After what seemed like a lifetime, the ambulance arrived and within minutes, we were both loaded in and headed to Mercy Miami Hospital. As they started an IV flowing through his veins, I shot off a text to Landon, giving him the quickest explanation possible until I could give him a more thorough update. I wouldn’t have taken time to do that, but he was blowing up my phone, wanting a confirmation that Baker was safe. Our men had witnessed the attempted abduction but I’d gotten there before any of them had blown their covers. I signed off in seconds and checked on Baker’s vital signs. His BP was low but, other than that, he looked like he was merely sleeping—much better than earlier.
We’d dodged a bullet. My jealousy had almost cost Baker his safety. Had I lost my ability to be professional? To keep focused on the job they were paying me to do? Past victims and future victims depended on me to settle this shit. Was I capable of separating my personal feelings from my job?
Two hours later, I felt much better regarding Baker’s health and even worse about my actions at the club. They’d been pumping fluids through his system and performed a gastric lavage as soon as he’d arrived. Watching them do that to him, inserting the tubes down his throat and in his nose, had been difficult. Seeing the fury in his cloudy blue eyes when he’d woken up to find himself being held down while tubing was inserted into him had been even worse—one of the worst feelings of helplessness and guilt of my life.
Now we were just waiting for the release papers to creep their way through the hospital’s system. Other than yes or no answers, he’d yet to talk very much. Did he blame me? He had to. How could he not?
Landon had been busy. They’d entered the tag numbers into the system and, of course, it ended up being stolen plates placed on the SUV. With the way my luck was going, I should have known it wouldn’t be that simple. He’d now pulled all the men that had been watching our penthouse to start gathering any camera footage they could obtain from surrounding businesses. With all the restaurants, clubs, and even a bank within a two-mile block of Skittles, there would have to be security cameras that caught the SUV as it traveled to the scene and then raced away. If we were lucky, one of the cameras would capture the money shot and show faces of the vehicle’s occupants. Until then, we were dead in the water on what our next step needed to be. Landon didn’t agree with me, but I’d already told him there was no way Baker would be in Javier’s club tomorrow night. He swore he’d have extra security in place before then and that I was being unreasonable. He was probably right, but I didn’t give a fuck. I wasn’t doing another damn thing to risk Baker’s safety.
“Why did you bring me to the hospital?” he asked, finally breaking the silent treatment torture he’d put me through since he’d woken up and realized what was happening to him.
“Because you’d been drugged, Baker,” I answered quietly. We weren’t in a room and the only thing separating us and the next person were some curtains. We couldn’t afford to trust anyone or assume we weren’t being watched or listened to. I motioned around our curtained area to remind him of our surroundings.
He flipped me off. “I’m not incompetent, Seth. It was a simple question. You knew I’d been drugged and surely had a good idea what it was. I shouldn’t have drunk the cocktail, I know that.” He swore. “I knew better than that. Everybody knows you can get roofied in a club. I was just pissed, I guess.”
Baker didn’t know the entire story. When we were back at the penthouse and after I’d swept for listening devices, I’d explain that it was much more than him getting a dose of a regular date rape drug. They’d given him two EpiPens of some unidentified drug and then added something to his drink. He had no idea they’d been three steps from loading his unconscious body into their vehicle.
He had no idea my entire life flashed before my eyes when I realized he’d been taken.
“We’ll discuss it at home,” I answered softly. “Try to rest as much as you can until they cut you loose.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not sleepy. Trust me, they got everything out of me. Are you fucking kidding me? I didn’t even think they pumped stomachs anymore. It’s like Frankenstein medicine. Seriously? There was no need. I would have slept it off. No biggie.”
“UmmmHmmm,” I answered. Thankfully the doctor walked backed into our cubicle before Baker could argue with me.