“I called 911.” The guy Mack now recognized as salesman Jeff narrowed his eyes. “Didn’t have other calls as far as I know.”
“Addy!” Mack grabbed the bumper behind him and hauled himself to his feet. He tried to take a step. Staggered. Rested on the vehicle hood and looked around as a police car came screaming into the parking lot. An officer got out and marched toward him.
He wore a khaki uniform, and his hair the color of coal was slicked back on his head.
Mack dug out his ID, the world swirling with each movement. He displayed his credentials. “There was a woman with me. Fellow agent, Addison Leigh. She’s missing. I suspect she’s been kidnapped. Put out an alert on her.”
The officer’s dark eyebrows went up, a heavy measure of skepticism in his expression. “You suspect kidnapping? Why’s that?”
Addy didn’t have time for Mack to get this guy on board, but he had no choice if he wanted the officer to take action. “I didn’t actually see it happen, but she wouldn’t leave me lying here unless someone forcibly took her.”
The officer looked at Jeff. “And you? You see it?”
“Nah,” Jeff said. “Just heard one of those big trucks with a loud muffler roar off. We’ve had some problems with theft in the area, so I went over to the window to see if I was in for trouble. Seen this guy on the ground. Drone was next to him. Called 911.”
“Look,” Mack said, “I don’t have time to explain, but someone’s been trying to kill Agent Leigh. Now she’s disappeared.”
“What if she went after them?”
Mack scanned the lot. “Both of our vehicles are still here. Put out that alert now!”
“Her description,” the officer demanded.
Mack described her size, build, hair color, and cut his eyes to the salesman. “You get a look at the truck?”
He stroked his goatee. “Mighta been white or light silver. Big one.”
“Pickup or bigger?” the officer asked.
“Just a full-sized pickup.”
The officer leaned down to his radio and reported the information. Mack reached for his phone to call Addy, but his screen was shattered and the device wouldn’t wake up.
He shoved out a hand to the officer. “Phone. Let me use your phone to call her.”
The officer pulled it from the clip on his vest, and Mack snatched it up. Thankfully, Addy had the same phone number for years, and Mack had memorized it the same way he’d done for the RED team and Eisenhower for just such a situation.
The call went straight to voicemail. Addy had likely silenced her phone for her interview with the senator and forgotten to change it back. Or the person who took her had destroyed the phone. Yeah, that was more likely, and the thought sent a wave of nausea through his stomach.
He swallowed hard. Swallowed again, panic sitting on his shoulders and threatening to take him.
So now what? What did he do? Just what?
His brain felt like mush. Like a web of confusion. The pain sharp and all-consuming.
Think. Think. Forget the pain. Forget everything but Addy. She’s depending on you.
He looked around for a lead. Searched the walls. The ground. Spotted a folded piece of paper near a car tire. He slowly bent to pick it up, his stomach clenching, his vision blurring. With his sleeve, he reached for it. Wouldn’t do to contaminate evidence. If it even was evidence. He came up and rested on the SUV before his legs buckled. He opened it.
The wordsDEADORALIVEwere printed in shocking red at the top of the page, and a color picture of Addy leaving the bodega covered the bottom half of the paper.
Addy.A piercing pain cut through Mack’s chest.
He displayed the flyer for the officer. “This is Agent Leigh. Obviously, I wasn’t exaggerating. The threat to her life is real. Very real indeed.”
Addy’s wrists were already bloody and raw from trying to escape the tight plastic ties, but she wouldn’t just sit between the two men and not do something. At least the goon sitting on her right had bound her hands in front, so she didn’t have her arms jerked behind her back where she would be leaning on them and they would go numb. A mistake too. This way she had use of her hands. Given a chance, she could potentially break the ties.
The goon who’d restrained her leaned forward and rummaged through a pile of things on the dashboard. A piece of paper drifted to the floor. The yellow light from the dash highlighted it. She squinted but really didn’t need to because the print was huge, and she couldn’t miss the wordsDEADORALIVEat the top. She moved down the page to the picture.
