TIFFIN 3

41

"Kristina... are you okay...?" 

I looked up into Ezekiels curious eyes. We hadn't spent much time together, but with bile rising in my throat, I didn't pay any mind to how close we were. 

Like the gentleman he was, he held my burgundy hair out of the line of fire as I huddled near a flower bush. It seemed I had lost about twenty pounds by the time I quit puking. 

I eventually fell on my behind, feeling like I'd run a marathon.

He kneeled over me, offering a meaty hand. 

I nearly broke into tears. 

"I'm sorry. Everything was fine! I don't know what's happening!" 

E stared in consternation as I massaged my temples. 

"It could be the nerves. This is a lot to deal with. Are you sure you want to see the blueprint?"

I sniffled. 

Could I? Was I actually in hysterics because I couldn't deal with the pressure?

Crap. If I had been kidnapped Kylie would suffer through the pain, wouldn't she?

"I don't know," I sobbed uncontrollably, "I've been feeling so sick lately. With my husband leaving so abruptly and all the rumors about me in the news... I'm just so tired of it all." 

"Maybe we should get you checked out." Ezekiel offered. "Never know what could be wrong. My brother had severe anxiety and didn't even know." 

I shook my head adamantly. 

"No. It doesn't matter. Finding Kylie is what should be top priority right now." 

He simply nodded. 

"If you change your mind, we'll stop by the market and get you some medicine. Anyway," 

With a flourish, he unfurled a large blue sheet in the dark of night. I worried someone would see, but the lot to the building was deserted and empty.

I didn't understand anything that I was looking at. There were several lines and graphs surrounding various pictures. It was a lot to take in under the weak light coming from the street lamp. 

"I'm not sure what I'm looking at." I whispered. 

"This is filled with possible hideouts." E began. "How do I know for sure he's in a hideout? Well, I was able to go through his phone records and found that he was not only a child molester but liked to play it safe working in warehouses growing up."

I nodded, urging him to go on. 

"He was born in Alabama and had a thing for construction. But digging deeper I found he had a connection to Sacramento because of his mother abandoning him at a young age. When he found himself slipping, he would visit blacksmith shops." 

He pointed to a few arrows on the page. 

"There are a few warehouses in Sac catering to that sort of thing, which may narrow down our choices. They'll be heavily guarded and it will cost us at least a month to garner the type of teams needed to infiltrate." 

I gulped. 

"Swat?" 

Ezekiel set his mouth in a firm line. 

"Precisely. All of these routes," he fingered his way up the blue sheet, "are shortcuts we can take through the buildings. I want us to scope them out beforehand. So... Kristina. What do you think?" 

I clutched my gurgling stomach. 

"I think it's a start."