A/N: I own nothing and please forgive all of my mistakes. This is another emotional chapter but the end is coming near. Ashlyn's abductor's identity is finally revealed. Did you guess or almost guess who it was correctly?

Twenty-three

Cedes left the sheriff office and headed to Lima Springs High. Once she got there, she had Principal Rashad get Gina personally. He brought her to the front and Cedes could see the worry etched on her daughter's face.

"Mom, what's going on?" she asked.

"I am going to the hospital to question Ashlyn, and I'm sure she would love to see a friendly face there. Do you want to come with me?"

Gina jumped and clapped her hands in excitement. "Yes, most definitely."

They drove to the urgent care center where Debbie and Dennis Caswell were waiting for them.

"Thank you so much for your help in finding our daughter," Dennis told Gina.

"You are welcome, but it was not just me; it was a group effort made possible by Ashlyn herself."

They asked Gina if it was okay if they her hugged her, Gina agreed and fell into a group hug with the couple.

"Do you think she's ready to be questioned?" Cedes asked the couple. "Her abductor is still out there. She could have seen something or heard something without even knowing it is a vital clue."

They glanced at each other, then Mr. Caswell agreed. "Please be sensitive and patient with her. She might can only give you a little now and later she may be more ready to tell you more."

"I promise I will be. She will have my daughter there to support her."

"Ashlyn," Gina said her friend's name softly as soon as they entered the room.

The shape in the bed shifted. "Gina is that you?" she asked even softer, the red headed girl was hoarse.

Gina ran towards her. "Ashlyn, I'm so glad you're here."

"Gina!" Ashlyn said and hugged Gina for a long period time in which they both cried, and Cedes sent up a quick prayer of thanks that this was the ending these two got and not the one Ashlyn had feared.

While the two girls were hugging, Cedes looked around the room. If her kidnapper could get Ashlyn out of a home with state-of-the-art security and through a window in the laundry room with no one the wiser, he could possibly get her out of the hospital window because the facility was only one-story. The windows weren't supposed to open, but could they be opened with the right tool?

She was trying to think of any possible way the unsub could get into the room.

The quickest and surest way would be to wait until the guard went to the restroom. If there wasn't another guard around, they would put a nurse in charge of keeping people out, but nurses were busy people. And emergencies that could call a nurse away from his or her post happened.

The truth was, Ashlyn was still far from being safe. They needed to move her to a more secure location as quickly as possible.

"How are you feeling?" Gina asked her when they stopped hugging and crying. "Do you sense that the danger is over?"

"I am not sure. I don't think I'll believe it's really over until after my birthday passes, and I'm still alive and breathing, which could happen thanks to you." Ashlyn started crying again.

"Thanks to my mom, you mean," she said, pointing to her. "Do you remember my mother? You met her last night."

"I think I remember her. She is so tiny. I thought she was much bigger."

"It's okay, if you don't remember everything. You had other things on your mind. So, I got and read your letter, and I've studied your diary. Are you okay talking about it?"

"I'm okay. I am glad you did. Is that how you were both able to find me?"

"We found your note with the drawing you taped under your desk at school before winter break."

"You were able to find it?"

"You knew I was coming to Lima Springs before meeting me." Gina added.

"Everyone knew you were coming because your mom won the election."

"But you knew I was coming to school here, and you left the drawing for me. That note is how we found you."

"She is right, Ashlyn, you both are two very smart and resourceful girls," Cedes added.

The two of them smiled so brightly, it was like they were glowing.

"Do you mind if I asked you a few questions?" Cedes asked now the girl was no longer in tears.

"Please, I want you to catch him."

"Do you recognize this button?"

"Yes," she said, taking her time. "It's from a backpack I used to have when we lived in Salt Lake City."

"Did it look like this?" She showed her the picture Dani had found.

"That's it exactly."

"But you lost the button? Any chance that it had fallen off and was still in your things?"

"I don't think so. The backpack was pretty new, and that button held one of the pockets closed. I think I would've noticed if it came off."

Cedes wrote that information down while Ashlyn added, "Oh, and I didn't lose it. It was stolen."

Cedes stopped writing. "Stolen? When and where?"

"When I was at the park last Spring with some friends, and we were all sitting on this bench. We all had our backpacks either under the bench or beside our feet. I was sitting on the end, and my backpack was right beside me one minute and gone the next. Nobody was around or anything. Just the usual joggers and stuff, but nobody stopped to talk to us. And none of the other kids saw anything, either. We all kind of freaked out."

"I am sure you all did."

All the clues added up. This meant her kidnapper had been stalking her for a very long time.

If he was brazen enough to steal her backpack in broad daylight with a group of kids looking on, what else was he bold enough to do? Was he a master of disguises? Could he blend in? Become invisible?

This guy was right there in plain sight. She could feel it in her bones.

"Do you remember seeing or hearing anything else?" Cedes asked her.

"Yes Ashlyn," Gina said, "you'd be amazed at how the smallest detail will lead to something big."

The two girls were holding hands like they'd been best friends, no sisters for years. It warmed Cedes' heart but also broke it. She wasn't planning on staying in Lima Springs long enough for them to get to know each other much better. She was close to solving this and her own abduction. She could feel it.

"I know this is going to be hard to believe, but everything I put in my letter is what I experienced. I really don't have anything else because he rarely talked, but when he did, his voice wasn't really deep or memorable."

"Did he have an accent? A stutter or a lisp of any kind?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't notice anything like that at all."

Debbie came in then, carrying a fresh pitcher of iced water. "How is everything going?"

"Good," Ashlyn said. "Have you met Gina yet?"

"Well, your dad and I just about covered her with our gratitude, if that's what you want to know."

The girls giggled while Debbie refilled Ashlyn's cup of water, then went around to the other side of her bed. "Are you getting a chill? Do you need another blanket?"

"I'm overly warm, Mom."

Debbie smoothed down Ashlyn's gorgeous red hair and encouraged her to lie down and rest.

"Can Gina stay with me for just for a little while longer?"

Gina offered them both pleading looks as well, and Cedes had to admit something awful. She didn't want to put Gina in the line of fire. If the suspect did come back, if he somehow managed to get to Ashlyn, what would he do with Gina if she got in his way?

"I don't see why not," Debbie said looking at Cedes for her permission. "But only for a little while; the doctor insists on you getting rest."

Gina gave her those puppy dog eyes that melted her resistance, and Cedes relented, "I guess you can miss one or two more classes today. I have to go back to the office for a little bit. I'll come by to pick you up when I'm finished there."

The girls looked at each other smiled and started talking to each other excitedly. Cedes had never seen her daughter form a quick friendship like this with anyone, and she wondered if she'd missed that part of her life as a busy single parent, or if Gina had missed that part of her life as the daughter of a law enforcement officer.

"Ashlyn, if I send one of my deputies over later, do you think you can try to remember everything the suspect said to you and recount everything that happened even if it's the same as your premonitions? No matter how small the detail?"

"Yes, ma'am I will." She agreed, but Cedes could tell that Ashlyn did not want to talk about her abduction or the man who abducted her, by the tone of her voice. Cedes could actually understood how the teenager felt all too well.

"Okay girls. I'll be back," she said, doing her best Arnold Schwarzenegger Exterminator impersonation.

Gina rolled her eyes, and the two girls shared the same expression about how embarrassing parents were.

As soon as Cedes left, Gina and Ashlyn started catching up on everything that had happened since they saw each other last. Gina even told her about the school news incident, and Ashlyn told Gina about her own run-ins with the infamous group Lily and her minions, Ashlyn's name fit them perfect. They were despicable like Scarlet Overkill and her clueless minions.

"Tell me everything one more time."

Gina fell back on the bed. Ashlyn had insisted she join her on the bed so they could watch a rerun of Percy Jackson and the Olympians on her phone, but they ended up talking instead. "I've already told you everything ten times."

Ashlyn counted her fingers on both hands. "Nope. You've only told me seven times."

Gina retold the story of the first time she saw Ricky reading his poem and how engrossed she'd become listening to his poetry.

"I was engrossed by him, too, only it had nothing to do with his poems."

"Right?" They kept laughing and continued laughing when a nurse named Bailey if his nametag was to be believed, came in with sodas and sandwiches.

He offered them a smile. "A little birdie told me that you both like Mountain Dew code red."

They looked at each other.

"You like the red version, too?" Gina asked, surprised.

"It's my favorite because it has the most caffeine." She opened the bottle and looked at Gina. "It's like we were meant to be friends."

"I totally agree."

"These are turkey and Swiss cheese, but I can get something else if you are vegetarians."

"No," Ashlyn said, "these are perfect. Thank you."

"Enjoy."

When he left, they naturally had to talk about him.

"Nursing is an excellent career for men to go into," Ashlyn said. She took a bite, then added, "He should go back and become a physician's assistant. They make even more money."

Gina took a huge swallow of the drink. "I used to think that I would have a career in medicine."

"What changed your mind?"

"I think I'm too much like my mom. I think I need to be a police detective."

"Really?" Ashlyn said, shifting to face her better. "That's amazing. I don't think I could do that."

"Why? You're good with clues. Figuring out things is pretty much what a detective does."

"Yeah, but I'm very shy around people."

"You've never been shy around me."

Ashlyn beamed at her. "I haven't been have I?" She took another bite of the sandwich, then said, "Okay, please, tell me again this time is the last time, I promise."

Gina gave in and, after a moment, had her friend sighing about her high school romance. Then she realized Ashlyn was still in pain. "I'm so sorry about everything that happened to you."

Ashlyn shrugged, trying to play it off. But Gina knew it had haunted the girl all her life, and now it was almost over. Her worst nightmares coming true. Gina couldn't imagine how she felt, and she didn't pretend to.

"I hope you feel better about it now. Do you think the dreams will stop?"

"I don't know. It's not my birthday until tomorrow. I think I'll feel better the day after."

Gina nodded in understanding and smiled sleepily when Ashlyn's lids started drifting closed.

"I'm so glad you're here with me, Gina."

"I am glad to be here with you Ashlyn."

"Oh, I just remembered something else," she said, her voice getting farther and farther away. "He told me he did everything because of my mom. The man who took me. He said she needed to know what it felt like."

"What?" Alarm rushed through Gina. She had to tell her mother immediately. And she would have, too, if she could just stay awake.

Cedes checked in on the team processing the well house before grabbing Jay for a coffee and a sandwich at Lima Bean. She'd decided to send Deputy McCarthy to watch over Ashlyn and, if possible, talk to her about what happened. McCarthy was a natural; he just didn't know it yet. He had a way of putting people at ease.

Unfortunately, there was a flip side to that. Because of his sweet disposition, people often underestimated him. Hopefully, that would change over time.

Kurt and Blaine who had come over to question Cedes about Stevie, Stacey, Sam, and Ashlyn, instantly fell in love with Jay when they found out she could sing and knew a lot about their favorite subject: musicals. They found out just how good she could sing when they saw Hunter walking towards them, and she began singing in perfect pitch 'twin where have you been...Nobody knows me like you do. Nobody gon' love me quite like you. Can't even deny it, every time I try it. One look in my eyes, you know I'm lyin', lyin'...' She stopped singing when Hunter arrived and the couple left to go back to their boutique across the street after giving her a standing ovation.

"Is he okay?" Cedes asked Hunter as soon as they all began eating their food.

He stopped chewing and spoke with food in his mouth. "Hell to the no."

She looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "Are you hell to the no...ing me? I'm the sheriff checking up on a murder suspect in my care."

He chewed then swallowed. "I am not going to be the messenger between you two. If you want to know anything, you'll have to go talk to him."

"But he won't talk to me ever again. What was I supposed to do? He did confess to a murder."

"You know he only confessed to keep his sister out of jail," Jay said.

"She wouldn't have been arrested because she is innocent." Cedes took a bite, then said, "We're missing something, guys."

"Mayo. I forgot to ask." He grabbed a packet of mayo and sat back down.

"No, you know I don't eat that. Something important. I feel like our suspect is so close I could touch him."

"Like sexually?"

She knew when Hunter joked about something serious, it meant he was overwhelmed and didn't know what else to do. She knew exactly how he felt.

Marshal Rutherford walked in at the moment looking just as sexy as he did on day one. "I knew I'd find you three amigos here. What's the best thing to order?"

"Everything here is actually great."

"Awesome." He went up to order while Hunter and Jay teased her about the marshal's interest in her.

"Stop it, you both are being ridiculous. And he's probably already in a relationship."

"He's not involved with anybody," Hunter said. "I checked on him for Cedes when I could tell he was interested in her."

"Yeah, right," Jay said, adding a healthy dose of skepticism to her voice.

"Can I join you?" Rutherford asked, and three heads nodded in unison. "Thanks. You all did an incredible job on the Caswell case."

"If you say so. How is your fugitive search going?"

"Please don't remind me of that fiasco. We thought we had a solid lead. Turned out to be nothing, and we wasted an entire day."

"Sorry about that." She considered telling him the truth, but she needed to talk to Roz first. If anyone would know where Ramon Martinez was headed, it would be Roz. Cedes could pass on the information without ever involving her mom's best friend. "How long are you staying here?"

The grin he offered her would have melted the heart of woman who was not hopelessly in love with Sam. Unfortunately, every time she saw, smelt, heard, or thought about him, it confirmed that she still had it bad for him.

Even though, the marshal was hot.

"Trying to get me out of you county?"

"No. I'm just trying to see if that offer for a drink still stands."

He was about to take a bite of his bagel with lox when he stopped with his bagel mere centimeters from his mouth. "You know it is."

"Great. I'd love a mocha or caramel latte with extra whipped cream."

His grin turned suspicious. "Would you?"

"And chocolate sauce. In the shape of the Whitney Houston."

He put down his bagel to stare at her to understand her weird behavior. "Are you trying to get information out of me?"

"Who me?"

"Yes, you, what do you want?"

"I just thought you might give me more information on the man you're looking for."

"Why do you want information on the fugitive?"

"I watched the footage from the transport van."

"And you saw that he didn't actually participate in the escape or hurt anyone." He laid back in the chair.

"The escape seemed like a very well-thought-out effort like it had been planned for weeks, but I noticed in a report, Ramon wasn't even supposed to be on that transport."

"You're right. He didn't participate in the hijacking or hurt anyone. But he also didn't stop them from hurting two of our finest marshals. And he did escape with the others."

"It was four."

He took another drink of his caffeinated beverage, "What do you mean by that?"

"There were four hardened inmates against one man."

"I understand him not trying to fight all four," Hunter said.

"And I saw the looks they gave him. It wouldn't have ended well if had he tried to intervene."

"Are you saying he's a model citizen, and we should just let him go because he's a good guy?"

"No. I'm saying, when you do find him, give him a chance to turn himself in." After all, Roz Washington wouldn't help anyone she knew was a dangerous. Cedes would bet her last dime on that.

"What do you think I am going to do? Do you think I'm going to shoot him down in the street?"

She smiled at him, letting the appreciation she felt for him show. "No, I do not, Marshal. That's not your MO."

He grinned back at her. "I'm glad you noticed that about me."

"So," Hunter said, shifting in his chair, "my sister and I are going to go and interview the owner of the land the well house is on."

Cedes blinked at him, his words—or more importantly word—sinking in. Sometimes, when a piece of the puzzle fell into place, a jolt of electricity rocketed through her body. Not always, but that rush of adrenaline, that high, was quite addictive.

Her gaze darted between them, then she asked, "What did you just say?"

Hunter shrugged. "We're going to interview the owner of the well house land."

It was so thin, so far-fetched, she didn't want to say it out loud for fear it would disintegrate and drift away but Debbie's and Ashlyn's hairlines both were identical to one she just paid close attention to today.

She grabbed her jacket and said to them, "Meet me at the urgent care center."

"Was it something I said?" Hunter asked, scrambling after her.

She stopped at the door. Hunter and Jay, who'd been hurrying to keep up, almost mowed into her.

She turned to them, her mind racing with all the fragments she'd missed, all the clues that were right there in front of her. She'd just never put them together.

But even now . . . she had to know for certain before she started pointing fingers and making accusations. Then again, what if something bizarre happened and she died in an accident on the way to the urgent care center or she had an aneurysm or an alien invasion was closer than anyone had imagined.

She took out her notepad, wrote two words onto a slip of paper, and put it inside Hunter's front pocket. "Don't look at this unless I die unexpectedly."

"Really?" he said, unimpressed. "Again?"

He had a point. She used to pull the very same thing in school, whenever she suspected someone of wrongdoing but didn't want to call them out in case she was wrong. But back then, it was more of an insurance thing. That way, if she were wrong, no one would know. But when she was right, she could gloat that she'd figured it out first.

Maybe she had been destined for a career in law enforcement, after all.

Holding up a finger over her lips, she said, "Complete radio silence."

They nodded, and she sprinted to her cruiser.

"Debbie," Cedes said, running up to Ashlyn's mom as she swiped her card at a vending machine.

Before she found Debbie, she'd ordered Hunter and Jay to join the guard and Deputy McCarthy at Ashlyn's room, telling them to allow no one, absolutely no one, entrance until she got there. Then she went in search of Deborah Caswell.

The woman's face showed signs of stress when Cedes ran up to her.

"I'm sorry," Cedes said, holding up her hands in surrender. "Everything's okay. I just have a couple of questions. Where's your husband."

"As always working. He had to go tend some emergency at one of our vineyards. He said he would be back as soon as he could."

"How is Ashlyn doing?" she asked trying to be nice before grilling the woman.

"I just checked in on her. She's asleep."

"Awesome." Debbie followed her to a table to sit and chat. "I have what could be considered a very private question to ask you."

Debbie looked suspicious but said, "okay."

"Did you have a child outside of your marriage to Dennis?"

The emotions on Debbie's face told her everything. She dropped her gaze to the debit card she'd put on the table. After a long moment of internal warfare, she finally admitted, "He doesn't know."

"Your husband doesn't know?"

She nodded. "He doesn't know that I had a baby. It was . . . a mistake."

"Debbie, we all make mistakes. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"I hid it for as long as possible because a woman named Kendra Giardi asked me if I would be willing to give her my child. She was faking being pregnant, and said if I gave her my child, she would pay all my medical expenses and nobody would know."

"But your parents found out?"

She shook her head as though embarrassed. "She stopped paying for everything when she was able to successfully get pregnant with triplets using IVF. She said she no longer needed me or the baby, so I had to tell my parents because at five months I was starting to show and would need prenatal care paid for by my family's insurance."

"They didn't take the news well, did they?"

"Not at all. See, everyone else makes mistakes, but my parents are perfect Christians. He cheats on her, she drinks, but they are the perfect couple with supposedly perfect children."

"Oh, I know the type, the Christians who voted again for Donald Trump, MAGA to the core I bet."

She chuckled agreeing. "Three hours after I told them; they realized it was too late for an abortion in Utah, so we went somewhere that arranged for private adoptions to families who didn't want to go the traditional adoption route for a healthy white baby. Which means my parents sold the child basically to a family that promised to send us pictures of him growing up if we wanted them. Then, they made me get a G.E.D. because they didn't want anyone to know I was pregnant. They told their friends that I was studying aboard when everybody wanted to know where I was."

"I'm so sorry, Debbie."

"No," she said, shaking her head. "I am." She locked a determined gaze onto Cedes'. "I will never let anyone make me feel like that again."

"Good for you. Did you have the father of your child's help at all?"

"It wasn't a relationship. I was part of my school's celibacy club and was dating the quarterback of our junior varsity football team. It was his best friend who date raped me, and I didn't think anyone would believe me over him. He had a reputation for being a lady's man, and I was cheating on my boyfriend by dating him because my boyfriend was flirting with a Jewish girl who was obsessed with him. I only went out with him to get back at my boyfriend. I didn't know who to turn to when I found out he got me drunk off of wine coolers and took advantage of me. I just knew that I couldn't rely on him because believe it or not he had been arrested for stealing an ATM machine when I first found out I was pregnant. When I told my family that he a Jewish guy with a mohawk who was in the juvenile detention center, they really went crazy and I feared if my mom wasn't around, my dad would have beaten the baby out of me."

And once again, Cedes offered up a silent thank-you to God that he gave her Malcolm and Minnie Jones for parents who supported her unconditionally throughout her own teenage pregnancy.

"I ran away from home and eventually filed for emancipation because they never looked at me the same again after I gave birth to the precious little boy. I was lost for so long, and then I met Dennis." Her mood lightened when she mentioned her husband.

"I was a waitress when he drunkenly came into the restaurant where I worked." She laughed at the memory. "I let him sleep it off away from the patrons, then called him a cab when my shift ended. He came back the next night to apologize, and the rest is history." She looked at Cedes. "The worst part of my past before Dennis is that they didn't even let me look at him before the midwife took him. My little boy." She dabbed at the tears on her face.

"If you ever need someone to talk to, I can understand what you went through."

"Oh, you can't possibly."

She took Debbie's hand. "I can, really."

When her meaning sank in, Debbie cupped both her hands around Cedes'. "Did you—? What happened?"

Cedes whispered, "I was raped, too, and I became pregnant."

"Oh, my God, Gina, but she's amazing. Should I have kept him? Should I have tried to be his mother alone with a job as a waitress with no support?" A fresh round of tears slid down her cheeks.

"Please, don't Debbie. You can't compare your situation with mine or anyone else's. You did what was best for you to do."

"Wait. Is he . . . Did he do this?"

Already knowing what the answer would be, Cedes brought out her phone and pulled up a picture of one of her very own, Deputy Artie Abrams. Or the man posing as Artie Abrams. Because he was not Arthur Abrams. He just assumed his identity. This was a picture AI helped her create of the man with red hair and not the dye job that the man pretending to be Artie Abrams was wearing.

She moved the phone for Debbie to see the AI picture she made of him, and the blood drained from Debbie's face a second before she got up and emptied her stomach in the trash can by the door.

"Yes," she said through the sobs. "That's him, he came to my house a long time ago when we were living in Utah."

"When did this happen?"

She wiped her mouth on a napkin, then sat back down. "Ashlyn was very young. Maybe five years old? And this boy came to my home. His parents were sitting out in a car, and I recognized them from the adoption agency. I knew instantly who he was."

"You'd met the adoptive parents?"

She nodded. "Only once before the adoption, they seemed nice. He told me who he was and asked if he could live with me because the couple had a baby and didn't want him anymore." Her hands pressed into her mouth, and she sobbed. "What was I supposed to say? Dennis didn't know I had a child. I was so afraid he would look at me like my parents did because I'd lied to him."

"Debbie, this is not your fault."

"No, it is. I grieved for him every day and yet, I rejected him twice." She broke down again. "Is that why he's doing this? Oh, God. He doesn't know what that did to me."

"He's doing this because he's hurt by his past, Debbie. This is not your fault. But right now, I have to find my deputy."

She had no choice. She had to leave Debbie in agony as she texted Hunter. "On my way. Read the note."

Hurrying toward the recovery rooms, Cedes turned the corner and saw a stunned expression on Hunter's face. Jay's jaw dropped when she read the note, but Cedes pushed past them and into the room.

Only one body was in the bed sleeping.

"Where's my daughter?"

He stepped in and checked. Deputy McCarthy followed, panic draining the color from his face. "She never left the room."

Cedes ripped back the covers and almost cried out. It was Gina sleeping in Ashlyn's bed. She hugged her and kissed her on the forehead. "Where's Ashlyn?"

Debbie raced into the room.

"Who's been allowed in this room?" Cedes asked the officer.

"No one. Just a couple of nurses."

The charge nurse stepped just inside the room, the expression on her face was total shock.

"Which nurses?" Cedes growled.

"This lady here," he said, pointing at the charge nurse, "and a male nurse."

The nurse shook her head. "We don't have any male nurses on rotation today."

"Dammit," Hunter said. "Lock the hospital down!"

He ran to get security to lock down the facility as her other two deputies and the state officer checked the immediate ward.

"I need surveillance now!" Cedes shouted, then gestured for the nurse. "My daughter is not waking up."

The nurse sprang into action, pressing the emergency button to call for assistance and rushing to Gina's side. The area flooded with medical personnel as the nurse checked her vitals.

"She's okay," she said. "Her pulse is normal. She's just sleeping."

"He drugged them somehow. But how did he get Ashlyn out with no one noticing him?"

"Where is my daughter?" Debbie screamed, and Cedes was worried she would either have a breakdown or faint.

"He was pushing a food cart," the state cop said when he came back. "I didn't think anything of it at the time."

Of course he didn't. This wasn't his fault, but Cedes wanted to rip him apart, anyway. The psycho posing as Abrams could have killed her daughter, and he could still kill Ashlyn.

"Mercedes," Debbie said, terrified. "Please find my baby girl."

Cedes ran to her and gave her a hug before calling in every city, county, and state employee in the area, from the highway patrol to the sanitation department.

The fake Abrams would know they'd discovered Ashlyn missing, but not that they were onto him. With any luck, he would keep up the game and report to the urgent care center to help in the search.

"Gina, baby girl, wake up, lovebug. Can you hear me?"

Gina groaned, and Cedes ran trying to get to her side.

"Gina? Baby?"

"Mommy?" she said about half a second before she threw up a red beverage on the side of the bed.

Cedes held her braids, smoothing them back while fighting angry tears.

"Mommy?"

She laid her back as the nurse cleaned her up. "Gina, how are you feeling?"

"He's still here." Her voice was a thin and quiet. "He won't leave."

"Who won't leave, sweetheart?"

"Ashlyn's kidnapper. He wants Mrs. Caswell to see, and I don't know why."

"I do." Cedes motioned for Hunter to come in. "Did Ashlyn tell you this?"

Gina nodded her head. "I tried to tell you, but I was just so tired."

Cedes hugged her to her. "It's okay, ladybug. We'll find her."

"Let's get her to an examination room," the nurse said. "She need fluids to flush out the drugs."

Cedes let them take her, then called in her parents, instructing them to get the hospital ASAP and not to leave Gina's side.