Chapter 16
“How much do we have?” Grover asked Kinley as she finished counting the stacks of cash sitting in front of her.
It had been hours, and the sun was setting again, and all Lucky wanted to do was go find Devyn. She had to be terrified. Hell, he was scared out of his mind for her.
“Sixty-two thousand, four hundred,” Kinley said.
Lucky sighed in relief. It was enough. Thank fuck.
“Where’s Spencer?” Lefty asked.
Lucky looked up in surprise. He’d had no idea Grover’s brother wasn’t there.
A lot of people were coming in and out of the house, so it wasn’t surprising he hadn’t kept tabs on the other man.
Lucky had been gone for a while himself, visiting his bank and making a stop at Devyn’s apartment.
He had no idea where they’d find her, or in what condition, but from experience, he knew she’d need a change of clothes.
He’d been a POW once. And after he’d been rescued, the first thing he wanted was to get clean.
To take off the clothes he’d been wearing for way too long and get into fresh ones.
It was a mental thing as well as physical.
Personal cleanliness wasn’t high on terrorists’ lists of things they cared about, and he’d pissed himself more than once while being interrogated.
Lucky had no idea where Devyn was or what she was going through, but the one thing he could do for her when they found her was to make sure she had some dignity.
A change of clothes wasn’t going to take away the memories of whatever she’d been through, but he knew from experience that it went a long way toward making things better right after being rescued.
He’d gone from worrying that they’d find her too late, to pushing those negative thoughts away and only thinking positive.
This Rocky guy wanted his money, and they wanted Devyn; he truly believed the man would give them the location where his people had stashed her after he’d gotten the cash Spencer owed him.
“Fuck, who last saw him?” Doc asked.
“He wasn’t here when I got back,” Brain said. “And I was the last one to return, since I stopped at the hospital to check on my son and to update Aspen on what was happening.”
“Is she going home soon?” Oz asked. “When I took Riley home to get off her feet and rest—the baby’s really been tiring her out lately—she was asking about Aspen.”
“Yeah, she should be there now. Gillian and her friend Wendy, along with Logan and Bria, picked her up and brought her home. They’re staying with her.”
Lucky was relieved to hear that. As much as he was worried about Devyn, he was glad to know the others were taking care of their own.
“I didn’t see Spencer when I got back,” Lefty said.
“Me either,” Trigger added.
“Fuck. Okay, I saw him sitting at the kitchen table earlier,” Grover said, “but I didn’t see him when I got back from the bank either.”
“His car’s not in the driveway,” Lucky barked, dread filling him as he peered out one of the front windows.
“Damn it!” Grover swore, kicking a chair as hard as he could.
It launched across the floor, breaking as it crashed against the wall opposite where he was standing.
“I’m going out to find him,” Grover said between clenched teeth.
“He’s gonna regret this. I swear to God, I don’t care that he’s my brother.
He’s the only one who has Rocky’s number.
Fuck, we should’ve gotten it from him. I’m such an idiot! ”
“Calm down, Grover,” Brain said.
“I can’t!” Grover said roughly. “It’s his fault my sister is out there somewhere, probably scared out of her skull and hurting. I can’t believe he bolted!”
“I’m here.”
Everyone turned to stare at the front door. Spencer had just walked in and was standing there facing them all. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think I’d be gone so long.”
He still looked terrible. He’d changed clothes and was no longer wearing the blood-soaked T-shirt he had on earlier, but his face was still swollen and bruised all to hell.
He limped as he shuffled toward Kinley, who was still sitting at the table holding the money they’d all withdrawn from their bank accounts.
Lefty shifted so he was standing slightly in front of his wife, as if to protect her if Spencer made a move to grab the cash.
But instead of looking at the cash with greedy eyes, Spencer reached forward and put a stack of bills down next to the others. “I know it’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough…but it’s all I could get. I sold my car. They’d only give me five hundred for it, but I had to do something.”
Lucky couldn’t help but be shocked. Spencer Groves would never be his favorite person. He wouldn’t be invited to Thanksgiving anytime soon, not after his direct actions had gotten Devyn kidnapped, but he still appreciated the gesture.
“How’d you get back to the house?” Grover asked.
Spencer backed away from the table and shrugged. “I hitchhiked.”
No one told Grover’s brother that they didn’t need his money. That they’d already gathered the sixty thousand dollars Rocky wanted. It was obvious Spencer had wanted to help, even if it was too little, too late.
“We’ve got the money,” Grover told his brother. “It’s time to call Rocky.”
“Should we call the detectives and let them know?” Doc asked.
“No,” Lucky and Grover said at the same time.
Lucky nodded at his teammate. They were on the same page.
They might get in trouble for keeping the cops out of the loop, but if something illegal had to be done in order get Devyn back, they were both willing to risk it.
Not to mention, the money drop was going to be tricky.
If the cops were there and watching, it was possible whoever Rocky sent to get the money would get spooked.
And the longer it took for the money to change hands, the longer it would be until they could retrieve Devyn from wherever she’d been stashed.
Spencer slowly lowered himself into a chair at the other end of the table from Kinley. He put his cellphone on the table in front of him and clicked on a few buttons. Within seconds, the sound of ringing filled the room from the speaker.
Lucky saw Spencer wipe his hands on his jeans several times. It was obvious the man was nervous. As he should be. There was a lot riding on this call. Devyn’s life.
“Rocky,” a deep voice said from the other end of the phone.
“It’s Spencer.”
“Ah, Spence. It’s good to hear from you…especially since it seems you cut out of town. You weren’t trying to avoid me, were you?” Rocky asked.
“No, of course not,” Spencer said nervously.
Lucky couldn’t help himself; he leaned over and broke into the conversation. “We’ve got your money. We want Devyn back.”
“And who do I have the pleasure of talking to?” Rocky asked.
“Name’s Lucky, and Devyn’s my girlfriend,” he spat out.
“I’m terribly sorry things got to the point they did,” Rocky said congenially. “I always hate when my clients don’t take me seriously and refuse to pay what they owe.”
“Where’s Devyn?” Lucky asked between clenched teeth.
“Here’s the thing—I don’t know you, and I don’t trust you.
No offense. Spencer’s been a pain in my ass for a while now.
I loaned him money in good faith. He knew the consequences of not paying me back, and here we are.
I don’t like resorting to violence, but I also can’t let my clients get away with ripping me off.
If word gets out that I’ve gone soft, no one would bother to pay me back and that’d be bad for business.
You understand that this was strictly a business transaction, right? ”
“What I understand is that your goons beat my girlfriend unconscious then kidnapped her. We’ve got your money, and I want to know where she is. Now.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, that’s not how this is gonna work, and you know it,” Rocky said, his voice a bit harder now. “I get my money first, then I’ll send word as to where you can pick up the woman. Spencer, you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Good. You’re gonna make the drop. You and just you.
If there’s anyone else with you, the deal’s off.
If I get word that there are cops watching, the deal’s off.
If you do anything to make my guys nervous when they go get that money, the deal’s off.
It’s been a couple days. How long do you think your sister can last without food or water? Time’s a tickin’.”
Without food or water…
Lucky wanted to reach through the phone and fucking kill this Rocky asshole.
“I understand,” Spencer said quietly.
“Tomorrow morning, at ten o’clock sharp, you’re to be in Austin.
The North Lamar area. There’s an apartment complex called Longspur Apartments.
There’ll be what looks like a homeless man, panhandling for money.
He’ll be wearing a Dallas Cowboys jersey and a black baseball cap.
You’ll walk up to him, put the cash into his collection bucket, then walk away.
When you get back to Killeen, you call me, and by then I’ll know if all my money was paid back and I’ll give you the GPS coordinates for where you can find the chick. ”
“Tonight. We’ll make the drop tonight,” Lucky said, not wanting to wait another fucking second to get to Devyn.
“You aren’t calling the shots, are you?” Rocky retorted. “I’m going out on a limb here. I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you. You could be a cop for all I know. If you want to see the woman again, I’ve told you what you need to do.”
“How will we know for sure he’s your man?” Grover asked. “Dallas Cowboy jerseys aren’t exactly rare around here.”
“I’m not surprised there’s a roomful of you there,” Rocky said with a slight laugh. “And you’re right. When you walk up to the man, he’ll say, ‘Interesting morning this morning, isn’t it?’ That’s how you’ll know.”
“One of us will have to drive him to Austin,” Lucky told Rocky. “He sold his car.”