When he was sure he wasn’t followed, he used his teeth to make sure the lock of the zip ties was in the center, then pulled the extra plastic hanging out as tight as it would go. He brought his elbows down and back as hard and fast as he could andsnap.
Thank you, adrenaline.
Jay made his way through the warehouse when the shouting started.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Walton bellowed. “Do I have to fucking do everything around here? How did you lose him? I swear to Christ, Fleming, if you’ve fucked us, you’re a dead man.Find him!”
Shit. Jay had to hide and fast. He looked around him, then up. There was a lot of shelving stacked high. He grabbed the steel bar of the shelving unit to his right and used the cement bags piled on the bottom shelf to climb up to the second shelf. Then, onto the third, where he was able to slide in on his stomach onto the bags beneath the final shelf, which provided enough shadow for him to hide. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t be able to see him. Now what?
You can do this.
Jay had not spent the last six years losing romance novels to a man he had no idea he’d been falling in love with to die now. Walton had no intention of letting Jay and the others walk out of here alive, or he would have taken Jay’s watch or jammed the signal. The guy was too careful for anything else. Tapping his watch, he brought up his messaging app and sent a text to Ryden.
Trap. C4. Got free. Hiding.
Jay waited. When Ryden’s response came through, Jay was so happy he could cry.
Stay put. Upstairs. Luv u.
Upstairs? Jay instinctively turned his head to the stairs that led to the second floor. That’s where Rivera was.
Jay quickly texted.
Armed hostile upstairs. Luv u 2.
No response.
Ryden had to know the moment he opened that door, Rivera would be there. No way the guys didn’t know where everyonewas inside. Jay was sure they had something planned. Still, Jay couldn’t stay here.
“Find him,” Walton shouted from close by.
Jay pulled himself forward and army-crawled along the cement bags, stilling and lowering his head when someone approached the end of the aisle. Jones came around the corner, rifle in hand. He paused before he started walking Jay’s way, ducking his head to check the shelves on both sides of him. The others were somewhere else, so Jay readied himself.
As soon as Jones approached, Jay gritted his teeth, grabbed the corner of a cement bag, and dragged it. He turned it slightly and readied himself. Just because he didn’t hear the others didn’t mean they weren’t nearby, so he’d have to move fast.
Jones stepped in front of Jay’s shelving unit, and with all his strength, Jay shoved the bag. Roughly a hundred pounds of packed cement landed on Jones, knocking him to the floor. Jay cringed. The guy hit his head and was out.
Not wasting another second, Jay slid out and carefully but swiftly climbed down, jumping down when he was close enough to the floor. He crouched and scanned the area. No sign of anyone. Silently, he darted over to the rifle. When he reached for it, a shot rang out, making him jump, and the rifle went skidding across the floor. Jay’s heart was in his throat, and he slowly straightened, turning to find Walton there, barrel aimed at Jay.Damn it.
“Don’t think I won’t put a bullet in you,” Walton growled.
Slowly, Jay put his hands up. “Then why haven’t you?”
Walton’s grin was evil.
Wait…
Jay felt sick to his stomach. He swallowed hard. “You’re not going to kill me, are you?” With every step Walton took toward him, Jay took one back. “You have plans for me.”
“Oh, I’m going to kill you,” Walton assured him. “But not until I get what I need. The only good thing that came out of that idiot Martin trying to kidnap you was putting you on our radar. Martin planned to use you to get to Foster, not realizingyouwere the one with all the power. You have access to the entire Four Kings Security network.”
Jay shook his head. “I don’t have that kind of access. I’m a secretary.”
Walton snorted. “Come on. Do you think we didn’t do our homework on you? On your boyfriend and his friends? The moment we discovered the kind of security clearance you had, we started putting together a plan, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I knew your boyfriend wasn’t going to let you out of his sight, just like I knew your friends weren’t going to let us go. So here we are. Two birds, one stone. With access to Four Kings Security, it’ll be a whole new game, with me calling the shots. Hell, with the Kings gone, leaving poor little de Loughrey all alone, I can have his general daddy in my pocket.”
“Not going to happen,” Jay spat out, enraged at the thought of this asshole hurting Leo.
“We’ll see about that. And just because I’m not going to kill you yet, doesn’t mean I won’t put a bullet in your leg. You don’t need your legs to access a computer.”
