“Listen, the men don’t know I’m with you, not yet. If they catch us, we’re both done for. Our only chance of making it out of this is for us to split up.”
Lindsay’s eyes widened. Her bottom lip trembled. “No. We can’t do that.”
“It’s okay. I’m going to get my phone from my room on the third floor. You’re still too weak to make it far.”
“I can’t stay here. Not near them.”
Tears rolled down Lindsay’s cheeks.
Novah squeezed her shoulders. “I promise I’ll come back and get you. I need you to be brave. At the bottom of the stairs there’s a door to the gym. You need to hide there and don’t make a sound.”
“Okay.”
Once they made it to the gym, Novah reminded Lindsay, “Remember, stay in there, hidden. I’ll be back.”
She ducked into the dark room and Novah scurried back upstairs to the third floor, taking a deep breath before walking into the hall, subtly looking at the cameras situated on each end of the corridor.
She’d almost made it to her room when one of the security team, John, rounded the corner. When he saw her, he slowed his pace.
“Hi, John.”
“Ms. Coffman, were you working this late?”
She pretended a yawn. “Yes I was. This campaign is a total mess. I was working and had fallen asleep at the pool.”
He hesitated then his smile returned. “Have a goodnight, ma’am.” He continued his way.
She made it to her room, closed the door and finally breathed. She hurried over and grabbed her phone, calling Egan.
One ring.
Two rings.
Three rings, and she hung up. He must have turned off his ringer.
Tapping into the keyboard, she wrote…
“911. Please come to my room.” She dropped the phone into her purse and quickly undressed. She grabbed the first items she came to from her overnight case and raced to pull on the T-shirt and jeans, then socks and tennis shoes.
She checked her phone and still no Egan.
A sour taste came up her throat.
She’d have to do this on her own…
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
EXHAUSTED, EGAN HAD fallen asleep only to wake up minutes later to the vibration of his phone sitting on the pillow next to his head. Reaching for it, he read the message and jumped up, finishing up reading as he was already dragging on his clothes and boots. Grabbing his loaded gun from the drawer of the nightstand and his radio, he left his room.
Novah was in trouble.
His radio buzzed. “Egan?” It was Pao.
“Here.”
“Something’s happening. It’s hush hush. I don’t see any security.”
“Stand by.” Egan started jogging toward the main house, unsure of what was going down, but it wasn’t good.
By the time he knocked on Novah’s door, his heart was pounding hard against his ribs and his shirt was soaked with sweat.
“What the hell, Novah. What’s going on?” he said once she opened the door.
Without a word, she reached out, clutched the material of his shirt in her hand and dragged him across the threshold. Then she shut the door.
A frown dipped the corners of her mouth and fear crawled into her eyes. “What’s wrong? I got word something’s happening on the property.”
“We don’t have much time. They’re onto us.” Her lips twisted. “Something terrible has happened. It’s hard to explain.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Egan stared, giving her some space because apparently whatever happened had stunned her into silence which didn’t happen often. If Langley touched her again Egan would bring down the Wrath of God on the bastard.
“On my way back to the house I saw two men.” There was a noticeable quiver in her voice. “One was carrying a woman, she was drugged, and they left her in a room on the second floor. Her name is Lindsay.” She wrung her hands together anxiously. “I don’t have time to explain everything. She’s in danger and I had to leave her because I needed to get you,” she said on one exhale of breath.
He remained silent, absorbing her words as his chest tightened.
“If they catch her, I think they’ll do something bad to her. I think they’ll kill her. I don’t know the entire story myself, but she’s scared.”
Blinking, Egan tried wrapping his head around what the hell was going on. “Where is she? Is she here?” He glanced around the room.
“No. She’s hiding in the gym. I went into the room and helped her but before we could get out the men came back, and we hit them over the head. Then I was choked. Time is wasting here.”
“You were choked?” He covered the space in three strides. He looked at her neck and wondered how he’d missed the red splotches blooming against the slender column of her neck. “Who the fuck did this?”
“I don’t know. They’re still in the room, or maybe they’re not. They could be anywhere by now. I’d say they alerted the security team.”
He drove a hand over his hair. “Trust me, they know by now.” That’s why they were gathering to come up with a plan for lockdown.
“I couldn’t bring her with me because of the cameras. It would have been too suspicious. It was the only place I could think to hide her. If we don’t hurry, they’ll find her eventually.” He could see the unshed tears in her eyes.
The seriousness in her expression told him he needed to help her then ask questions later. “Did anyone see you?”
“No. Wait, yes, John did but he didn’t suspect a thing.”
“Okay.” Egan pulled back the curtain on the window and peeked out. John might not have suspected anything at the time, but he certainly would now. The security team could have been told anything, maybe only to find Novah and the woman, and
