Jackson shrugged. “Where we are, I doubt we’ll find a lot of traffic cams to help us out.”
Easton grinned. “Nope, we have something better. We have Atlas with eyes in the sky. When Alex realized the Mississippi address was bogus, he knew they wouldn’t be able to reroute the plane quick enough to be useful to us. So he had PJ and another operative rent a chopper and head this way. Luke is coordinating with them to track the vehicle.”
“So we wait,” Ben said, trying to tap down his frustration.
Waiting made him feel useless. He wanted todosomething to find Paige. She was counting on him to follow through, and all he could do was twiddle his thumbs.
“No,” Jackson said. “We drive. We came north to this location. There’s nothing south of us except for commercial property. He’s going to take Paige somewhere hidden, quiet, where they can’t be disturbed. I checked out an aerial map. There are possibilities east and west of us, but if it were me, and I had torture in mind, I would head west. It’s more rural andisolated. We start in that direction and close in when we narrow down the location.”
“Let’s move,” Easton agreed and jogged over to their vehicle, where Luke was already waiting.
Jackson set out to follow, and Ben nudged him. “Hey, thanks.”
Jackson touched his jaw. “Don’t thank me yet. You got a pass until we find your girl. Then your ass is mine.”
Ben barked out a brief laugh. “You wish.”
Jackson cracked a smile. “Let’s go get your girl.”
“I love her, Jackson. She’s it for me, man.”
Jackson slapped a hand to Ben’s back. “I know. And she’s going to need you. She’s going to need all of us.”
“I just hope I get the chance to give her what she needs.”
“Don’t think like that. Think about all the things we’re going to do to Boyd and this Mars guy for messing with one of the Legends.”
Ben took a deep breath and released it. “Damn straight.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
She knew it was coming. Even braced herself for it. But Paige still whimpered at the pain that radiated through her when the man’s punch landed on her rib cage.
She had no idea how long the abuse had gone on. It felt like an eternity. Her abductor let her sleep a bit, so the drug he’d given her would wear off faster. As the effects lessened, her memory returned. She wished it hadn’t. As much as she hated feeling confused, she hated knowing the truth even more.
He turned his back to her, and she thought he checked his watch. She’d noticed during one of the times he hit her that he sported a smart watch designed to receive messages as well as keep time. He glanced at it in between his monotonous tirades and hurtful attacks.
“Don’t let me keep you if you have some place to be,” she mumbled.
Her lip was split, and she tasted fresh blood on her tongue after she spoke. One of her eyes had already swollen shut. The man had ripped out her earrings while she’d been out of it. She wasn’t sure if he’d done it because he knew they were transmitters or if he knew it would hurt her to rip them from her earlobes.
Her entire body felt broken. Her spirit felt fractured. She’d stopped hoping she’d be rescued. She’d stopped wishing Ben and his brothers would arrive in time to end the abuse. She’d stopped wishing the man would just kill her and be done with it.
She’d. Just. Stopped.
When the man turned back to her, he appeared amused, but despite the relaxed lines in his face, his eyes were the color of cold steel, hard and unforgiving.
“There’s no other place I want to be, Paige. You are my priority. But our mutual friend has arrived. Now the fun can begin.”
“You mean now you get to kill me?”
He laughed. It was a terrible sound. She squinted her uninjured eye at him, imagining the joy of smashing the laugh out of him with her baseball bat. If only she could get her hands on it or any weapon for that matter.
“I told you. I won’t kill you. There is so much more we can do together. But our mutual friend…he’s a different matter. When I’m through with you, he’s going to get his turn. He’s been waiting a long time.”
“Let me guess. He’s already killed my friend.”
Paige’s bravado slipped when she mentioned Ms. Miller. The man refused to tell her anything about her friend. Whenever she insisted he release her landlady, he only punched her and reminded her he was in control. She’d already figured out the man was working for Darius Boyd, and he toyed with her until Boyd showed up. She had no idea what kept Boyd, but it would make sense if he was taking care of Ms. Miller before coming to kill her.
