“Kenny?” Stephen smiled, and a chill ran down Bailey’s spine. “You want to bargain with Kenny?”
“Yes.”
“When was the last time you spoke to your brother?”
“Why?”
“You really don’t know.”
“Don’t know what?”
“That Kenny didn’t do as I asked, which was a bad decision on his part.”
Oh, God. “Where is he?” she whispered.
“Soon to be dead, actually.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t bring me you, for one. But it turned out he had a better-paying gig all along-the feds.”
Kenny worked for the good guys? Relief, and an almost giddy sense of love, welled up and choked her so that she had to press her hand to her mouth to keep a sob in. Kenny had been trying to warn her at the airport. No wonder he’d looked so terrified when she’d run from him. He’d known what was going to happen if they caught her.
“Now,” Stephen said. “Your turn. Where’s the money?”
Her thoughts raced. If she told them the truth, that she had no idea where the money was, then she was dead.
She had to stall. “Little problem with the whole money thing.”
“Wrong answer,” he said, and then there was a prickly pain in her arm, and her world faded to black.
“We’ll get her back,” Shayne promised Noah, who didn’t say anything as he slipped his headphones on and waited for air traffic control to give Shayne the okay for take-off.
He didn’t say anything because he couldn’t speak past the lump of fear the size of a regulation football jammed in his throat.
He’d lost her.
Shayne had moved in with a welcome swiftness, but not swift enough.
The black SUV had vanished into thin air.
But he knew where they’d gone. Straight to the airport to haul Bailey back to Burbank, to the house that had been beneath their noses all this time.
Precious.
Jesus, he couldn’t believe it.
Now they were in a race to save Bailey’s life. They’d run up against resistance at the Cabo airport, unable to stall two private jets from getting airborne.
If Bailey was on one of them, which his gut said she was, then every moment that ticked by counted. They sat on the strip waiting for their go, Noah grating his teeth, his gut tight with fear. Because once they got Bailey to the Burbank house, once she located the money-or not-her life was as good as over, and he could scarcely breathe at the thought of not getting there in time to help her.
Finally they were approved for take-off, and when they got to altitude, Shayne glanced over. “I wish you’d say something.”
“Fly faster.”
Shayne smiled grimly and did just that while Noah contacted Maddie. “What have you got for me?”
“You were right, two jets got through ahead of you,” she said. “They’ve both been air bound for approximately thirty minutes. Nothing else, and nothing after you, so one of those two is her.”
“Where are they heading?”
“Working on that.”
“If it’s Burbank-”
“If it’s Burbank, we can bring the local authorities into it.”
“Do it.”
“Okay, I’ll report back with where and when they land.”
That had to be good enough, but it sure didn’t feel like it. For the second time in a year, he’d failed someone who’d trusted him.
He didn’t know if he could live with that. Or how to.
But he knew how to live with the knowledge that she loved him. She’d looked him in the eyes, her own shimmering brilliantly with emotion, as she said it, too.
I love you.
He hadn’t heard a single one of those three words out loud because of the music-which was going to headline his nightmares for years to come-but he’d caught every single one in his heart. He rubbed the organ right now because it ached like hell, and had been since she’d been ripped out of his arms.
Bailey loving him was his very own miracle. Now he had to make another miracle happen; he had to get her back.
“She’s going to be okay,” Shayne promised. “They won’t do anything to her until they figure out she can’t deliver, and by then we’ll be there.”
Maybe they wouldn’t kill her, but they sure as hell could hurt her, and everything within him tightened as he wondered where she was right this moment, if she was holding up.
If they touched one single hair on her head, he’d tear them apart.
Slowly. “Thing is, I think she can deliver.”
Shayne looked at him in surprise. “What?”
“She figured out where the money is.”
“No shit?”
“She knows where it is, and if they get there with enough lead time-”
“What about the brother? Kenny, right? You said you thought he was in on it. Was he there today? Did you see him?”
“At the Burbank airport. He was trying to get to her.” Noah chewed on that for a while, then radioed Maddie. “Can you locate Kenny?”
“Hang on.”
Noah pressed his lips together and waited until she came back.
“Got him,” she said. “Apparently he tracked you down, but you haven’t been answering your cell.”
“I’ve been out of range.”
“Yeah, well, he’s unhappy that you managed to lose Bailey’s protective tail for her. I guess some of those guys you’ve been ditching were the good guys. He’s frantic to talk to you.”
Noah’s gut couldn’t possibly clench any tighter. “Does he have Bailey?”
“No, and he wasn’t happy to realize you don’t either. He says, and I quote, ‘if anything happens to her, I’m coming after you and kicking your ass.’ He’s fed, Noah. He’s working to nail Alan’s investment partners. They’re trying to get them for fraud, extortion, and a whole long list of other stuff.”
“Why didn’t he say so sooner?”
“He was under cover and trying to protect Bailey at the same time, without tipping off the bad guys.”
“Well, he did a hell of a job of that, didn’t he?” Noah looked at Shayne. “I think I underestimated the brother.”
“I hate it when that happens.”
Noah’s head hurt. “Can you work your magic and patch him through to me?” he asked Maddie.
“Stand by.”
What else could he do. “Shit.”
“You know, we probably don’t pay her enough,” Shayne said.
“Brody says we pay her a fortune already.”
“Brody can kiss my ass,” Maddie said. “But you’re damn-A straight I’m worth every penny. Oh, and I’ve got him. Kenny? Go ahead.”
“Noah?” Kenny sounded extremely uptight and extremely unhappy. “Where is she?”
Noah’s gut tightened at the unmistakable sound of fear and worry in Kenny’s voice. “That was my question for you.”
