“Hello?” Hearing his voice brought more tears.
Manuel grabbed the phone before she could say anything. “Hey, dickweed, we have your girlfriend. You’ll do exactly what I say, or she dies, got it?” He seemed to get off on the threatening.
There was a pause before Manuel handed her the phone.
“Hey,” Maggie said, choking back the tears. This had been part of her plan. She had to stay calm.
“Mags, are you okay?” Mitch asked with an edge to his voice. She could picture him fuming on the other end.
“Fuckity shit, Mitch, I’ve been kidnapped! How do you think I’m doing?” She felt a twinge of guilt using the bad words but had to get her message across somehow. She was terrified but tried to sound mad.
“Mags?”
“I’ll be very cross with you if you don’t fucking get me out of here.” She put as much emphasis on the f in the F-word as she could and then prayed he could interpret her message. There wasn’t much more she could do.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Shit, she was trying to tell him something. He looked at Adam to see if he had any clue, but he was busy looking at the map they had spread out between them, searching frantically.
“Honey, have—”
“All right, you know she’s okay. Enough of the bullshit. Be at the lakefront park in front of the Conner building at ten o’clock tonight. Just sit on a bench and wait,” Manuel instructed.
“Yeah. I got it. Then you pop me from some building nearby because you don’t have the balls to face me yourself. How do I know you won’t hurt Maggie?”
“You’ll have to take my word for it. The one thing I will guarantee you is that if youdon’tshow up, I will kill her and take my time with it. She’s a pretty little thing, eh? Be a shame to waste such a nice piece of ass.”
“Don’t do it, Mi—ahh!” Mitch heard a slap and then Maggie’s whimper. His blood boiled. Those assholes would pay for that. In blood.
“I’ll be there,” he ground out before hanging up.
“Fuck, Adam. What was all that about?” His heart was pounding. He was relieved she was alive but furious they hadhurt her. He had to figure this out and fast.
“Well, I’m thinking she’s trying to tell us something with the cuss words since she rarely swears. Maybe she meant First Ave is one of the cross streets, but the fuckity shit? What’s that?”
He looked down at the red circle on the map, waiting for the answer to jump out at him, which it did a minute later.
“Fifty-Sixth? Could that be it? Fifty-Sixth and First Ave? That’s in our zone!”
Adam checked the map where Mitch was pointing.
“I think you’re right. It’s really the only thing that makes sense. Okay, let’s call in SWAT to take care of whatever’s waiting for you at the Conner building, and you and I will go get Maggie!”
Mitch closed his eyes and sighed. “You don’t have to go with me. Jenny and the boys need you, and I can’t make any promises on how this will turn out. I’m already scared shitless they’ll kill Maggie no matter what I do, and I can’t live with any more blood on my hands. Hers or yours.”
“Speaking of Jenny,” Adam said. “This might not be the best time to tell you, but I’ve asked her to marry me. She said yes.”
He took a minute to process the news. Adam waited silently.
“That’s great, man. Really. I mean it. All the more reason for you to stay.” Mitch stood and started down the hall, leaving Adam at the table.
Dressed head to toe in black, Mitch strapped one loaded weapon to his ankle and put another in a shoulder holster under his sweatshirt. He filled his cargo pockets with extra magazines, two knives, and a can of pepper spray. Finally, he wrote the code to his safe on a Post-it Note and stuck it to his nightstand. Everything needed to handle his affairs could be found there.
When he returned to the kitchen, it was empty.Better this way.Adam was a friend, but they’d only known each otherfor a short time, and Mitch didn’t expect him to put his life on the line for him.
He made a quick call to the LT and headed out. It was just past nine o’clock. His only priority was to save Maggie, and there was only one sure way to do that.
***
