Chapter 28
“You need to calm down, cousin,” Jase said in a careful tone of voice. “It’s going to be fine.”
I shoved my phone at Jase. “Text Katherine, tell her to get into the Uber as soon as it arrives, have it drive around even if you haven’t booked a hotel yet.”
“On it.”
I squeezed the steering wheel so hard that my hands hurt.
“She said she will.”
“Now call Simon, put it on speaker. I want to know his ETA, and we need to update him.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jase pull up Simon’s name. Simon and Nolan were following behind us in the Suburban, coordinating from there. I gave my full attention back to the highway.
“Our ETA is forty minutes,” Simon said as he answered the call.
“Can you make it thirty-five? We have a situation.”
“Speak.”
I explained the Instagram post.
“Fuck!” Nolan roared.
“You know Viktor knows where she is now.” Simon’s words were said quietly.
I didn’t even bother to respond to such an obvious statement.
My knuckles were white on the steering wheel. I was pushing the SUV as hard as I could on the highway, weaving between slower traffic. Jase sat in the passenger seat, phone in hand, monitoring everything. But it wasn't fast enough. It would never be fast enough.
Twenty-seven minutes. That's what the GPS said. Twenty-seven minutes until I could get to Katherine.
Viktor could do a lot of damage in twenty-seven minutes.
"Any change in the situation?" Simon asked.
“Yeah, I’ve got info,” Jase spoke up. “Russell just shared the tracking for his Uber to Code’s phone. They’re eight minutes away from the hotel.”
I glanced at my phone on the dashboard. I had the tracking pulled up, a small car icon moving through Knoxville streets toward the Premier Lodge. Eight minutes until Katherine would be mobile, anonymous, safe.
But that was eight minutes of vulnerability.
"Code,” Nolan said sharply. “She'll be in that Uber before Viktor can even figure out which room she's in. She’s going to be okay." The last few words were said gently. Jesus, was I that pathetic?
Get your head in the game.
"He's not going to waste time knocking on doors," I said. My voice sounded flat even to my own ears. "He'll have a plan."
"What would you do?" Simon asked. "If you were Viktor?"
I'd been running scenarios since Katherine told me about the Instagram post. "First I’d just hack the registration system. Then when I couldn’t find anyone with hers or Sophie’s name, I’d go in and determine how best to play the clerk at the front desk.
At the most, it would take Viktor five minutes to get his answer when he got to the motel. ”
"Then we need to assume he's already got it," Nolan said grimly.
I glanced at my watch. “I think it would take five to ten more minutes.”
Jase glanced over at me, then at his phone tracking the Uber. "She's smart. She won't open the door for anyone. And she's got Russell and Sophie with her. Three people, all of them know the danger."
I wanted to believe that. But I knew Katherine. Knew her heart, her instincts. She'd spent fifteen years playing heroes on screen, but she was more heroic than any character she'd ever portrayed. She'd throw herself in front of a bullet for a stranger without thinking twice.
That's what terrified me.
"Code." Simon's voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. "I've got Thompson trying to access the hotel's security system. If we can get eyes on the building, we can at least see if Viktor's there."
"How long?"
"He's working on it. Five minutes, maybe ten."
Five minutes we don’t have.
I checked the GPS again. Eighteen minutes. I started to pray.
Please, Katherine. Stay behind that locked door. Wait for me. Just wait.
On my last call with Katherine, she’d sounded shaky, but confident. She had more courage in her pinky finger than half the men I’d served with. I wanted to call her. Hear her voice again, but that wouldn’t be good. She needed to focus. I wasn’t going to ruin her mood just to make me feel better.
I pushed the accelerator harder. The engine roared. Ninety-eight. Ninety-nine. One hundred.
"At this speed, now your ETA to Knoxville city limits is six minutes," Jase said quietly, watching the GPS. "Then another eight to the hotel."
Fourteen minutes total.
I'd survived entire operations in less time than that. Breached compounds, extracted assets, neutralized threats. Most times fourteen minutes was a blink of an eye. With Katherine’s life on the line, it was an eternity.
"Uber's now two minutes out," Jase reported, eyes on Russell's tracking.
Two minutes. Katherine had better be heading down to the lobby.
My phone was mounted on the dash where I could see it. I kept glancing at the screen, willing it to light up with a message from Katherine. We're in the Uber. We're safe. We're moving.
Nothing.
The highway stretched endlessly ahead, and I pressed harder on the gas even though I knew it wouldn't matter. Even though I knew that no matter how fast I drove, it might not be fast enough.
My phone rang.
Katherine's name on the screen.
I hit the button to answer, not taking my eyes off the road. "Are you in the Uber?"
"No." Her voice was small. Scared. "Code, someone's knocking on the door."