Hey guys. SO sorry it's taken me so long to update this story.
Ready for my excuses? I work at a child advocacy center, where we deal with child abuse (physical, sexual, emotional) and neglect daily. That can really wear someone down. Burnout and secondary trauma is REAL and affects more than just your work life.
April is also Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month meaning I've barely had time to sleep, let alone write, this month with everything my work (also read as me) has had to do this month.
I also have writer's block. I know WHAT I want to happen, I just don't know how to write it and make it happen.
I'm hoping that, now that April is over, things will calm down and I'll be able to write more.
Thanks for sticking with me!
And to the guest reviewer who said they wished I'd update more...me too friend, me too.
Chapter 21: Find Her...NOW
Hospital
It was several minutes after Sam had been wheeled to surgery that Greg returned to the waiting room.
When he arrived, he was met with several anxious, expectant glances.
"How is he?" Ed asked, speaking for the group.
Greg sighed. "Well, he looks about as bad as they described. They took him to surgery a few minutes ago."
"What'd he want to talk about?"
"Well, the first thing he asked about was Maddie." Greg said with a small, sad smile. Sam was a great father. "When I asked him if that was all he wanted to talk about, he said he knew who was behind this whole thing."
Shock replaced every other emotion on the faces of Team One.
"Who?" Wordy asked.
"The medicine knocked him out before he could give me a name, but he did say to have Spike check his email…"
Before Greg could finish speaking, Spike was grabbing his laptop out of his bag and booting it up. After a few moments, Spike was in and reading his emails.
"Son of a bitch!" Spike exclaimed loudly, causing the other people in the ER waiting room to look at him disapprovingly.
The members of Team One waved off the disapproving looks without a second thought and quickly gathered around Spike's laptop.
"What is it Spike?" Ed asked, wondering what could be responsible for the normally fun-loving, mild-mannered tech genius's outburst.
Spike held up a finger, signaling for Ed to give him a moment then went back to typing furiously.
After another minute or so, Spike turned his laptop to face his teammates. As he did, he spoke. "Sam forwarded these emails to me from the scene where he was being held. I traced the IP address back to the original sender and…"
Spike pressed one final key on the keyboard and a driver's license photo popped up on the screen. "It led back to Audrey Miller; Sam's ex."
"How the hell does she have the connections to pull something like this off?!" Ed asked, anger raging in his voice.
"That doesn't matter right now," Greg said, interrupting before anyone could say anything else.
He turned his focus to Spike. "I don't care what you have to do or how many APBs you have to put out. Find her. NOW."
Spike nodded and got to work.
Super short chapter, sorry guys.
I am at a loss as to where I want these next several chapters to go. I have plenty of ideas for chapters further down the line, but I don't want to do crazy big time jumps. If you have anything specific you'd like to see, or any ideas as to where you want this current storyline to go, PLEASE let me know! I need the inspiration.
Thanks for sticking with me.