“Andy—” Her voice broke on his name. In the background, he thought he heard something—a deeper voice, a barked word he couldn’t make out, and the scrape of something heavy.
His heart jack-hammered.
“Tess, where are you? Tell me where you are!”
Static swallowed her reply. Or maybe there wasn’t one. The connection crackled, then went dead.
The call had been dropped.
“Shit.” He yanked the phone away from his earand stared at the screen. The call log showed “Unknown”and a duration of twenty seconds.
He jabbed the redial button.
The call rang once, then cut off with an automated message that the number was unavailable.
He tried again.
Same thing.
His chest tightened too, like someone had wrapped a belt around his ribs and yanked it one notch too far.
Don’t call the police.
His hand trembled so hard he almost dropped the phone. Before he could figure out what to do, it rang once more.
Again, it was anUnknown Caller.A different number but the same area code. His stomach dropped straight through the floor.
He answered on the second ring. “Tess?”
A low, sleezy chuckle slid through the speaker. “Try again, Bing.”
Diego.
His breath snagged—of course it was that bastard.
His entire body went cold and hot all at once, and he lurched to his feet. “What did you do, Diego?” The words came out strangled. “Where’s my sister?”
“Relax,” the asshole said. No lazy drawl now—just a controlled, amused menace. “She’s alive. For the moment.”
His hand clamped so hard around the phone that his knuckles hurt. “If you hurt her?—”
“Then what?” Diego cut in. “You gonna come after me? Drop a nuke on my house? You’re sixteen, man. You don’t even have a car.”
He swallowed back the combined roar of rage and dread trying to claw up his throat. Clenching his jaw until his teeth ached, he forced his voice steady. “What do you want?”
“Oh, now we’re talking. See? You’re good at this when you skip the drama.”
He paced to the sliding glass door and back again, the beach a smear of fading light beyond the glass. The living room walls were closing in, triggering a sense of claustrophobia he’d never experienced before.
“You leave her alone,” he demanded with more boldness than he felt. “Whatever you want—you come to me.”
Diego laughed. There was no humor in it. “Oh, I already did that,Bing. A couple of days ago. You remember. You did good work. Clean. Smart. Which is why when the next opportunity came up, I thought, ‘Why not give the kid another shot?’”
“I’m not doing anything else,” Andy snapped. “I told you that.”
“Yeah,” Diego said. “I heard you. Problem is, I don’t really care what you told me. I care what you’re gonna do to save your sister.”
He let the last word hang there.
