Page 73 of Her Intense Protector

“Hey, I’ve got to go,” Ezio said. “Come on, Leo, grab your shit. We’re out of here.”

By the time he got to the parking lot, Ezio was really beginning to worry. Samantha had not answered her phone or texts, nor had she picked up the landline at his house.

As soon as they got into his Jeep, he told Leo to call Asher.

“What’s up?” Leo asked.

“Just do it.”

Leo made the call, put it on speaker, and put his phone on the console between them.

“What Perez, you missed me already?” Asher chuckled.

“It’s Ezio. Find out from Eden if she’s heard from Samantha. I haven’t been able to get ahold of her all night or this morning.”

“On it.” Asher hung up.

“You need to put a move on, my friend,” Leo said as Ezio merged onto the highway.

“The last thing I need is to be pulled over,” Ezio growled. “We don’t have the time for that shit.”

“Dammit, it’s forty-five minutes to your house, quit fucking about.”

“Leo,” Ezio looked over at his friend and gave him the glare of death.

“Okay, I hear you. You’ve got me worried too, is all.”

The phone rang.

“Bad news. Eden’s been calling her for the last hour. She hasn’t been able to get ahold of her. She’s already heading over to your house.”

“No!” Ezio wove in and out of traffic as he tried to make better time. “We don’t know the situation at my house.”

“That’s what I told her. She’s pulled over at a grocery store parking lot, waiting for me to tell her what to do next. I’m going to meet you and Leo at your house, Ezio.”

“Roger that,” Ezio said.

Leo hung up the connection.

“There’s not a lot of places where you can sneak up on your house. You’ve got forest surrounding you on three sides,” Leo considered.

“There’s my neighbor’s house two hundred yards on the east. I’ll pull up in his drive, then we do a quick hike through the woods. It’s easy. Charlie won’t care. Shit, I should have told Asher, call him.”

Leo got back on the phone and explained the situation to Ash.

Ezio concentrated on driving and prayed that they would find out that Samantha’s phone had lost its charge and she was just sleeping like the dead.

His hand hit the steering wheel.

Don’t think dead!

21

Last night was the second time she was in a crud situation to dressed up and in heels. They’d taken her to an even lovelier part of town than last time and she hadn’t thought that was possible. She thought the wig shop was the worst part of Virginia Beach. But God only knew if she was still in the city of Virginia Beach. They drove so long they could be in Richmond for all she knew, or they could have double backed to Chesapeake, who knew? She couldn’t smell the ocean, but who could smell anything over the rotten-garbage stench permeating this house they’d taken her to? It had to be a crack house or heroin den, with the way she had to step over used needles and condoms. Iiiick.

One of the two awful men—the one who’d taken her cell phone and had padlocked her into this room—glared at her as she’d begged him to tell her where Kevin was, but he wouldn’t tell her. She’d yelled herself hoarse throughout the night, but nobody ever responded.

Sam had looked out the single window and found she was in the middle of an abandoned lot, surrounded by nothing but asphalt and weeds. Why someone had even bothered to cover the window with an old, flowered sheet was beyond her. But she ripped it down so she could use it as a nest to lie on. It was the cleanest thing in the room.