Dangerous Conceit by Ali Lee

Chapter 53

Voices talked back and forth above her—strange voices without faces. Lexi felt light, as though being whisked through the air. Wait. She could not move her arms. Her legs would not move. What was going on?

Her eyes flew open, and all she could see was the bright chandelier hanging above. What happened? She tried to remember anything at all that put her in the situation she currently found herself.

Lexi looked at the men holding her. One walked in front and another behind. They were dressed in some sort of blue scrubs. People were running around them, heading in the same direction. They were panicking for some reason. She wanted to tell them to quit running and to calm down, but she did not know exactly what they were running from.

“Alexis!” A woman with blond hair ran up to her, looking down from above. Lexi stared with a blank expression and wondered who she was. Should she know her? “Lexi, are you all right?” She thought about the woman's words. Was she all right? “Lexi?” the woman said the name with slow hesitancy as if bracing for the worst possible outcome.

“I can't move my legs or arms or anything at all.” She looked back at the blonde-haired woman.

“You’re tied down to a stretcher. That's why. What’s my name?” The woman looked at her, all but screaming the question.

“Your name is…” Lexi shook her head back and forth with confusion.

“Abby!” The woman started shaking, walking with the team of paramedics. “You don't even know what happened?”

Lexi wanted to console her. Abby looked familiar. She wracked her brain and tried to come up with something, anything at all. Nothing. How could she console Abby when she could not remember a thing?

They neared a large set of doors that towered high above. They were gorgeous and outlined in cherubs. Was she at church? Then she saw a little girl running with her mother. The little girl had straight brown hair. She looked scared and held on to a teddy bear and a doll with all her might.

Lexi pondered the sight for a moment. Something about a little girl would not leave her mind. Then something crashed in the foyer and a phone erupted to sway her concentration. The ringing jarred something in Lexi's mind—a specific ringtone with a loathsome voice and a little girl and then an explosion. What was it?

“Maura!” Lexi screamed as the horrific scene came flooding through her mind. “They took Maura!” She scrambled on top of the stretcher, trying to free her arms with furious urgency. “Undo these straps now!” she shouted on the verge of ripping herself free.

“Calm down, Miss. The explosion knocked you out. We have to take you to the hospital.”

“I said let me go!” Lexi twisted and turned, making it difficult for the men to continue.

“We’re going to have to sedate her,” said one of the men to the other.

“No, I’m refusing services. Give me the paper to sign and let me go. If you take me against my will, I will sue you for abduction.”

“Miss?”

“Now,” Lexi fired back.

“Fine.” They both set her down and unlatched the straps. As Lexi stood, she grabbed the sheet and wrapped it around her shoulders. All she was wearing were a transparent top and panties.

“Go get the form.” She ran through the door and gazed into the street. There were hordes of cop cars, several ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

“Lexi,” Abby came running behind her. “Who has Maura?”

Lexi glanced back, remembering that Abby was there. “My mother called me right before the explosion. She has her, or she knows who does.” Lexi saw a running police car, except there was no police officer inside. “Come on!” she shouted to Abby and did not wait to sign the release.

“Are you out of your mind?” Abby yelled but jumped down the stairs anyway.

“Yes!” Lexi answered the obvious.

They both jumped inside the car. Lexi looked for an open space to squeeze the car through, searching between one ambulance and a whole lot of cars. She finally eased the car around the ambulance and avoided the cars altogether as she aimed for the grass barrier between the u-shaped drive and the street.

“What the hell do you two think you’re doing?” Somebody jumped inside the back seat. “Do you know how much time you can get for stealing a cop car?”

Lexi took off with a jolt. “Donnie—looks like you're coming with us.”

“The hell I am. Stop the car, or I'm going to arrest you both.”

“How do you turn on the lights?” Lexi shouted and slammed on the gas.

“Right here,” Abby switched something on.

“Stop the damn car.” Donnie ordered and pounded the metal caged divider.

“They took Maura.” Lexi swerved onto the highway. “Are you okay with them taking my daughter?”

“Christ.” Donnie buckled his seatbelt as a voice came on the radio. Both women stared at it for a second as it echoed.

“Officer Seaton, do you copy?”

“Damn it,” Lexi muttered under her breath.

“Put it up to the cage,” Donnie said.

“No,” Lexi replied. “They have Maura and you and nobody is stopping me from getting her.”

“Sweetheart, if I don't answer that call, every cop car in the county is going to be on your ass.” Lexi huffed; then she nodded at Abby to do what he said. “This is officer Seaton,” he began, surprising Lexi by not turning her in. Instead, he told them he was addressing another disturbance and would get back to them.

“Thank you,” was all she said when Abby hung the receiver back up.

***

Lexi stopped at her house. She and Abby stormed inside as Lexi threw on a pair of jeans and grabbed a couple of guns to take with them. Her body ached from the explosion an hour before, but sheer adrenaline wired her mind. She could not slow down, not with her daughter in the hands of her mother. She could not even think.

Within five minutes, they raced back out. Lexi opened the driver's door but Donnie sat behind the wheel. “My car; I drive.”

“Fine,” she shut the door and ran to the passenger's side with Abby in back. “Can you drive fast?” she asked as he gassed the car in reverse.

“What's it take to get to Homestead? About fifty minutes?”

“Yeah, something like that,” Lexi answered.

He shifted into drive and took off. “I'll be there in twenty-five…max.”

Donnie entered the highway within minutes. Lexi was glad that he drove. She could plan better when she did not focus on the road. She looked back at Abby, considering nothing for her own safety as she focused on Maura.

“Call Rafa,” she said, pointing at Abby's phone.

“What am I going to tell him?”

“Tell him we stole a cop car and are heading to Homestead. He's probably having a fit that I left and didn't tell him I was going.”

“Um…” Abby's forehead wrinkled with hesitation. “I'll word it a little differently.” She pressed a button on her phone.

“This is Abby and…” The voice did not let her speak and went on in a raging frenzy. Abby had to hold the phone away from her ear.

“I can't give the phone to Lexi.” She gave up on softening the words. “Because…we’re in Donnie's police car and I'm in the back seat and Lexi's in the front…” Abby sighed at the other end. Rafa was in no mood for surprises. “Look, Gloria took Maura. She called Lexi before the explosion and—” Abby stopped. “What Lexi?”

“Tell him we’re going to my old house, to the address he asked me about. Donnie's taking us.” Abby told him and clicked off her phone. “What did he say?” Lexi asked.

“Well, he hung up on me, so I assume he's coming too.”

“I'm going to kill my mother.” Lexi said. “I can't believe she stooped this low. And Angelo? How did they ever get past him? I don't understand.”

“Brett's down too. And the paramedics didn't bring down Sammy or Thomas from your floor.”

Lexi closed her eyes, unable to believe any of this happened. It was as if Moretti knew exactly when and where to find each one of them. Moretti had to be precise if he took Maura from Angelo. Lexi wondered if Angelo was hurt too. To the second, Gloria called her about taking Maura before the chaotic mess of the explosion. It was flawless—perfect—how?

Lexi stared at the railing of the highway zipping by as she searched for an answer. She had to think quickly, very quickly. Was there some sort of tracker attached to something she wore? Maybe they implanted a chip in her neck. Lexi rolled her eyes—too ridiculous. She refused to give Moretti that much credit.

She massaged her temples and looked at Donnie's expression for an explanation. Angelo had tight security at the hotel during the wedding. Donnie did not attend. No, it could not have been him.

Lexi rested her hands in her lap and looked in the mirror, seeing the road trail behind. She suddenly felt a familiar, unsettling feeling, the same as when she answered the call in the restaurant—like someone looked over her shoulder, yet she could not pinpoint whom.

“Ten more minutes,” said Donnie as he glanced at Lexi and back at the road. Lexi could feel her heart speed faster with every mile he drove. It was like buying something for the first time. All the excitement built up inside. Except for Lexi, she wanted to save her daughter, to hug her tightly in her arms.

“Can I see your phone?” she asked Donnie as they passed the city limit signs entering Homestead.

“Why?” he asked but instantly handed it over. Lexi did not answer. She began pressing a series of buttons in her frenzied state of mind. She knew he wanted to see as she hid the phone from view. Then she clicked it off and handed it back.

“I was checking on something,” she replied and noticed that they reached the outskirts of Homestead with mere blocks left to go.

Lexi felt sick as she passed a few familiar streets, seeing houses that she never wanted to remember and sidewalks that she hoped to sooner forget. Then Donnie turned and she spotted her house at the end of the dead-end street. A flood of memories came pouring back as they steadily approached. Lexi tried to quiet the voices in her head, voices of the past that sounded like they were speaking to her in real time. Then she remembered Maura. That was why she came here at all. Thoughts of her daughter settled her racing mind. Determination took its place.

“Abby.” Lexi looked back. “You stay here. When I find Maura, Donnie will bring her to you.” Abby nodded as Lexi exited the car, shut the door and looked at Donnie. “I'm going in first. Check your phone. I sent a message to Rafa,” she whispered.