Chapter 28 #2
“No one can hear you down here!” I shout. “So do us all a favor and tell the truth. That’s all you need to do. Tell us who you’re working with, tell us where you’re keeping Raina, and you’ll live long enough to see the inside of a prison cell, I promise.”
Jeremy shakes his head and allows himself a satisfied smirk through the pain and fear. “And rid you of this misery? I’d rather not.”
“He’s either suicidal or a masochist,” Max grumbles. “Let me take a crack at him.”
I shake my head slowly. “He just thinks he’s buying himself time. Waiting, hoping someone upstairs will take pity and call the cops on us.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Jeremy replies.
Having lost track of how many times I’ve tried to slap some sense into the bastard. I punch him instead. Hard, with a left hook that whips his head around. He wheezes and groans from the pain, spitting blood on the floor before he looks up at me, defiance burning brightly in his eyes.
“Here’s the thing, Jeremy. The cops won’t help you.
They’re too busy looking for Raina. Our people are working hard to find her, as well.
Sooner or later, we will find her. I’d rather it be sooner.
For your sake, Jeremy, you should, too. And if you think anyone upstairs is going to help you, you’re dead wrong.
Because as we speak, your boss is telling them about how you’re blackmailing him”
“I didn’t blackmail him!”
“I don’t know who’s got Raina or if your endgame is just about the money, Jeremy. But it doesn’t matter. If you want to walk out of this building alive, you need to talk.”
“This is illegal!”
I hit him again. “So is kidnapping our woman.”
“I didn’t kidnap her!”
Again. My knuckles hurt, but I welcome the pain. It’s only a fragment of what he’s feeling, and I feed on that. I let it fuel my rage. I move to his ribs. He coughs and wheezes to the point of throwing up, so I step back to give him a moment.
“Jeremy, every second you waste in here is a second that keeps us from Raina,” I say. “Do yourself a favor and end it here. You’re not going to get the money.”
“You’re not going to get the girl either,” Max says.
Jeremy spits out blood. “You can keep the cow.”
Vincent comes down on him hard. It only takes one punch to cause a couple of teeth to come loose.
“We can make this last until you beg us to kill you,” I tell Jeremy. “Back in Kandahar, we did a lot worse for a lot less.”
A knock on the door brings everything to a halt. Jeremy almost breathes a sigh of relief until Vivian’s voice comes through.
“I’ve got something, guys.”
Cautiously, Max opens the door for Vivian. She comes in with a small stack of printed papers.
“Vivian, call the police, please,” Jeremy tries, but Vincent punches him again.
She flinches and stares at him for a moment, then takes a deep breath and gives me the papers. “So what Jeremy doesn’t know is that all of our phones come with detailed call logs. It was part of a privacy waiver we signed upon joining Bancroft & Associates. It was in the fine print.”
She pauses to confirm by the look on Jeremy’s face that he did not pay attention to said print. “I was able to pull a detailed list of outgoing calls from the past couple of weeks. Have a look and tell me if you recognize a name or a number.”
It doesn’t take long for a familiar extension to pop up.
My blood runs cold. The shock stiffens every muscle in my body, and I briefly lose my ability to breathe as the implications unravel in the back of my head. For the sake of clarity and confirmation, I take my phone out and check the number against my contact list.
“What is it, Alex?” Vincent asks.
All eyes are on me now, including Jeremy’s, who looks pale. He knows what I found, and I think he understands what it means for him. Good. I want the dread to eat away at him.
“This is Deanna’s number,” I tell the guys.
“What?” Max gasps and snatches the papers from my hands. “Shit.”
“The last call went out a couple of hours ago,” I say, then look at Jeremy. “Were you checking up on her and Raina?”
Vincent checks the papers, too, then hands them to Vivian, along with a business card. “Viv, do us a favor. Email all of this stuff to our guy, Luke. His details are on that card. It’s evidence now.”
“You’re never going to find her in time,” Jeremy says. “Deanna knows what to do in case I miss a check-in call.”
“Oh, we’ll find her,” I calmly reply.
“Not without my help.”
“We don’t need your help anymore,” I say and dial Luke’s number, then walk away from Jeremy altogether.
“Should we leave him there?” Vivian asks, following behind me.
“Do you care?” I shoot back.
She shakes her head slowly. “Not really, no. But there’s something else I need to tell you.”
“What is it?” I pause in the middle of the hallway.
“Raina’s pregnant. I’m worried about her, about her condition. The faster you get to her—”
“She’s what?” I interrupt, unsure whether I heard her correctly.
Vivian takes a deep breath. “She’s pregnant. And she’s going to kill me for telling you, but you all need to understand what’s at stake here.”
My heart’s about to leap out of my chest.
“We understand,” I tell Vivian.
“And another thing,” she adds with a worried frown. “You need to tell Kaleb about this. He’ll never forgive you if he’s not there when you find her.”
“You’re right,” I agree. “You’re absolutely right. It’s time we put an end to this senseless fighting, anyway. Thank you, Viv.”
She takes another look at the room in the back, where Vincent is standing over Jeremy’s form.
“Relax, he’s not going to kill him,” Max says.
“I will, if we don’t get to Raina in time,” I reply. Then Luke’s voice comes on the line. “Hey, I need you to ping a number’s location for me.”