“Trust me, I know that.”
I got halfway across the room and stopped. Whirling around, I said, “I don’t have a car.” It was the one part of the plan I seemed to have overlooked.
Boone came over and handed a set of keys to me. “It’s the Mustang outside.”
My brows shot up in surprise. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. “It’ll get you to Rev faster.”
I gave him a quick hug before racing out the door. After cranking up the car, I roared out of the roadhouse parking lot. Of course, I had no idea if I should go right or left. All I knew is Mendoza would phone with instructions.
With just a minute to spare before my ten minutes were up, the phone rang. With a shaky hand, I reached for it. “Hello?”
“Go to the old rock quarry off route nineteen. Come around to the back of the barn.”
“But I don’t know—”I started to protest.
“You’ll figure it out.” Mendoza then hung up.
“Son of a bitch!” I shouted.
Pulling the car off to the side of the road, I googled a rock quarry. Amazingly enough the route pulled up. It was only fifteen minutes away, but it was in the other direction than I had come out of the roadhouse.
After turning around, I gunned the engine. Even though they were tracking my phone, I wasn’t taking any chances with the ATF. I dialed Agent Hollis’s number that I had programmed in my phone earlier. “I’m supposed to meet him at a barn beside the old rock quarry on route nineteen.”
“We are only a few minutes from the location. When you arrive, stall for a few moments in the car before you go in. We do not want too much time to elapse before you go in the barn and before we come in.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
“I know you can. We have every confidence in you, Annabel,” Agent Hollis said.
I wished that his words made me feel better, but sadly, they didn’t. While I might’ve looked calm and collected on the outside, I was a fucking basket case on the inside. I had stared down death once before, so I wasn’t afraid of being killed. More than anything, I didn’t want to lose Rev.
Veering off the road onto route nineteen caused my stomach to churn. Rolling down the window, I did a pitiful excuse of puking. With a nervous laugh, I thought about how Boone would regret loaning me his car when it came back with puke down the front door.
At the sight of the barn, my heartbeat started thrumming so loudly it felt like a canon’s blast inside the car. I eased around the back, craning my neck to see if anyone was around. Just one car was parked, and I knew it had to belong to Mendoza.
Once I turned the engine off, I tried to collect myself. My arms and legs trembled uncontrollably with nerves. But then Ifocused on Rev’s face and it gave me the strength I needed. Opening the car door, I slowly rose to my feet.
I’d taken one small step when someone descended on me. Before I could scream, a hand clamped down on my mouth as the cool metal of a gun tapped against my temple. “Gotta make sure you’re clean,” a heavily accented voice snarled in my ear.
“If I take my hand away, you’re not to make a sound. Got it?”
Slowly, I nodded my head. The man spun me around. At the sight of his face, I jerked back, which caused him to snicker. “Remember me, huh?”
How could I not? I watched him beat and assault countless women when I was at Mendoza’s compound. He then went about patting me down. Just when I thought he was finished, he jerked my shirt up and slid his hands across the tops of my breasts. “Gotta make sure that biker scum didn’t get smart with a wire.”
Narrowing my eyes, I then spit in his face.”
“You cunt!” he screamed before sending a harsh slap to my cheek.
Before I retaliate again, he shoved me forward. “Go. Mendoza is waiting for you.”
With my hand against my stinging cheek, I made my way to the back door. When I reached to open it, the door creaked open. The next thing I knew I was being grabbed and dragged inside. Then I was thrown to the ground.
“So glad you could come,” Mendoza greeted me.
I started to glare up at him, but then something to my left drew my attention. Rev was strung up to one of the lower hanging barn beams. His arms were jerked at a painful angle over his head, but the worst were the burns on his chest.
