“Bad feeling how? Yemen bad, or Syria bad?”
“Syria,” Law said succinctly. His ‘feeling’ had ended up saving their team from going into a booby-trapped building in Syria.
Clancy looked him dead in the eye. “That’s good enough for me.” He pulled out his radio.
“Lieutenant Hunt, this is Ayers. Thorne has a family emergency, I’m taking over for him. He needs to leave ASAP.”
Law looked at his friend aghast. That went outside all procedure. Of course, their lieutenant would support him, but you never, never ever, asked for something like this unless someone’s life was on the line. You sure as hell didn’t do this on some goddamn gut instinct.
Clancy looked up at him and waved his hand.
“The lieutenant said to get the hell out of here and to call if you need us.”
Chapter 14
I’m not going to die. Lesley’s not going to die. Angela’s not going to die.
But this assbutt? He’s going to die!
Her fingers were sweaty as she held her mobile phone in a death grip. Jill’s gaze swung wildly around the living room until it rested on the security panel.
Bingo!
“If you hang up, she dies. I want to hear every goddamn move that you make. As a matter of fact, put on the video call.”
“I don’t know how,” she lied.
Jill strode over to the alarm system and bit her lip. She tasted blood.
Do not cry. No crying allowed!
Law explained how this worked, but one of the darned buttons was silent and one was a blast. Why weren’t they labeled? Wait, they were. She wiped at the wetness in her eyes that weren’t tears and pressed the one that said silent alarm.
“Turn on the fucking video on your phone, bitch. I want to see you! I know soldier boy isn’t there, his truck’s been gone for days. It’s just you. I want you to come out the garage door and get in the back of the van with Lesley. If you want to keep her alive, you’ll come out, get in, and start talking.”
“Don’t do—”
Lesley’s words were cut off by a high pitch shriek of pain.
“What did you do to her? If you kill her, you assbutt, then you won’t have a bargaining chip.”
“There’s nothing stopping me from cutting off her ear, now is there? Or a finger? Or a toe? Take off your shoes, you dumb bitch.” Jill heard Lesley moan in terror. There was the sound of flesh hitting flesh and Lesley screamed again.
“Where’s the video? If I don’t have video now, I’ll assume you’re calling the police and I’ll just cut off her nose.”
Jill fumbled with the phone and hung up by accident. She saw a tear splash the screen of her phone and she wiped it away as she attempted to find her recent contacts. The phone rang. She pressed yes to accept the video call.
“There’s my pretty.” He didn’t look anything like he had before. His hair was long and oily, and he’d grown a scraggly, patchy beard. He was revolting, inside and out.
“Get your ass to the garage. You’re coming with me so that I can get some answers.”
“Why should I? You’ll just kill us both.”
She had to stall.
How long has it been since I pressed the silent alarm?
When will the police get here?
Why aren’t Kane and Asher talking through the wall?
Are they listening in?
She turned the volume up on her phone to its highest level.
“I might kill you both if you come with me, but I will start carving pieces off this bitch in thirty seconds if the garage door doesn’t open. I do hope you understand. I have all the leverage. Do you understand leverage?”
Lesley screamed again.
Jill bit back a sob and started toward the door to the garage, then stopped.
The tracker. In case the jerk-fucker-wad made her get rid of her phone. She raced to her computer bag on the coffee table and unzipped the compartment. It took precious seconds to feel around before she found the thing at the bottom of the pocket.
“Got you!”
When she pulled it out, she shoved it into her bra. Then Jill ran back to the garage door in the kitchen.
She opened the door, reached into the dark garage, and slammed her hand on the button that would open the door. In moments, a white panel van came into view. She backed up a step into the house, shut the door, and yelled.
“A white panel van. No windows!” She prayed that Law’s sneaky SEAL friends were monitoring the alarm.
She opened the door to the garage and saw Tim Goshen opening the back of the van.
“Get in,” he said, he had a gun trained on something inside the van. She saw a knife handle sheathed at his waist.
“Be a good girl, Jill, and get in. Otherwise, I’ll shoot Lesley in the head.”
She could smell his body odor as she stepped past him and started to climb in.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” He wrenched the phone out of her hand and threw it towards the porch. “We’re not going to allow anybody to track you on your phone’s GPS.”
When Law got to his property, he saw two cop cars out front. He backed into the Hendersons’ side carport since they were out of town, and watched his house. He didn’t want to get involved with the cops,
