Jay howls in pain and rolls off the bed. I’m waiting for him to tie my legs down, but he looks down at me with a fire burning in his eyes.
“You think we’re done?” he says, but it comes out nasally from his fucked-up nose. “You brought the hellcat back.”
I gave him what he wanted and turned him on in the process. Fuck.
When I hear the door shut, I let my body relax on the bed, my chest heaving from exertion and Jay’s hold on my throat. I let the adrenaline wash over me, but when it wears off, I realize what a mistake that was. He’ll come back prepared next time, and there’s still no way for us to get out.
“Beautiful.I need you to listen to me,” Zane says. “They tied you with rope this time. Pull as hard as you can.” I don’t want to get my hopes up, so I lay there for a minute. They tied me with rope, not chains. Why? “Pull now, Les.” I tug my arm, and I have more wiggle room. I take a deep breath, yanking as hard as I can. “That’s it, Beautiful.” I can hear the excitement in his voice, which urges me to keep trying. I yank, tug, and twist until my wrist is bleeding from therough rope. I almost give up when I feel the rope give way and can freely move one arm.
“Untie the next one! Hurry,” Zane urges. “Come on. Don’t give up now!”
I reach over between the wall and the bed feeling for the tie on my other one when the door bangs open again. I drop back down on the bed, letting the rope fall back where it was, hoping they won’t notice it isn’t tied. I need them to leave to get my other hand untied and try to free Zane.
The guy strides straight over to Zane without sparring me a glance and starts fiddling with the cuffs on Zane’s wrists.
Zane meets my eyes, that same fire burning in them that I can feel in me. They only sent one guard, underestimating both of us. Again.
As soon as Zane’s arms come free, he’s moving.
He bounces to his feet, and roundhouse kicks as hard as he can, knocking the guy into the wall.
It’s time to get the fuck out of here.
Chapter 4
Ryder
“Ryder!” I hear Holden yell from his office, and we all take off running toward the sound, busting into the room, searching for the threat. We fell asleep on the couch until Micah woke us up for lunch. As soon as he ate, he came back in here.
He’s at his desk, rapidly typing. “What is it,Bello?” I ask, still looking around.
“I’ve been getting dings from someone trying to hack us, but I ignored it because it happens all the time,” he explains. “I got a hit, and it wasdifferent,so I dropped some protection to let them in.”
“You did what?” Micah growls. “You gave someone access to our network?”
Holdens’ eyes flash up, and I want to pat him on the back for the glare he throws at Micah. “No. I didn’t. I let them think they did.” He goes back to typing.
“Explain, Holden,” I say softly. None of us understand this shit but him.
“I let them in so I could follow them back to where they are,” he explains slowly. “I’m backtracking them for their location.”
“Holy shit,” I breathe, realizing what he’s saying. I crowd behind him to look at the computer, and all I see is a bunch of numbers andletters that make no sense to me but perfect sense to him. “Do you have anything?”
“Not yet,” he says, typing faster than the speed of light, “but I’m close.”
We all wait with our breaths held when he clicks one last button, and a map fills the screen. It loads then shrinks before it loads again, zeroing in on where hopefully, Les is.
I look at Micah and Dex, seeing the same hope on their faces. I hope this isn’t another false lead like all the others, but this one feelsright.
It keeps getting smaller and smaller until coordinates pop up. Holden pulls up another screen, typing them in to get an exact address. The result fills the screen, and I frown.
“Old Stone Road? Your hacker is in Abandoned Hills?” Dex asks in disbelief, feeling the excitement drop to dread at the same time as me.
Holden returns to the map screen and starts typing again. “Let me see if they’re pinging their signal.”
I have no idea what that means, so I squeeze his shoulder in support and let him do his thing.
“That’s the place!” Holden says, jamming his hand at the screen.
