Jacques sat on the couch with his hands covering his face, trying to wrap his mind around the fact Noah was kidnapped under his watch.
"Jacques you gotta talk to us." Hernandez said rubbing his back. She had finally made it to his home after flying in from Atlanta where she was handling another case.
"What you want me to say?" He asked looking at her with angry tears streaming down his face. "It's been almost twenty four hours since he's been gone. An-and all that's been done by you guys is sit around my house waiting for Will to do something." Jacq said leaning on the arm rest of the couch. "You could be out looking for my son." He was becoming hysterical. He needed Neriah by hersid
"We're doing what we can. There's somethings under our jurisdiction that we can't do right away. Do you know anything else that could help us?"
"I'm gonna tell you like I told everybody else. I put Noah down for a nap after his doctor's appointment. I came down here and fixed his bottles for the day and I decided to give my old coach a call while I waited for a bottle to heat up. I called him because Riah hadn't been answering her phone and I told her to call me when her plane landed in Denver."
"Why is she there?"
"Our coach got traded in and Neriah had to go with him."
Hernandez nodded. "Continue your story."
"When he picked up he immediately started asking me about Neriah and he said she hasn't been answering his calls or nothing. He said he checked in with the front desk of the hotel and they told him she didn't check in yet but her stuff was dropped off to her room. And after he said that I heard something on the baby monitor. I went upstairs and turned the light on to see what it was and the window... The window was wide open and N-Noah was missing from his crib. I ran to the window to see a black truck pull off down the street." Jacq wiped his hands down his face to wipe away his tears.
"So wait? Neriah isn't answering and Noah is gone? This sounds strange." Hernandez said rubbing her index finger along her bottom lip. "Did you recognize the truck?"
"Yeah. I had seen it before. It wasn't like a rape van or some shit. It was nice. It reminded me of the truck Will picked me up in when we had meetings."
Hernandez stood up and grabbed her walkie-talkie from her hip and held down the red button on the side. "Can a few units make their way to William Cox's home and see if there's a black SUV in sight? Over." She held the walkie and held it to her ear to listen for a response.
"We're on it, Over."
She clipped it back on her hip and patted Jacques shoulder. "We're gonna get your son back. You just gotta be patient."
Jacq held Noah's blanket in his hands and prayed to God they'd find something.
---
Neriah laid her head against the paper thin mattress and watched the small TV hung in the corner as Will gave a public denial of everything she had said about him. It was playing in a loop on CNN and commentators talked about how shocked they were that Neriah hadn't showed up to the hearing.
She yanked at the hand cuffs that were connected to the nailed down bed but they didn't budge. She didn't know why she kept trying to get free when it was no use. Her body was sore and her wrist and ankles were aching from behind tied to that chair. Neriah was Lucky Mallory let her have a little freedom. But she had to be stripped down to her underwear just in case she had anything that could help her break free.
Neriah stopped fidgeting with the handcuff as she heard someone coming. She laid down and pretended to be watching the TV. Mallory came into the room and saw Will's face on the TV screen and smiled. "He's gonna get away with a slap on the wrist since you were know where to be found." She said sitting on the chair Riah was strapped to. "I have a suprise for you?"
She stood up and walked out the room and a few seconds later in came her with another guard that held a blanket in his arms. "I told you I didn't want to do anything bad unless you misbehaved. So I did a little shopping last night. Give it to her." The guard walked up to Neriah and held the blanket out.
Riah hesitantly took it from him and felt it was heavy. She moved the blanket around and something moved inside of it. Riah looked at Mallory and back at the blanket and pulled it back to see Noah sleeping inside. She hugged him to her body startled that he was in there.
She kept him closing considering she didn't know if they had done anything to him or not. Riah didn't put it past Will to put his hands on a baby, even if someone else did it.
"How'd you get him away from Jacq?" Neriah said quickly making sure he was alright or if he had any scratches or mark's on him.
"He should really learn how to lock his windows. Sneaking in wasn't as hard as it seems." Riah looked at Mallory in shock. "Don't worry. Your little boyfriend is fine. He's upset, obviously since his precious little baby boy is missing but he's fine. He'll remain fine unless you decided to try and get free again."
Noah coughed roughly in his sleep and Riah looked down at him in concern. She patted his back gently since she never heard him cough like that before.
"He was broken before we got him. I think the poor little guy is sick." Mallory headed to the door. "C'mon Brutus let's give them some alone time." They walked out and closed the door making the only thing left to light the room was the TV. There was a window but the tree roots had covered the glass making it hard to tell if it was day or night.
Neriah kissed Noah's forehead and snuggled him close to her thankful that no one hurt him. She could feel he had a fever running as she held him. Noah woke up and looked at Neriah and a tiny smile formed showing off his gums.
"I'm not gonna let nothing happen to you."
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