Chapter 10
An officer came running up.
“Mr. Cooper—Mr. Easton Cooper—we need you and Ms. Zari Davis.”
“Have you found her? Have you? Have you found her, have you got her?”
“Please come downstairs.”
“Is she all right?” shouted Zari as she followed the officer, leaving East to grab their jackets and follow them. She ran into Rachel’s apartment, where it was pandemonium. She didn’t know what kind of pressure East had applied, but it looked like half the police force was there. She would have felt uncomfortable, and Rachel did look uncomfortable—she would have to make it up to Rachel somehow—but she didn’t care about anything except finding her baby.
She knew that the first few hours were crucial, that their odds of finding them in that time were higher than at any other time. She understood all that.
“Detective Cortez!”
“We’ve got her. She’s on her way over here right now.”
“What? You… What? She’s safe?”
“She’s safe, and one of our officers is bringing her home.”
“Safe. She’s safe.”
Zari zoned out. She didn’t listen to the details because they didn’t matter to her. It didn’t matter how they’d found her. All that mattered was that they had found her.
“She’s five minutes away right now. She’ll be home soon, Zari.”
“Oh God. Oh, thank God!”
Zari would have collapsed if she hadn’t had East to lean on. He led her to the couch, and they sat together, his arm around her, with Zari leaning on him, as they waited to get their daughter back.
The five minutes felt like forever and a day. They would never end. They ticked by so slowly.
But then—
“She’s here.”
Detective Cortez got to her feet, but nobody could’ve been faster than Zari.
“Angie!” she cried, and she leaped forward, grabbed her baby out of the officer’s arms, and held her close.
“Angie, Angie, baby, you’re all right. You’re all right, sweetheart.”
Angie yawned, and Zari held her so close.
“East…”
“Dr. Colton is on her way over.”
“Good. Good, it’s good. She’s fine. She’s fine, East. Our baby, she’s fine. I… Detective Cortez, I’m sure there are formalities, but can I go home for now?”
She hesitated, just for a moment, but she smiled and nodded.
“Sure. I know where to find you.”
“Thank you,” said Zari, her smile brilliant, her eyes bright with tears of relief and gratitude.
“Thank you. Thank you, all of you. Thank you.”
Zari knew that most of the effort had been because of East, for him because of who he was. This manhunt and this dedication—definitely this level of accommodation—would not have been shown just for her, if she’d just been Zari Davis and Angie had just been Angela Davis.
But it didn’t matter, not then, because all she felt was gratitude.
“You’re here, baby. You’re home with mama. You’re here. Sweetheart, you’re here.”
She was still yawning, and definitely sleepy. Had they sedated her? Was she hurt?
Zari looked around, and there was East, right where she needed him again, and with him was Dr. Colton.
“Dr. Colton, Angie…”
“Let’s have a look at her.”
Dr. Colton had gentle hands as she took Angie from Zari. She checked her responses, and clucked at her a little bit. She checked her temperature, and finally glanced at Zari.
“She’s been given a mild sedative. I’d guess she was given some kids’ Benadryl, which is perfectly harmless, and she’ll be fine after she sleeps it off. I’d still like to draw some blood, just to be sure and run a few tests. Just to be on the safe side. I don’t expect anything to show up.”
Zari nodded, and held her baby as Dr. Colton drew the blood. She was just finishing up when Zari noticed that everybody was awake, including Jeremy.
Cole, Mia, Deon and Jayla crowded around Angie, and Zari’s heart filled with relief as she saw how much they all loved each other. They were a family—a real family. It didn’t matter what anybody else thought. It didn’t matter what Tim and Martha Cooper thought.
She already had her family, right there. That’s all that mattered.
Detective Cortez was kind enough to give them some time before she came up to talk to them. Zari wasn’t ready. She didn’t want to go down to the station, or to talk about what had happened. She didn’t want to relive the horror of it all.
But it had to be done.
Having East there helped. She leaned on him, and she discovered that if she could trust him to stay steady, then he was strong enough to lean on. He needed her to lean on him to be strong.
And so she was strong enough to hear what happened.
“It wasn’t a sophisticated operation by any means, for which we should be grateful. It wasn’t gang related, and there was no turf war involved. The two perpetrators have been arrested. Both have records, but it looks like they were both looking for easy money. They’d seen you and Julia going for walks with the twins, and they’d figured out who you were, Zari. They’d talked about a kidnapping, but mostly as joke. Then they saw Julia out there, alone, and one of them—the younger one—decided to take the chance. The young woman Julia had been talking to wasn’t a part of it. A lot of things lined up for them and they took the chance. They had no idea what to do after the kidnapping, either. They gave Angie the bottle, and then gave her some kids Benadryl because she was crying, and it put her to sleep. After a lot of back and forth, they called you, but it was obvious that they had no clue what they were talking about when they called you. I mean, you only ask for a wire transfer if you have an untraceable bank account in a no-extradition country, and neither of these idiots had that. They should have asked for unmarked bills, cash. But, well, we should be grateful that they bungled everything up and didn’t get frustrated and hurt Angie. To be honest, I don’t think they would have. They’re both terrified. They’d given her formula and were holed up in a motel. They’d left their van parked outside, the dumbasses. They were about ready to give up and turn it all in, really.”
Zari frowned.
“So this was all because they’d seen us and saw an opportunity. They put my baby in danger because they could.”