Page 16 of Brick (Chosen Few #5)

N atalie woke with a start. She bolted upright, memories hitting her like bullets from an assault rifle.

Bray.

Everything came rushing back. A moan leaked from her mouth as she planted her feet on the smooth hardwood floor and placed her palm against her pounding chest.

It was real. Each horrific moment in the last eighteen hours had been real. She sucked in a breath and her gaze landed on the clock on the nightstand. She’d slept for half an hour, though it felt like far more time had passed. Too much time.

She made her way to the en suite bathroom.

A pretty soaker tub sat to her right, and a glassed-in shower was positioned next to it.

Indecision took hold. The selfish part of her wanted to get clean.

The motherly instinct part condemned her for even thinking about anything other than how to get their son back.

Their son.

God, how she’d failed. But she couldn’t think about that now.

She sniffed her hair and wrinkled her nose. Okay, so fear had a distinct scent, and she probably smelled as if she’d crawled out of a dumpster full of it.

Brick had said the guys would arrive in an hour, so that gave her a good thirty minutes to clean herself up. Besides, searching for Bray could take all night. A nice hot shower might infuse life back into her.

She closed the door, stripped down, and turned on the water full blast. Stepping beneath the spray, she tipped back her head. Heat billowed around her, and for a split second she was transported out of her hellish reality—and taken back to three years ago in Fargo.

Even then she’d known Brick was different. Gentle, compassionate, and present. He was still all those things. Regret pressed against her sinuses. She’d made too many mistakes. Withheld from him what was rightfully his. Maybe this was karma, the universe’s cruel way to teach her a lesson.

Her chest tightened, and the desire to drop to her knees almost won.

She sucked in a breath of hot air and grabbed the complimentary bottle of shampoo. Scrubbing her hair with too much vigor, she had the strands clean and her body washed in five minutes.

After turning off the water, she snagged a plush white towel from the rack and then rubbed herself dry. She wrapped the material around her torso, knotting it in front of her breasts.

She picked up the hand towel and wiped the condensation from the mirror. The sight of her reflection made her wince. The bruise near her eye was a deep green now, ultimately making her look more like shit.

Lifting the edge of the towel, she finally examined her abdomen. A large bruise covered the right side of her ribcage. Bastard. Thankfully, she could breathe without pain, so it was unlikely the damage was more than superficial.

She removed a blow-dryer from a drawer and went to work.

Fifteen minutes later, her hair tumbled over her shoulders in loose waves and her skin bore light makeup to cover some of the bruise.

The green was still visible but less jarring.

She hadn’t bothered with any other makeup.

Finally, she reached for the clothes she’d taken from her bag.

She pulled on a pair of black leggings and a light-gray tunic.

As she moved to the bedroom door, she heard voices downstairs. She made her way to the kitchen and froze. Brick stood at the island and two buff guys sat on the barstools.

Brick snapped his attention to her and his expression changed. His eyes took in her face, then slowly slid down her body and back up. She shouldn’t be reacting to him. Not right now. But her belly flipped and her toes curled as his gaze landed back on her face. “Did you get any rest?”

She forced a smile and stepped into the kitchen. “A bit.”

“Taschen and Zain, this is Natalie.”

The guys smiled at her. The one closest to her had two scars, one at the side of his head and one across his cheekbone. He held out his hand and gave a dazzling smile. “Hey. Name’s Taschen. I’m this dufus’s friend,” he said, nodding at Brick.

She chuckled and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

The other man waved a large palm her way. His dark hair and olive skin suggested a Middle Eastern heritage. The skin around his golden eyes crinkled as he gave her a gentle smile. “Zain. I’m sorry about your boy. We’ll find him.”

“Thank you.” She knotted her hands in front of her.

Brick motioned her to the dining room. “Come here for a second. I’ve got something to show you.”

Queasiness pulled at her stomach, but she followed him and took the chair he offered in front of his laptop.

“Our colleague Ghost did some digging. I’m going to show you something that might be upsetting but hopefully promising.”

She hugged her midsection and pressed her feet into the area rug to anchor herself. Surely if he had something terrible to share, he’d say so.

He reached in front of her and brought up a program on the laptop. Heat radiated from his body, and his closeness made her want to fall into him again so he could hold her. The scents of soap and pine wafted to her nostrils. God, if anyone smelled like comfort, it was Brick.

“There.” He pulled back his arm so she could see the screen, but he remained close, leaning on the back of her chair, his shoulder just behind hers and his lips close to her ear.

A still image was displayed on the screen. “What am I looking at?”

“This was taken from the apartment building across from yours. Turns out the security cameras at your place were tampered with,” he said. “Shocking,” he added dryly. “But we’ve got a good shot of Keetan and his friends leaving with Bray.”

Sweat misted her palms. The possibility of finding Bray made her heart soar, but cold, prickly fear clung to that hope like an angry burr. “Play it,” she muttered, with as much conviction as she could manage.

Brick tapped the mouse.

The video revealed the street outside her apartment building. Cars were parked along the curb, and the glow of streetlamps illuminated them. She narrowed her gaze and pointed at a familiar truck. “That’s Keetan’s.”

“Figured you’d say that. Keep watching.”

Her gaze drifted over the screen as she remembered the time spent with Bray. After swimming they’d gone to the park and then had dinner at home before starting his bedtime routine. The memory of him sleeping peacefully in her arms hit her like a freight train.

If I’d known that might have been the last time I held you, I’d have never let go...

Her bottom lip trembled and the crook of her arm ached for the weight of her son’s sleeping body. She’d do anything to have him back.

Movement at the entrance of the building made her lean forward. A guy stormed onto the sidewalk, Bray in his arms. The footage had no audio, but her son’s face was red, his mouth wide as he screamed—for his mama.

Natalie clapped her hand over her mouth. Her chest squeezed as though she’d been thrown into a vise. The compression was too much to bear.

She watched as the guy opened the back door of the truck and strapped Bray into a car seat before climbing into the front passenger seat. The other friend got in the back. A moment later, Keetan stormed out, got in the driver’s seat, and peeled away from the curb.

Her heart was ripped from her body all over again. And to add insult to injury, she had to watch herself run out to the sidewalk, her hands framing her face as she stared at the taillights.

It was a memory that’d never leave her mind.

She hadn’t followed because her car was parked in the parking garage and her keys were inside the apartment.

By the time she’d gotten her shit together, her face was on the news.

Brick’s warm arm wrapped around her shoulders. “I know that was hard to watch.”

She kept her fingers over her mouth and nodded. The room was silent, and she was suddenly acutely aware they weren’t alone. Judging by the lack of noise from Taschen and Zain, she figured they’d already watched the footage.

“That’s it?” she asked, filled with dread, her voice strangled. She turned to Brick. Their faces were barely inches apart.

A muscle in his jaw jumped. “No, that’s not it.” His fingers drew small circles on her arm. “I’m going to show you something else, and I really want you to try to focus.”

She scrunched her face. “How am I supposed to do that?”

“Look at the surroundings. Try to remember if you’ve ever been in the area or who Keetan knows who’d be in such a place.”

Apprehension plucked her skin into gooseflesh, then slowly his meaning sunk in. She gasped. “You know where he is?”

“I’ve got an idea, yeah.”

“Show me.” If she knew how to work the damn program, she’d do it herself.

Brick quickly tapped a drop-down menu and downloaded a new file. “Once Ghost got the security footage, he was able to track down Keetan’s vehicle. Looks like he knew exactly where he was taking Bray, and it wasn’t back to his place.”

The wrap she’d eaten earlier threatened to come back up. She swallowed and waited for the next video to load. “Where is he?”

“A neighborhood near downtown. Keetan disappeared into a parking garage and came out fifteen minutes later. Because his windows are tinted, we couldn’t tell if Bray was with him, but Ghost followed him home through more footage and saw him drop off his friends and return to his place by himself.”

Brick hit a couple of buttons and another video played. Keetan’s truck turned into a low-rise parking garage. “Ever been here?” he asked.

She shook her head wildly. “No, I haven’t,” she said, her voice reaching a frantic pitch. “Keetan and I weren’t on good terms for a long time. He didn’t take me anywhere, and if he has friends besides Tommy, a fellow police officer, I don’t know them.”

They were close. Finally had a clue as to where Bray could be. But all they knew was the area. A sickening realization hit her. “What if he passed him off to someone inside the garage? And Bray left with a stranger in another vehicle?”