Page 74 of Booked for Kidnapping

“Essentially.”

“Okay. That’s one million accounted for, then.”

“Then there’s the team of likely five other surgeons just as talented and skilled as she is. So, six million right there, just from the high-level talents at the table. Their assistants would need to be paid, along with the team of nurses and lower-level doctors—for nine months.”

Ouch. “Okay, I am starting to see why this would be so expensive. But it’s not their direct costs, right?”

“Right. We’re just estimating how much they would have lost caring for you rather than taking on their full assortment of regular patients.”

“I resent they did not also kidnap Bradley.”

“They tried,” Beatrice admitted.

I froze. “Could you repeat that?”

“They tried,” Beatrice announced in a cheerful tone. “Ren is handy as a bodyguard, and after the first few failed attempts, Mr. Hampton added some extra security. There was one close call, where Ren and Bradley both got to take an unexpected nap, but his father’s team kept them both safe and sound. Now that we know what we know, we think they were trying to attend to your mental and emotional health. Had we known that, honestly, we might’ve just let them take him.”

I needed a lot longer than a few minutes to process that. “How many attempts?”

“Six total, with the last one two months ago. That’s why Bradley’s parents or Ren are always with him; it wasn’t because of Bradley’s mental health, but because he has been a trouble magnet. Knowing what we know now, we’re kicking ourselves for not cooperating.”

“Because you think they wanted him to keep me stable?”

“They couldn’t allow you to process their presence in your memories. If they took Bradley, they could give you the company you needed. Depression is a severe problem in patients recovering from long-term illness. You would have been a poster child for depression.”

“I don’t remember being depressed. I remember being lonely, but not depressed.”

“Erased,” Beatrice stated. “Mr. Hampton tried to read you, remember?”

“Yes. He said he could only get a fix on the operation, and he mentioned I’d been lonely. I could have told him that.”

“The trauma was too severe to erase the imprints it left behind, although the illusionist—or illusionists—had certainly tried. The results are great, but what they did to get those results classifies as torture. We got the lecture. And we don’t know what sort of response you’ll ultimately have to that trauma.”

Great. “They took me to a jewelry store yesterday, Beatrice. I had to ask the lady to show me something more expensive than what they were buying to get through that.”

“The necklace is a beauty, though. Mrs. Hampton showed us pictures of it last night. For the record, I’m about an hour from leaving for the airport, Ren is coming with me, and Meridian is also on route, but she caught an earlier flight. We have a list of things we need to check out properly.”

“Like the house?”

“Oh, yes. Like the house, which should be empty of housekeeping and the homeowner starting this afternoon.”

“Dr. Castor is there?”

“Yep. With a little help from our friends in the FBI, we were able to verify Dr. Castor has been in residence in California for ten and a half months, approximately.”

Interesting. “And the other supposed participants?”

“They were in or visiting California over the past nine months, too. How strange.” Beatrice chuckled. “Now, you should go grill your fiancé over the kidnapping attempts. That should keep you busy until we get there.”

Yes, it would. “I owe you for that intel.”

“That one’s on the house.”

“Do we have a plan for today when you get here?”

“Yes, we do.”

I appreciated that someone knew what we needed to do. “Okay. What’s the plan?”