She blinked. “What was all that about?” She had a very bad feeling about Brent, especially seeing the cold, yet satisfied look on his face. She backed up a step and stopped when he invaded her space and put a hand at her throat. The sure suddenness shocked her. As did the notion she didn’t know this man at all.
“Uh-uh. Comeon, Addy. We’re friends, remember? Time to go to lunch so we can talk about our future.” He grabbed her by the arm and jerked her with him out the back, where a dark blue sedan waited. She’d never seen this vehicle before.
“Let me go, Brent, if that’s even your name.”
He laughed. “Aren’t you smart? Did Ice fill you in on a contractor’s life? When he was humping that pretty pussy,did he spill the beans?”
She cringed.
“Don’t worry. He can have you. You’re not my type. I don’t take leavings from the minor leagues, anyway. I’m a top tier kind of a guy. I only sleep with angels.” He found that hilarious and laughed as he shoved her toward the trunk of the car. He opened it and tossed her inside. She banged her head, hard, and tried to focus her vision when thetrunk slammed shut, locking her in.
Terrified, she cried, praying Noel would find her in time. Because Brent looked exactly like a killer, no softness or vulnerability in his gaze. No, he looked like a psychopath. Nothing like her assassin with a heart of gold.
She could only hope she wouldn’t be the weakness that got Noel killed, because Brent had every intention of stringing outhis torture. She could feel it.
Noel’s worst nightmare,that Addy would be dragged kickingand screaming into his world and be hurt because of him, had suddenly come true.
Brent Morgan. How the fuck had he missed Brent being in on everything? The man had checked out from the get-go. Noel had to concentrate, because the images of her being tormented haunted him. He called Hammer.
“Yo.”
“Brent Morgan, Addy’s friend. He’s our guy.” He described the call. “He has tobe Business. Either a handler or contractor. He knew all our codenames. And he’s got Addy.”
“Shit. Look, Deacon has the daycare handled. Solene’s good. I got the baby, and I’m ready for bear. Go get her. I’ll look into this Morgan guy.”
Noel parked on the side of the road, no longer in a hurry to reach Solene. He pulled up the tracker app he’d used on Addy. The small tag on her earrings,a precaution in case she lost her phone. Since hers appeared in the daycare and she’d called from Brent’s cell, he couldn’t count on her phone’s location.
But her earrings told another story. He followed them as they continued to move away from town, into what felt like the middle of nowhere. He drove faster, determined to save his woman. Or die trying.
As he drove and the minutesticked away, he continued to coordinate with Hammer. Brent Morgan was thirty-five. An accountant and financial advisor who’d moved to the island three years ago. He kept a low profile, did some traveling because he apparently had a house in the Cayman Islands, money inherited from his deceased parents, but otherwise flew under the radar. Nothing he didn’t already know.
What was the motive?He didn’t recognize the picture Hammer had sent him, nor did the man’s name come up through Big Joe’s connections. Angel. X6TFL. Brent Morgan. What the heck was the connection? Not Mexico… Or could it have been the Sinaloa job? But that made no sense. They’d rid the world of drug runners and sex slavers. None of the Business had been in on it except Deacon and Hammer, with Noel offering peripheralbackup at best.
Unless Deacon and Hammer weren’t on the up and up?
No. They had solid alibis, for one. And two, he knew those men. They might be a pain in the ass, but they weren’t traitors or villains.
“He’s deep in the woods,” Hammer said through the car speaker. “Near a house registered under another name,” Hammer said. “Oh, and Deacon’s on his way.”
“Solene’s goodthen?”
“She’s pissed as hell. Just fine. The cops arrived. No idea how we’re going to spin this.”
“We’ll worry about it later. I have to save Addy.”
“Yeah, you do.” With Hammer’s help, they triangulated Addy’s position.
Noel pulled into the area a half mile down the road. He took out a pack, filled with the supplies he’d need and that he kept in a hidden compartmentin his car at all times. Then he set off with his phone on, his headset in his ear, ready to explode into action and deal with Brent once and for all.
Addy satin the chair and didn’t move. With a gun trained on her, and with no urge to have half her face blown off, she ignored her bladder and remained motionless. The run-down but cozily furnished cabin in the isolated woods would have been an ideal retreat under other circumstances.
Across from her, sitting in a plush chair with his legs crossed, Brentbraced his elbow on the arm of the chair and kept his small pistol aimed at her.
“So, um, are you going to tell me why?”
He shrugged. “Why what?”
“Why did you do this? Why be my friend for years if you didn’t even like me?”
