He huffs at me before yanking on his lead and barking. “Hey, settle,” I snap. Can’t have him scaring everyone here and getting wrapped up in a police report. I open the rear door, and he drops onto the back seat. I shove the nozzle in the car andwait for it to fill as I scan the store. No Honor. My brows lower when I can’t find her. Where is she?
The pump stops, and I hurry into the store, scanning everywhere for her. I need my wallet to pay for the fuel, and she has it. Maybe she’s in the bathroom? I wait in the line behind four people, hoping Honor will reappear before I have to pay.
Minutes tick past, and I reach the guy at the desk. “Hey, my girlfriend was just in here.” I raise my hand to Honor’s approximate height. “About this big, copper red hair.”
“Oh yeah, she took the key to the toilet a while back. I was just about to check on her.”
My blood runs cold.A while back?“Where’s the restroom?”
He points to the back wall. I stalk through the store as my stomach drops and yank open the door to find a shopping bag on the floor. A few snacks have rolled out onto the tiles, and next to it is my wallet and Honor’s phone.Fuck.
I snatch the phone and wallet and rush back to the cashier desk, barging in front of a steady stream of customers. The woman behind me huffs. “Rude.”
“CCTV?” I snap.
The guy blinks at me. “Yeah, but you can’t look at it, dude.”
I pull out five one hundred dollar bills and slap them on the counter. “How about now?” He jerks his head over my shoulder at the growing line. “I can work it, just show me where,” I tell him.
He grabs the money and opens the door to let me through before pointing at a small dark room to the side. I hurry inside and rewind the recording by ten minutes, my eyes locked on Honor as she grabs the key and makes it to the restroom without incident. She’s in there around a minute before a big guy comes to stand by the door like he’s waiting for the toilet. Nobody pays him any mind, but I can see he’s tense, ready foraction. The door inches open, and he barges inside the room. A minute later, he emerges with Honor in his arms and escapes through a back door marked ‘Employees Only.’
I hammer my fist into the wall, splitting my knuckles.Fuck!Why did I let her go by herself? I twist my fingers into my hair and glance at the time stamp. This happened seven minutes ago. He’s long gone with her.
I pull out my cell and click on Ghost’s number.
“Fox, this better be urgent. You know not to call,” her melodic voice chimes.
“He has her.”
“Who?”
“One of Gideon’s men. We stopped to get gas, and he grabbed her.”
“Why did you leave her to go to the gas station without you?”
My hand grips the phone tighter. “I didn’t. He took her from the restroom.”
“Her phone?”
“Abandoned.”
I switch the CCTV to the outside footage and watch as he bundles Honor into the back seat of an Escalade. I squint, trying to make out the license plate, but mud splatter blocks it.Fuck.
“They are in a black Escalade, heading north from?—”
“I have your location,” Ghost says as I hear her tapping on a keyboard. I dart out of the room and slap another hundred dollar bill next to the employee. “For the gas,” I mutter as I race out of the store and climb into my car. I peel out of the station and head north.
“Tracking the vehicle will be difficult,” Ghost murmurs. “It might be easier to…” She sucks in a breath.
“What?” I snap.
“GideonLowell chartered a private jet from New York hours ago.”
“To where?”
“The pilot’s logged a flight path to an airfield a hundred miles north of you.”
He came for her himself. I’m not surprised—this man has control issues. “Did they land already?”
