put her over the edge. She forced herself to breathe.
Baker came back on the line. “I got your boy. Seth Harper, the one who’s a fan of
If she’d had doubts before, Baker knowing about Seth’s T-shirt made her a believer. Baker had Harper. And she had to keep the man talking to divert his attention from the kid.
“Out of curiosity, how did you make the connection between me and him?”
“You delivered him on a silver platter, sweet thing. It all started when I watched you and your cop friend walk through your busted door.” He laughed. “I gotta tell ya, it was worth the wait to see the look on your face. But contrary to what you might think, I ain’t stupid. You both had weapons drawn, and your friend’s a cop. I seen her at the station. And believe me, I know how to fly below radar with the cops. Shootin’ one of ’em is no way to earn brownie points.”
Baker embellished his story, enjoying himself.
“Hell, I knew you didn’t have my property with you. And you sure as hell didn’t have it stashed at your dump or I would’ve found it. So I figured all I had to do was wait. You’d lead me to it eventually.”
In the background she heard Seth cry out again. What the hell was Baker doing to him?
“Leave him alone, Lucas. You’ve got my attention, so talk already.” She pressed. “Tell me. How did you cross paths with Seth?”
“Well, pretty boy here, he was a gift. I must be living right, but you, not so much. I followed you downtown, having no clue where you was going. But when you came out of that fancy pile of bricks with this guy in tow, I recognized him right off. He’d collided into my SUV with his shit blue van that night you was chasin’ me. I ain’t good at math, darlin’, but even I could put two and two together. You wanna talk to the kid?”
An interminable moment of silence. Dead still. Jess swallowed hard, then heard Baker bellowing in the background, angry words muffled and distant.
“You better speak up, asshole, ’cause I can make you pay in ways you can’t even imagine. You’ll be beggin’ me to kill ya.”
She clung too tight to her phone, straining to hear every word. In her mind she pictured what Baker might’ve done to Seth, the image pure torture.
“J-Jessie? I’m s-sorry.” Seth. It was definitely Seth on the line.
She let out the breath she’d been holding.
“What has he done to you? Are you okay?” Both were stupid questions, but she was running on impulse and not thinking straight. That would have to stop. She needed to focus.
“Just give him what he wants. It’ll be o-okay.”
Seth could talk, but he sounded seriously messed up. Yet despite his condition, he had the wits to send her a clear message: Give the bastard what he wanted because he’d rigged the laptop. They’d be able to track Baker’s moves online. Sooner or later the jerk would make a mistake.
All she had to do was make the exchange and get Harper back. Then her boy genius could exact his own brand of retaliation—revenge best served cold.
Baker got back on the line. “Your toady is still breathin’. That’s gotta be worth somethin’. I expect you to show a little appreciation for my…generosity.”
“If you lay another hand on him, I swear—” she began, but the scumbag didn’t let her finish.
“You act like you’re in charge. Well, don’t you have balls.” The man laughed again, an abrasive sound. Baker using Seth as leverage took their feud to a whole new level and the bastard reveled in it.
“No, but I’ll have yours if you lay another finger on that kid. I could use the target practice. And you already know I can make your life a livin’ hell.”
The line went dead silent. By the time Baker regrouped, his amusement had vanished.
“Our swap ain’t open for discussion. I want what’s mine and I’m gonna get it. And you’ll get the kid back, but in how many pieces will be up to you.” His voice lowered to an icy whisper. “The way I see it, you got no say how this’ll go down, bitch. Now…listen up.”
Jess shut her eyes tight and listened to the man’s demands. With the timing, Baker wasn’t cutting her much slack. One more night without much sleep and she was heading for another rendezvous with a not so distant cousin to
Given the situation with Seth, she wanted Sam as backup, to be on the safe side, but had no idea how to cover up her involvement with Baker and his laptop. She’d crossed the line and breached protocol with the evidence she knew would be on the man’s computer. Back into her apartment, she stared at Baker’s property, sitting by her front door, where she’d put it after coming in.
She’d painted herself into a pretty tight corner, and now also had to think about Sam. If she told her friend what was going on, Sam would be in the middle of her mess, forced to decide whether to turn her in. And if Sam brought the CPD into it, they might decide their informant’s contributions far outweighed her flimsy speculations. Jess knew she had no proof. At best she’d be back to square one. At worst she might do jail time if the Chicago police wanted to teach her a lesson. Neither had much appeal, and she’d come too far to let it happen.
She figured it was a chicken or an egg scenario. Either way, poultry always got screwed. And with most things in life, she’d learned it was far better to ask forgiveness than permission. An idea started to take shape.
Jess looked at her watch. She’d have to come up with a plan on the fly. Part of that plan included Sam getting off shift a little early, if Jess could find a way to avoid telling her everything. She had to think. Lucas Baker held all the cards, especially with the location he’d picked, and Madame Luck had dealt her and Seth a lousy hand.
But it was time for her to summon her
An alarm should have gone off in Nikki’s head long before Mr. Noskova pulled up to the closed fence of an old warehouse. The place looked run-down. Weeds lined the perimeter of the fence and had cropped up through cracks in the asphalt. A deserted guard shack with shattered windows and chipped paint stood by the front gate and an old faded sign at the main entrance indicated the warehouse used to be a textile manufacturer: GOODVILLE TEXTILES.
She had been talking to Ivana, lost track of time, and didn’t pay attention to where they were going, especially after nighttime closed in and they turned off the interstate. Lights glittered on the distant horizon, a small town. But here, everything was black. Even the moon had conspired against her. Only the headlights of their vehicle lighted the way, drawing insects from the gloom.
“What is this place?” she asked.
Nikki leaned forward in her seat, her eyes peering through the darkness. Ivana turned away and stared out her window at nothing, ignoring her question. She raised her voice to get Mr. Noskova’s attention in the front seat.
“Excuse me, Mr. Noskova, but where are we? I thought we were going…home. Your home.”
“We’ve got a stop to make.” He offered nothing more.
He lowered his driver’s side window and swiped a card key through a reader. The cyclone fence jumped to life and slowly rattled aside. An uneasy feeling swelled inside her, threatening to cut off her air. Realization hit as a cruel blow, flooding her mind with every detail that had led her to this place.
Ivana had lied…about everything.
“Is Ivana even your real name?” Nikki whispered to the girl by her side, suddenly afraid of the man in the front seat. But the girl didn’t turn her head, much less give her an answer.
She was alone with two strangers and had no idea where she was. She stared through the front windshield. The man behind the wheel drove through the gate and across a massive parking lot. The shadows of the old warehouse were more imposing under the faint glow cast from a sliver of moon, giving the illusion that the inky black heaved and swelled with a life of its own. Her mind played tricks on her, conjuring images from all the horror slasher movies she’d ever seen.
Only now it was happening to her.
Slowly, Nikki groped in the dark for the door handle. She stared straight ahead, not wanting to give away her attempt at escape. When she found the handle, she pulled it hard, prepared to shove the car door aside and roll out. But the handle wouldn’t budge. She tried the lock next, but it wouldn’t open.
They had locked her inside. She had nowhere to go.
