He had to warn the others, tell them … something. Something important. A thought hovered just out of reach. He knew it would break this case wide open, finally get them ahead instead of constantly running behind Emmanuel waiting for him to mess up.
Matthew tried to open his eyes, sit up, speak, but found his body was completely uncooperative.
“Looks like he’s waking up.”
The voice sounded like it was underwater and a thousand miles away, but he heard it, and recognized it.
It sounded like one of Grace’s brothers, he couldn’t tell which, Elijah and Jeremiah were identical twins and hard to tell apart, something that would change as he got to know them better because there was no way he was walking away from Grace, not for anything. But that meant he had to get his body to cooperate, had to wake up, had to figure out what he knew.
Grace’s life depended on it, of that he felt certain.
“Matthew? Can you hear me?”
Yes.
The word echoed inside his head, but he was pretty sure it didn't make it out of his mind.
“Matthew, you need to wake up. Grace needs you. He has her.”
Fear crawled over his skin like a million spiders.
Emmanuel had Grace.
He dragged in a breath, welcoming the shooting pains emanating from his chest because it meant he was alive, it meant he could still fight for Grace.
He just had to fight against his own body first.
“Come on, Matthew, wake up.”
The last was delivered as an order, and he allowed it to give him the last push he needed.
His eyes opened but everything was blurry, shades of gray, and nothing made sense.
He blinked to try to clear his vision, and it worked because when a face leaned over him, he could see that it was whichever of Grace’s brothers had been talking to him.
“You with me?” the other man asked.
“Yeah,” Matthew croaked.
“Here.”
A straw was held to his lips, and he sipped the cool liquid. It refreshed not just his throat but rejuvenated his body as well. He could feel the cobwebs washing away, his strength returning. “You said he has Grace.”
“Elijah, he awake yet?” Allina asked, entering the hospital room.
“Just woke up,” Elijah replied.
“Do you have news on Grace?” Matthew asked, judging his returning strength and whether or not he was ready to get out of here.
Who was he kidding?
He was leaving here as soon as he found out what was going on. No way was he sitting in a hospital bed while Grace was out there somewhere fighting for her life.
“Nothing new. We were hoping you would be able to tell us something,” Ali replied. Her blue eyes were red-rimmed, it was clear she’d been crying earlier—probably the whole Bennett family had been. How were they going to cope if Grace didn't come home?
They had just gotten her back after five and a half years of searching. She’d been doing better than anyone could have hoped even though her struggles were far from over, and now, just like that, she was gone again.
This time they might not find her.