without preamble. “Josh would have set up a project or client under his own name and listed Ava’s phone and the purse tracker there.” He talked Maddie through the menus, and in seconds, she had a map with a flashing red dot.
“I’ve got her,” she said.
“Good. Where is she? If she’s in the park, I can have Chase—”
Maddie studied the map, trying to make sense of it. “She’s not in the park. She’s…” The map had to be wrong. Why would she be there?
“She’s in Nielsen Tower,” Keith said for her. He must’ve logged in to his own computer.
“I don’t get it. Why there?” The Hoffman brothers’ credentials had been revoked. They couldn’t get into the parking garage or building. But that didn’t mean there weren’t more White Patriots on the staff.
Maddie shuddered, thinking of the video footage of her in a box being rolled down the hallway and later crammed into a trunk. That could be Ava this time.
Maddie put the SUV in reverse. “I’m going after her.”
“You aren’t trained—”
“Someone has to. Chase can’t. And Josh—” Her voice cut out. Josh.
“No word on him yet, Maddie. Chase hasn’t been able to get to the bridge.”
“He was under it. I saw him go under, and then it…” She backed out of the parking spot, trying to keep her panic under control.
“I know. Chase had him on the radio.”
“He hasn’t radioed since, has he?” She should be focusing on maneuvering the parking garage, but she had to know if she could have any reason to hope.
“The radio could be damaged. Or his eardrums busted. He was damn close to the blast.”
Damn close meant so close that busted eardrums would be the least of his problems.
No. She couldn’t give up hope so quickly. But she’d watched a bridge fall on him with her own eyes.
“I love him, Keith. And I’m going to get Ava back. For him.”
“Be careful, Maddie. Josh wouldn’t—”
“No promises.” Maddie hit the End button and dropped the phone into the center console. She’d promised Josh she’d watch over Ava, and she’d failed. She wouldn’t fail him again.