“I think it’s the altitude finally getting me,” she told the stage manager, grimacing and pressing her fingers against her temples. “Headache and nausea.” He let her go with well wishes and Alex and Shane hurried the women to an SUV and sped away. They paused at the empty gatehouse while a camera read the window sticker and the gate rose. The place was deserted; most of the staff were down enjoying the festival and the bodyguards were either working there or out on other assignments. Normally peaceful, the place felt eerie in the quiet and the dark. Alex checked on the kennels on his phone via the cameras and was relieved to see them sleeping.
“We’re fine, honestly,” Arden told Alex and Shane. “But I don’t think any of us are going to get any sleep while Brianna’s in danger.”
“I know I won’t,” Rachael added. She wrapped her arms around her body, her eyes far away as if sorting through dark memories.
“They’re going to be fine,” Caroline assured her. “Our men are tough.”
“So are you all,” Alex added.So is Sylviehe told himself. He prayed for her safety and hoped that she had nothing to do with tonight.
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
“Goddammit, Rookie, you were supposed to go to Watchdog where you’d be out of the way and safe.”
Frank?
Sylvie tried to move as she came up out of the fog. Her head was killing her. She couldn’t see anything as she blinked and panicked. It took her a moment to realize there was a black bag over her head. When she tried to reach up to remove it, she further realized she was restrained.
“Why did you take her, Tom?” Another voice spoke, a man she didn’t recognize.
“She was getting too close to the truth. If you’d just talked to her when I fucking asked.” That was Tom’s voice.
“I don’t work on your timetable, Tom. If you hadn’t panicked, then drugged her and taken her hostage, I could have talked to her like a reasonable human being,” the man answered.
Sylvie struggled against her restraints. She was sitting up at least, shackled to a chair that had to be bolted to the floor. Through the cloth, the room smelled like bleach. Voices bounced off walls with a slight echo. The floor was hard—concrete maybe.
“What did you give me?” she slurred. “Where am I?”
“In trouble,” she heard Frank answer. His voice moved back and forth, and she realized he was pacing.
“You’re all in trouble,” the man she didn’t recognize said. He sounded preternaturally calm as well as pissed. “You’re supposed to be working for us, not them, Tom. We pay you enough.”
“I didn’t have a choice!” Tom said. He sounded like he was sitting right beside her. “They were going to kill me. Fuck, I didn’t want it to go this far. Fucking idiots…they underestimated Watchdog. She’s under their protection.”
Before Sylvie could speak, she heard the unmistakable sound of Tom getting pistol-whipped. He grunted and swore.
“You’re a traitor,” the unidentified voice said. “You’ve been doing the cartel’s work for a long time now, not ours. It’s made you scared and sloppy.”
Is this their handler?She wondered. He couldn’t be—could he? Her heart jackhammered as fear and adrenaline cleared her pounding head.Keep your mouth shut and listenshe told herself.Listen for anything that might tell you where you are and who this man is.
And most importantly, how to get the hell out of this situation.
“What’s your plan to get out of this, Tom?” the man said, as if he were asking about the weather.
“I’ll take Madden to them. I’ll tell them that we know how to get her to talk. That once she sees Sylvie, she’ll spill her guts.”
Wait. I thought the ‘she’ was me. Who are they talking about?Sylvie tried to see something—anything—through the black hood.
“Why would they believe that?”
“Because they know Madden’s in tight with Watchdog, too. They think they’re friends. If I tell them that I’ll bring Sylvie in, threaten her in front of Brianna, she’ll talk. That’s when we make our move. Comeon.” He sounded desperate. “It’s Brianna’s only chance and you’re wasting fuckingtime. They’ll kill her when she doesn’t tell them where the money’s hidden and then Watchdog will come down on everyone.”
“Jesus, Tom,” Sylvie said. “What did youdo?”
“He fucked us all,” Frank said. He continued to pace.
“Not all of us,” the other man said. “Not yet.”
“Youfucking lied tome!” Tom yelled. “Feds, my ass, you’re—”
