“You know that crap they say about pigs and wings, right?” Colt said. “Stop wallowing in what could have been and focus on what needs to happen next. After we rescue them, you and Talia can sit down and talk through this crap like adults instead of sidestepping the issue like angst-ridden teenagers.”
“Hey!” Lennox grumbled but then all the fight left his body, and he gave up with a long sigh. “It’s not that bad. Is it?”
“Yes!” both Colt and Darwin said at the same time.
“But don’t worry about it,” Colt added. “This is all going to work out.”
Lennox only hoped Colt was right.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“You were texting Lennox last night?” Talia asked in surprise from where she sat behind the desk in the small office where they were being held prisoner. She’d known Maria had his number saved in her phone but hadn’t expected her to text him. “I thought you were texting your father.”
Maria sat up on the small couch that occupied the far wall, looking bleary-eyed at Talia. They’d been in here since last night, though she had no clue whereherewas—or what was going to happen to them. Someone had come into the room a few hours ago to bring them candy bars and two bottles of water, but other than that, they hadn’t seen anyone.
Their ordeal last night had been both exhausting and terrifying. After they’d been kidnapped, there’d been the long ride in Keller’s SUV, where the man had forced them to sit on the vehicle’s floorboards the whole time, never letting them lift their heads even once. When they’d arrived at their destination, Keller’s men had put hoods over their heads and dragged them in here. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything on the walls to tell her what kind of business it was. There wasn’t even a filing cabinet or papers on the desk she could look through.
While Maria had fallen asleep on the couch, Talia had spent the whole night wide awake, frantic that Keller or one of his menwould step through the door at any second and kill them both. Well, Talia was probably in more danger than Maria. She didn’t think Keller would hurt Maria considering he needed her as a hostage to pressure Bogdan into doing what he wanted.
A small smile curved Maria’s lips. “Why would I text Daddy? It’s not like he can run in here to save us. You need a SEAL for that. And since Lennox was coming over for movie night, I thought I should let him know what was happening.”
Talia didn’t know what to say to any of that. Until Lennox had busted through the door and into the maintenance shed in time to keep her and Katrina from being murdered, she honestly hadn’t thought he’d show up. The relief that had flooded her was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. That wasn’t the only emotion she’d felt either. Seeing Lennox charge in to save her, as if the tension between them had never existed, made her realize how in love with him she was.
Of course, Lennox’s heroics had all been for naught. Yes, he’d stopped those men from killing her and Katrina, but then she’d gotten herself captured all over again, without even saving Maria.
“Lennox will find us, right?” Maria asked, suddenly looking far less confident and precocious than she was a few seconds earlier.
“Of course, he will.” Pushing back the chair, Talia walked around the desk and sat down on the couch beside Maria, putting an arm around her. “I promise we’re going to be okay. Lennox is going to get us out of here.”
Talia prayed she was right, even as a pessimistic voice in the back of her head whispered it wasn’t going to happen. How was Lennox supposed to find them when he didn’t know where they were?
Before Maria could say anything, the door to the office opened. Talia’s heart almost stopped, sure that this was herworst fear coming to life and Keller was coming in to kill them. But as she saw the dark-haired woman being dragged in between the two men, Talia realized something else was going on.
Something totally unexpected.
“Mr. Keller thought you might enjoy some company,” one of the men said, shoving the woman toward them.
Talia moved without thinking, leaping off the couch in time to catch the woman. Being more into cardio and yoga than weightlifting, Talia almost collapsed, barely managing to control the woman’s fall enough to keep her from slamming her face into the floor. By the time she had them both safely down on the floor, the two men had already left, slamming the door behind them.
“Anna?” Maria said tentatively as she climbed off the couch to kneel beside them. She looked at Talia. “What is she doing here?”
Until that moment, Talia had been too busy worrying about catching the woman to even look at her face, but she realized that Maria was right. Carefully turning the woman over, Talia caught the familiar features of her missing friend.
Her dark hair was messy and there was dirt smudged on her face and neck. Her shirt and pants were torn in several places too.
“Anna, are you okay?” Talia asked, gently shaking her friend’s shoulder. “It’s me, Talia. Maria is here with me. Can you hear me?”
For a few seconds, it seemed Anna wouldn’t respond. But then, with a flutter of drowsy eyelashes, she came to, looking up at them in confusion. “Talia, is that you? What are you doing here?”
Talia helped Anna sit upright to lean back against the couch. “Maria and I were kidnapped. The same as you.”
Anna lifted a hand to her head as if trying to remember. “I was in Mr. Fredrickson’s office, trying to find out what he’d been meeting those men about when someone hit me from behind. I woke up here.”
Talia pulled her friend in for a hug. Beside them, Maria kneeled there looking like she was about to cry. If for no other reason than to get Anna focused on the present, Talia told her how she and Maria had ended up here, starting with Anna’s own disappearance.
“John Fredrickson claimed you’d gone home to deal with a family emergency but some friends of mine helped me figure out that it wasn’t you getting on the plane,” Talia added. “We didn’t know what happened to you, only that you’d gone missing after you mentioned searching Fredrickson’s office. We knew it had something to do with Keller and the powerful people in this town he’s been leaning on—the Rybaks, the McDaniels, and the Fredricksons among others.”
Anna was staring at her wide-eyed. “How did you figure all of that out? I haven’t been missing that long, have I?”
