Mysterious Abduction
Автор
Rita Herron
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Prologue
They say that you forget what labor is like the moment you hold your baby in your arms.
Cora Reeves Westbrook would never forget.
Still, her little girl was worth every painful contraction.
Cora leaned back against the pillow in the hospital bed and gently traced a finger over her daughter’s soft cheek. Alice smelled like baby shampoo and all things good and sweet in life.
Her husband, Drew, dropped a kiss on her forehead. It had been a rough eighteen hours, and she hadn’t slept in almost two days, but she’d never been happier.
Her little girl was perfect.
She memorized every inch of her small round face, her little pug nose, her ten little fingers and toes, and that dimple in her right cheek.
“She’s the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen,” she whispered.
“She looks like an angel,” Drew murmured.
Cora smiled, grateful he seemed happy, too. When she’d first told Drew about the pregnancy, he hadn’t been thrilled. He was worried about finances and had his goals set on a partnership at his law firm. She’d assured him they could handle a family, but he’d still obsessed over the possibility of not being financially secure.
His cell phone buzzed, and he gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry, I need to get this.”
He hurried from the room, and she pressed a kiss to Alice’s cheek and rocked her back and forth, whispering promises of love.
A few minutes later, Lisa, the nurse who’d helped her during delivery, appeared again.
“We need to take her to run some tests.” She patted Cora’s leg. “I’ll bring her back in a bit. You should rest. Those night feedings can wear you out.”
Cora hugged Alice one more time, then handed her to the nurse. She was so excited that she didn’t think she could sleep, but exhaustion overcame her the minute the nurse left the room, and she drifted off.
She was dreaming of carrying Alice home to the nursery she’d decorated when the scent of smoke woke her. Suddenly the fire alarm sounded, and the door burst open. Lisa raced in.
“Come on, we have to evacuate!”
She raced to the bed to help Cora, but panic sent Cora flying off the bed first. “My baby! I have to get Alice!”
“The neonatal nurses are already moving the infants outside,” Lisa said. “We’ll find her out there!”
Cora pushed the nurse aside and ran into the hall. Thick smoke fogged her vision, chaos erupting around her. The staff was hurrying to help patients out, pushing wheelchairs and beds, and assisting those who needed help. Someone grabbed her arm.
“Go down the stairs!”
“My baby!” Cora pushed at the hands, stumbled and felt her way to the window of the nursery. Screams and cries echoed around her as firefighters raced into the hall.
She pressed her face to the glass partition and peered inside, searching for her baby.
But the room was empty.
A sob caught in her throat. Her mind raced. Outside. The nurse said they were moving the infants outside.
She tore away from the window and stumbled toward the stairs. The hall was full now, patients and staff frantic to reach the exits. Someone pushed her forward, and she was carried into the stairwell. She clawed at the railing to stay on her feet as she raced down the stairs.
When they reached the landing, someone opened the door to the bottom floor, but heat blasted her. Flames were ripping through the hall. A terrified scream echoed in her ears. Another patient’s—or her own? She didn’t know. Maybe both.
A fireman appeared and pointed toward a back exit. She covered her mouth, coughing as smoke filled her lungs, then followed as everyone crouched low to make it outside.
Lights from the fire truck and police twirled in the sky. Beds, wheelchairs filled with the injured and those too weak to walk, patients, family, visitors and hospital workers poured onto the lawn. Doctors, nurses and medics were circulating to tend to the hurt and sick. Flames shot from the building and firefighters scurried to douse the blaze. First responders rushed inside to save lives.
A coughing fit seized her, but she brushed aside the medic who approached her. “The babies? Where are they?”
He turned and scanned the area, then pointed to a corner near the parking lot. Cora took off running; she was so weak that her legs wobbled unsteadily. She searched faces for Drew but didn’t see him, either.
God, please, let him have Alice.
Praying with all her might, she staggered through the mess, the terrified and pain-filled screams of the injured filling the smoky air. Finally she spotted a row of bassinets.
Tears blurred her eyes, but she stumbled forward and frantically began to search the bassinets. Other parents were doing the same, two nurses trying to organize the chaos and failing as frightened mothers dragged their infants into their arms.
Cora finally spotted the bassinet marked “Westbrook—Girl” and gripped the edge of it.
She reached inside, but her baby was gone.
