“Alex and his team are rerouting to our location. But there’s something else.”
Ben struggled to catch his breath, but his lungs couldn’t seem to draw enough air. He wasn’t sure he could handle any more news that made him realize just how much danger his Paige was in.
“Paige is moving, but no audible noise coming from the coms,” Luke interrupted.
“I’d bet good money that whoever kidnapped her threw her in a trunk and took off. There’s the exit. Easton, Luke, you guys question the service station clerk and customers to see who saw anything. Ben, you and I will take the scene for evidence of where he could be taking her. E, what ya got?”
“A message from one of Alex’s techs back at Atlas. The call Paige received from her landlady? It was a deepfake. A good one, but with Atlas’ technology, they figured out it was AI-generated.”
Artificial intelligence?Boyd was going through a lot of trouble to get to Paige, but he wanted her alive.
Jackson skidded to a stop in front of the pump with the abandoned car that was left for Paige. He twisted around in his seat, his expression grave.
“Boyd can’t risk being exposed by coming after Paige himself. We already know he’s got someone working with him, and the guy is good. None of Boyd’s known associates have been flagged as accomplices, so we need to think bigger. Boyd wouldn’t trust just anyone, and he would need someone who knew how to fly under the radar. Someone who has no reservations about doing whatever needs to be done to complete the job. We find him, we find Paige.”
A calm determination settled over Ben. “Then let’s find him. Because I’m getting her back alive. She’s it for me, man. I can’t lose her.”
“She’s one of us now. You’re not losing her. Whatever it takes, we’ll get her back.”
Ben knew the magnitude of the vow his brother just made. In situations like this, when things could go wrong in a hurry, they knew better than to make a promise like that. There was no guarantee they would find Paige, and the probability of finding her alive was even less. But the Legends have been known to pull out a miracle when they needed it.
“We’ve got your six, brother,” Easton added. “We’ve got your girl’s back, too.”
Ben nodded. “Then let’s quit wasting time. Move your asses. We’ve got an asshole to track.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Wake up, you little bitch.”
Paige fought through the blackness toward the soft, almost friendly voice uttering the vile insult in her ear. Her head felt heavy and ready to explode. The pain almost had her giving in to the darkness once more, just to escape the agony. Her skin was tingling with a sense of danger that she didn’t understand. When she tried to shift her position, her limbs wouldn’t cooperate. A sharp pain set her shoulder on fire, and she gasped at the sudden throbbing.
Where am I? What happened?
Her mind refused to focus. Her eyes felt too heavy to open, so she took a mental inventory of her situation. Her wrists and ankles were bound, but she was sitting. The surface underneath her was hard and unforgiving. A floor, possibly? A chair?
Her mouth was dry, and her tongue felt fuzzy as if she’d spent the night drinking and woke with the worst hangover she’d ever felt in her life. But she didn’t think that’s what happened. And who was the guy? The gaps in her memory were wide, and she couldn’t concentrate enough to figure out how to bridge them.
“Wake up!” The voice was harsher and was followed by a slap across her cheek.
Paige’s gasp caught in her throat, and she coughed violently, moaning at the excruciating pain that wrecked her body.
“Open your eyes, or I’ll glue them open. Permanently.”
She shuddered, believing he meant what he said.You can do this.The inner pep talk fell flat, but she somehow managed to pull her heavy lids open. The man in front of her didn’t look familiar and wasn’t who she expected. Instead of Darius Boyd, she saw an average-looking man in a custom-made suit with ice in his dark eyes.
“Finally. How are we feeling? Hmmm? No need to answer. I believe I can guess.” The man started pacing in front of her, moving in a methodical circle, his shiny black shoes tapping against the dingy hardwood floor. “Your mouth feels dry like it’s stuffed with cotton. Your neck feels too weak to support your head, but you need it to, since your head feels like it’s being squeezed in a vise. You feel like you could fall asleep and never wake up, but you can’t let that happen, can you?”
He stopped. Then his steps took him directly in front of her. To see his face would require lifting her head, which was an impossible feat in her state, so she stared at a button on his suit jacket.
“You’re trying to remember where you are and why you are here, but your brain won’t cooperate. In fact, you can barely remember your own name. Your wrists and your ankles feel sore and raw. Your eye feels swollen, your cheek smarts, and you feel ready to lose the last meal you ate. How did I do?”
His assessment was spot on, but she couldn’t force herself to admit it.
“Well, now that we’ve settled how you feel, let me enlighten you as to why. You see, we have a mutual friend who has a keen interest in your welfare. That is, he wants to see you suffer as much as possible. He wants you to beg for your life and then beg for your death. He’s been trying to find you for a very long time, but you have outsmarted him. And me as well. You should feel proud. There aren’t many alive who can outsmart me.”
The man paused, stared at her for a long moment, and then resumed his pacing. “No, I don’t suppose you can feel much of anything at the moment except pain, confusion, and fear. All justifiable emotions. Right now, you’re feeling the effects of the potent drug I gave you. That was to subdue you for the car ride to our location and to keep you compliant while we wait for our…friend.”
“Do I…know you?” Paige’s voice sounded strange, like it belonged to someone else.
