One New Message (Random Updates)

Chapter 38

"Look at you," Corey smiled as Jade walked over to them. She was wearing her favorite black tight Tripp pants with a belt that had chains hanging from it. A long sleeve fishnet shirt was underneath a Rocky Horror Picture Show tee and she had black combat boots on. Her makeup was a smokey look with blood red lip stain. "There's my Dreamkitten."

A blush crept on her face as she dropped her face to hide it since Gabe had put it in a French braid. Fingers under her chin made her look up to stare into the nearly black eyes of Raven. "Sexy Kitten," he smirked. "Feel brave?" She nodded, making his smirk turn into a proud smile, "Good. Let's go."

She slipped her bat backpack on and followed him out to the vehicles. She had to admit she felt better having so many of them surrounding her. The ride to the hospital was silent and once they arrived, she slipped her hands into the two closest men, North and Silas.

"Remember, Jade," Corey warned as Raven started scanning around them.

"I'm not going anywhere," she mumbled as she tightened her grips on North and Silas. "Promise, Daddy."

"I'm going to take a few of us inside ahead of you and make sure the conference room is secure for us," Sean said as he slipped on his white coat and attached his ID badge.

Half the group followed Sean while the rest surrounded her again. "Do you need a few moments, Doll?" Axel asked as he watched her. "We can wait out here as long as it takes until you're ready, promise."

"Go home after?" She asked as she looked around in a panic. She let out a soft sigh of relief when she realized that she couldn't see anything because of the guys blocking her view. "Stories? Games? Art?"

"Promise," Axel nodded. "As soon as you are done looking at the pictures, it's straight back home."

She nodded, "okay, Spyro?"

"Not leaving your side, Dreamkitten," Corey smiled as he slipped his hand into hers. She let out another breath of relief and he noticed it was less shaky than before.

They walked into the hospital and she took another step closer to him. He gave her a small squeeze of reassurance while Raven put his hand on her lower back. North tapped in a code into the keypad of a door and they walked inside. Her eyes lit up when she saw the rest of the group and heard the door lock behind them.

"Here we go, Sweetheart," Sean said as he moved so she could see a binder on the table. "This is the registry of all our visiting doctors and nurses on file. Well, the men anyway. We have another for females but I didn't grab that one. Momma Erica already went through and put sticky tabs on the ones that were on file that fit your description so you didn't have to go through each picture."

She gulped then nodded, "Okay."

"Just take your time, Darling," Owen said as he pulled out the chair. "And at any time, if it becomes too much we will leave immediately. You do not have to do this if you don't want to."

"Okay, Professor," she murmured then blushed, "I mean Mr. Blackbourne?"

He gently moved her face to look up at him, "Owen."

"Owen," she murmured.

"Good girl."

He took a step back yet she could have sworn she still felt his fingers on her skin. She cleared her throat then turned back to the binder on the conference table. Taking a deep breath, she opened the binder and flipped to the first sticky note. "No," she whispered after she looked at it closely.

An hour later she huffed in anger, "he's not here." Turning to look up at Sean, she frowned in confusion, "Why isn't he here? It doesn't make sense, he should be in here. Did...did I mess up?"

"I don't think so," Sean shook his head. "It could very well be that he altered his appearance for the hospital picture."

"That makes sense with him using Dr. Roberts' name," Victor nodded. "Corey and I can create a program to look for common spy tricks on false facial appearances but it will take some time. I need to be here though so I can use these images."

"Alright, a few of us will go get some food for us," Marc said as he stood. He kissed the top of Jade's head, "I'm proud of you, Beautiful."

"Oy, Luke and I will fucking go with you," Gabe said as he jumped up. "Luke can grab goddamn snacks and I can grab Jade and me some fucking crafts to help pass the time."

Jade gently pulled on Corey's arm, "Daddy," she whispered softly. "Bathroom?"

Corey smiled, "I'll have Momma take you. Give me one moment." She nodded as she laid her head on his shoulder. A couple of minutes later Erica walked in. "Go with Momma, Jade, and stay by her side. Once you are done, Momma can take you up to the garden so you can get some fresh air while we work on this. It shouldn't take much longer. Once the program starts running and we have these images inputted we can go home, okay?"

She nodded then followed Erica out of the room. "Please tell me I'm not the only one that finds it highly suspicious that he isn't in the registry or the roster," Nathan said the moment the door shut behind them. "That binder has everyone down to the janitors in it. And she looked through every single picture, not just the ones marked. That has to mean something, right?"

"It means this person is sneakier than we originally thought," Axel frowned as he turned to look out the window. "But that's fine, we love a good challenge and that just makes our punishments that more justified once we catch him."

Erica burst into the room five minutes after the rest of the group returned, "What's wrong, Sean?" she asked out of breath.

"Momma?" The group asked in confusion.

"Why aren't you with Jade?" Corey asked as he jumped to his feet.

"A nurse stopped me and said you needed me," Erica frowned in confusion. "She said that you said it was an emergency and you needed me immediately."

"Where's Jade, Mom?" Kota asked in a panic.

"I left her in the garden," Erica gasped. "You didn't need me?"

"No!" the group shouted as Luke dashed out of the room.

Luke shoved the door open and looked around frantically. "Jade?" He called out then held his breath. Silence. The door swung open just as Luke came back around from searching. "She's not here," his voice croaked as he tried to keep the tears of rage from spilling down his face. He held up her bat backpack. "She's gone."