“Who are we waiting for?”
“I’m pretty sure we’ve told you to be quiet.” He eyed her. “Don’t make me gag you.”
“Don’t I at least deserve to know my upcoming fate?”
“No.” He didn’t even look at her, just kept slicing away at the wood.
LeRoy sat on a stump and poked a long stick into the snow, then pulled it out and started all over again. His eyes were glazed over as he stared at the snow.
She looked around again. Searching. Hunting. Seeking a solution. She could try to call Mack again. What did she have to lose? She couldn’t very well just sit here and let them kill her.
She shifted on the log and cupped her hands to work the device up out of her pocket. She had to shift even more to get her thumb in the right place to unlock the phone.
Holt shot her a look.
She moved again to hide her phone from him. “I’m so cold,” she said and pretended to shiver.
He went back to whittling.
She glanced down and found Mack’s icon. She raised her finger.
“What’re you doing?” Holt’s deadly calm voice was scarier than if he’d shouted at her. He planted his boots in the snow, crossed over to her, his boots kicking up little puffs of snow swirling in the air. He grabbed her arms and jerked her up, then fished out her phone.
He cast a baleful look at LeRoy. “You didn’t take her phone?”
“Um ... well ... no. We was in a hurry.”
Holt lifted the phone. Slammed it onto a bare patch of ground and stomped it with the heel of his boot. The screen went dark. Black. Black as the night, and so did all of Addy’s hopes for rescue.
“You want to go away for murder too?” Mack snapped at the senator, his face not more than a foot away. “Because that seems to be where this is headed, and you’re complicit.”
“I’m sorry.” Noble clutched the arms of his chair, his face a mass of indecision. “I can’t tell you. I just can’t.”
“Why?” Mack demanded.
“I can’t tell you that either.”
“I can.” Kiley’s voice came from the doorway.
Mack spun to see her standing there, laptop in hand, a look of utter disgust on her face. “The good senator here, the family-values man—Mr. All-America—is one of Razo’s top clients.”
Shocked, Mack stared at her for a moment before he got his thoughts going again. “He’s buying drugs or guns?”
“No. He’s buying time with Razo’s girls. Girls the same age as the senator’s daughter.” She stepped into the room and showed Mack her laptop screen.
He caught sight of a video displaying the senator in bed with a young girl.
Mack jerked his gaze away, his stomach turning. He stared down at the senator, whose face had blanched.
“This is why you won’t rat Razo out.” Mack fairly spit the words into the senator’s face. “You couldn’t allow your secret life to come to light. Your career would not only end but you would go to prison. And you would likely do anything to stop that from happening. Even kidnapping Agent Leigh. Even paying blackmail demands to Razo. He’s blackmailing you, isn’t he?”
Noble nodded.
Mack’s stomach roiled with revulsion. “What exactly did you do in return for his silence?”
“Made sure he had connections to tenants at my malls who would launder his money.” His grip tightened on the chair, his knuckles turning white. “That’s it. I didn’t touch his money.”
“Just his girls,” Kiley snapped as she closed her laptop. “You’re the lowest of the low.”
