She closed her eyes. “I have to. He’ll kill her.”
“He’ll kill her either way. And you, too. You have to trust me.”
She whirled around. “I do. But I don’t have a lot of time.”
She could see the different emotions warring on his face, and her eyes pleaded with him to understand. Finally, he hardened his expression and dipped his head in a single nod.
“Go. I’ll find you. We’ll end this.”
Paige nodded, tears falling down her cheeks. “I love you, Ben.”
She slipped out the door and ran to his Tahoe, giving in to the sobs and the fear of what faced her at the end of the road trip.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Take a left.”
Jackson jerked the steering wheel without slowing his speed, following the directions Luke supplied. Ben sat in the back seat, trying not to lose his shit. Seated beside him, Easton stared him down. Probably attempting to decide if he was, indeed, going to lose his shit.
“Incoming!” Luke shouted.
Luke tapped a key on his laptop, and the men in the SUV listened. The ringing coming across the speakers sounded garbled. When Paige’s voice answered the call, Ben’s heart lurched in his chest.
“What?” Paige snapped.
Good girl, Ben thought. She wasn’t showing this guy an ounce of fear, though he knew she was full of it. His hands clenched into fists, gripping the fabric of his black cargo pants.
“I would be careful with how you speak to me, Paige. I am the one holding all the cards.”
Ben committed the sound of the man’s voice to memory. The deep, clear tone measured his words. He was careful not to let emotion seep into his voice. He revealed no more intel than he wanted her to know, but he knew what to say to push Paige’s buttons.
Ben was already looking forward to killing the son of a bitch.
“I’m on my way. I’m less than an hour out. What else do you want from me?”
Paige’s voice rose in anger and not panic, which gave Ben a small measure of relief. If she was going to get through this, she needed her wits about her.
“I want you to pull over at the next exit. Turn right, and there is a gas station on the left. Turn into the parking lot, drive around to the back, and leave your vehicle in front of pump number seven. Get out. Leave the keys and your phone behind. Go to the car parked at pump number ten. Get in it. The keys are under the right front floor mat. Drive it the rest of the way here.”
Ben frowned. The asshole was taking precautions so Paige couldn’t be tracked. The bastard was smart. Calculated. A pro.
“I need my phone for directions. I can’t leave it behind,” Paige protested.
“There’s a phone in the other car. It’s preprogrammed with the address I got you.”
“You left a car, unlocked, with the keys and a cell phone inside. That wasn’t smart,” Paige snapped.
“Do not underestimate me.”
The call ended.
“Get anything?” Ben asked anxiously.
“No. The signal was pinging all over the place. No way to trace the call,” Luke said.
Paige’s voice came across the speaker again. “I hope you guys are listening and got all of that. He’s forcing me to leave everything behind, so I hope my earrings are working the way you said they would. Because I’m plenty scared.”
Ben’s eyes closed as he fought the urge to call a stop to all of it.
