“Maybe he stole the guy’s car,” Sandy suggested.
Carson tried to connect the dots.Yurgio didn’t do anything random.There was a connection.“Where does he live?”Carson asked Charlotte.
“A remote house in the spring mountains about an hour outside the city.”
“Yurgio killed him and took his car to get Allie.He’s taken her to the house,” he said out loud for everyone to hear.
“I’ll get aerial footage to help you,” Charlotte offered.
“Thanks, Char, as always for everything.”
“Good luck, Carson.”
“Thanks.”
He hung up, and they startedmaking a plan as intel started coming over his phone.“We need to move fast.As soon as Juan’s body is discovered missing, people will go to the house looking for him.Yurgio will have already moved on to another location, and then we’ll be fucked.”
“Sandy, I’m going to insist you stay behind for this,” Carson told her.
Sandy stood taller and jutted out her chin.“I’m not leaving my friend at the hands of this animal.”
“We’re trained to handle situations like this.You are not.You’d be more of a hindrance than a help at that point.No one could focus on their job and keep you safe at the same time.”
Sandy looked even more determined than deterred.“Listen, buddy.You’re going to need me.Allie is going to need a friend after you get her out of there, and I’m sure you are the last person she wants to see.I know what you’re doing is dangerous, and I’ll stay out of the way, but don’t ask me to stay behind.”
Carson battled with himself.His instincts told him to leave her behind.“I know where you’re going.I’ll just follow you if you don’t let me come.So, you might as well agree.”
Carson’s lips pinned in frustration.“Fine, but you do everything you’re told, or I will have you handcuffed and stuffed in the trunk of someone’s car.”
Sandy made a cross over her heart.
“Alright, let’s go,” Luke directed, and they all left.
Chapter 33
“Do you like the house?I just recently came into it.”
Allie just glared up at her kidnapper from the chair he had forced her into when he’d brought her here last night.It wasn’t like she could answer the man.He had duct-taped her mouth and zip-tied her hands together in front of her.
She’d made a study of the man and those with him since being brought in.There were at least ten men throughout the property.It was alavish-looking home nestled in the mountains.She’d seen large windows and a chandelier in the foyer before being escorted into an office and pushed into a chair.
For hours, she’d sat like this.No one had talked to her.They’d barely paid attention to her.She was hungry and thirsty.Her mouth was dry and her throat scratchy.
The office had large windows as well.There were three of them.The room was bigger than her own bedroom.A built-in wooden shelf covered the wall behind the desk filled with miscellaneous photos, awards, and several medical books.A doctorate degree hung on the wall.There was a leather couch and chairs on the opposite side of the room with a TV mounted on the wall and a small wet bar set up.
A large ornate desk was between her and her kidnapper.There was a computer on one side and a cordless phone on the other.A picture frame was next to the phone, but Allie couldn’t see what it held.In the center, there was a stand for a black pen.A letter open rested in front of it.
Allie didn’t believe this was this man’s home for a second, and there were too many furnishings to mean the previous occupants were dead.
Allie would guess neighbors were sparse up here, otherwise this man wouldn’t have picked this spot.She didn’t know exactly where she was since they had put a covering over her head, so she hadn’t been able to see where they were going.But Allie did remember it being a long drive.
The whole drive she feared they were going to rape and murder her and then simply dump her body along the side of the road like trash, but no one had touched her besides when they had come into her home.She had tried running to her bedroom to lock the door and call the police, but they had been too quick, and she’d been slammed into the wall before being tossed against her couch.
Her shoulder was sore, and no doubt bruised, but she knew it could have been worse.She hadn’t fought back as they’d taken her.She knew she’d never overpower three men.She had also seen guns tucked into their pants.Allie knew the smartest thing to do was to go with them and fight as little as possible.
She was hoping she could find a window of opportunity to escape, but so far, they had been watching her like a hawk.
Sandy would notice she wasn’t at work this morning and raise an alert, but what good would that do her?Police wouldn’t have any clues to follow.Carson had walked away from her.No one would know where she was.She didn’t even know.Even if she managed to escape, she could be walking in the mountains for days or in the opposite direction of a town and end up in the desert.
