Addy couldn’t just sit between these two men and let them take her to her execution. They were headed into the country, but not on the same road she’d taken to the senator’s ranch. They reached the foothills of the San Miguel Mountains, a range she remembered from studying the area map.
She had hoped momentarily that the senatorwasbehind her abduction, as Mack would probably go forward with flyingthe drone over the ranch and might find her. But out here? He had no hope of locating her. Unless she found a way to tell him where their truck was headed.
They hadn’t searched her or taken her phone, just her gun. Which was odd to her. Maybe they didn’t usually do this kind of thing and didn’t know what to do. The thought almost made her laugh. Hysterical kind of laughing. Not the let’s-have-fun kind.
She swallowed it away. Steadied her mind. GPS was her best bet to be located, though she didn’t routinely have it turned on for her phone, so they couldn’t find her that way. She did have apps that were authorized to use GPS, if she could only open one of those.
What app could she use? Her brain blanked. Likely the stress. The pressure.
Think, Addy. Think.
She brought her phone screen to mind to mentally view the app icons. She ran through them row by row and landed on what3words.
Perfect.
She’d recently installed the app for emergencies. The app developers had assigned each three-meter square in the world a unique three-word address that would never change. After GPS triangulated your location, the app provided the three words you could more easily share with others instead of giving complicated GPS coordinates.
If she could get to her phone, place it on speaker and mute a call to Mack, then speak the words, he could find her.Ifhe knew about the app. A big if, as many people didn’t. But law enforcement used it, and so did emergency dispatchers. And he was a deputy, so she had a shot at him understanding.
The even biggerifwas getting to her phone in her right pocket while sitting between these two men. She had to act quickly. Do it before they stopped. Before they searched herand took her phone. She faked scratching an itch on her left side and tugged her shirttail over her pocket, watching all the time to see if they reacted to her movements.
She looked at each one. Her heart thundered in her chest, and she held her breath.
Nothing. No interest in her movements at all.
She let out the breath slowly to keep from alerting them. Took another one. She was glad the phone was on LeRoy’s side, as he wasn’t the brightest of the two. She pretended to scratch again and slid her phone up, keeping the shirttail as coverage for her hands. Thankfully, the device was still silenced from her visit to the senator, and in nighttime mode so it wouldn’t emit as much light.
She woke it up and got her thumb in position for the password, then tapped the app and waited for it to triangulate.
Please let me pull this off. Don’t let the light from my phone alert them. Please.
Sean sat across the desk from the senator, but Mack couldn’t sit. Not with Addy missing. He stood looking down on Noble, willing the man to confess to taking Addy and tell them where he was holding her. Yet Mack really didn’t believe the guy had abducted her. They’d caught him in a lie when he’d told Addy he had to meet with her that night as he was leaving town, but that meant nothing. It could just be a white lie to get him out of talking to her for long. Or it could mean Noble was hiding something.
Time for Mack to home in on the guy and see what he really knew. “Have you heard of a man called Bruno Razo or a Dante Zamora?”
A sharp intake of air, barely noticeable but there, told Mack what he needed to know. The senator had heard of one or both of them.
“How do you know them?” Mack asked before Noble could answer.
Noble let his breath out slowly, almost imperceptibly. How many times had the senator done the same thing when trying to sidestep an issue in his political career? He would be a master at subterfuge, and Mack had to pay even more attention to each little nuance.
A tight smile crossed Noble’s face. “What makes you think Idoknow them?”
“Come on, Senator.” Sean sat forward. “Your reaction to the question was obvious. Just tell us about them.”
Noble gritted his teeth. “Now that you mention it, I believe I’ve heard the names. I think they hire day laborers around town.”
“Day laborers?” Mack asked. The senator’s statement was so far from the truth that it was laughable.
“You know. Illegals who will work for pennies on the dollar.” Noble pressed his hands flat on the arms of his chair but didn’t grasp them. “Of course, if I ever witnessed such a thing, I would report it.”
“Of course,” Mack said, not trying to hide his sarcasm. “Now tell us how you really know these men.”
Noble drew back and looked offended, but Mack thought he was putting up a front. Or maybe Mack wanted Noble to be hiding something because that meant Mack was questioning the right person and he would find Addy.
Fists pounded against the front door, and Mack spun, his hand going to his sidearm.
“Mack,” Cam called out.
