Chapter Twenty Cole
Scanning the gallery, I don’t see Addie anywhere. No need to panic. She probably went to the bathroom. The guards would take her to the private employee facilities in the back, so that’s where I head.
On the way, that little niggling voice in the back of my brain starts talking shit.
Did she take the necklace and run? Was everything between us merely a ruse, all leading to this moment?
Is there a secret plan she concocted with her team that I know nothing about, and now they have the necklace and are on the run?
Would she leave me standing here like a fool to face my sergeant and the Feds?
No. I refuse to believe it. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt. She said she wants more. That I know where to find her after this is all over. I have to believe she was being honest about that. Because, she didn’t have to say anything.
Granted, even if we both want to dive into more, things aren’t going to go down exactly as we’d planned. Unfortunately, there are certain steps I have to take first. Steps she’ll most likely never forgive me for.
Maybe she had an inkling I was up to something.
“Fuck,” I hiss, raking a hand through my hair and jogging toward the back hallway.
“Vaughn!” a voice calls, and I turn to see Knox striding over.
His pretty-boy face isn’t all beguiling smiles like usual.
No, it’s screwed up in a frown and he looks…
worried. I’ve never seen Knox Beckett look worried.
He’s the kind of guy who always has an answer ready and an escape route nearby, so I go on high alert. “Addie isn’t answering.”
The grimness in his voice makes my heart stutter in my chest. I know without a doubt Addie would never leave her team, so I’m confident now that she didn’t take off with the necklace. However, if she isn’t answering her friends, something is very wrong.
I yank my phone out of my pocket, pull up the tracking app… and curse.
“The necklace is on the move,” I state between gritted teeth.
Knox’s eyes widen in surprise. “What? How?”
“Fuck if I know, but it’s moving fast. Most likely means it’s in a vehicle, being transported as we speak.”
“Shit!” Knox rakes a hand through his hair, pivots and reports this new development to the rest of his team. Meanwhile, I race for the employee bathroom.
Shoving through the door marked “private,” I stumble to a halt when I spot one of Addie’s bodyguards on the hallway floor, struggling to sit up.
“What the hell happened?” I demand, striding over. “Where’s Addie?”
“Some fucker stunned me,” he reports, struggling to stand up.
“Where’s the other guard?” He looks around and shrugs as I push through the bathroom door. It’s empty. “Addie!” I punch the stall doors open to make sure she isn’t in one, possibly unconscious on the floor. But there’s no sign of her.
Addie is gone. My gut twists, because I have a feeling something very bad has happened. Hurrying out of the bathroom, I move past the guard and head for the nearest exit. I have no time to sit around and chat, trying to pull information from a guy who was out cold until seconds ago.
Within seconds, Addie’s team appears and falls into step beside me.
“Nyx and Warrant are gone,” Lincoln Decker, their huge safecracker reports. “Up and disappeared.”
Goddammit. How did this all happen so fast? My job was to keep Addie and the Phoenix Kiss safe, and I failed. All our carefully-laid plans are falling apart. But more importantly, Addie is in trouble. I can feel it in my bones.
We shove out a side door and I rack my brain, trying to remember where the valet is and where my car might be parked. Starting to feel slightly frantic, I hear Knox fire off some orders to his team, then he nods to a sleek-looking, hunter green Jaguar parked right at the curb.
“C’mon, Detective. Let’s go,” he urges, shoving me toward the vehicle.
His car is insanely luxurious, but there’s no time to admire it. My attention is on the app, trying to calculate how long it will take us to reach the glowing dot, which is still traveling along at a fast pace.
“Looks like they’re about ten minutes away,” I say.
“Any idea what the hell happened?” Knox asks, gunning the Jag’s engine and hitting the accelerator. “She went to the bathroom to place the tracker and then radio silence.”
I slam back against the seat, reaching for the seat belt, and quickly buckle up. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” I grit out.
A phone rings and Knox answers. “Talk to me, Deck.” I assume Deck is Lincoln Decker. “Copy that. I’ll be in touch.”
He hangs up and mutters a curse under his breath. “They found the second guard. Claims he was stunned, too.”
“You think he’s lying.” It’s not a question, because it’s exactly what I’m thinking.
“No idea.”
“Makes sense,” I muse. “He might’ve even helped. Someone was facilitating on the inside. And I’m going to find out who.”
“It wasn’t us,” Knox states firmly.
“I know.” My attention drops back down to my phone’s screen. “The dot stopped moving.”
I have no idea if that’s good or bad, but the car picks up even more speed, and a quick glance at the speedometer confirms we’re doing over one hundred miles per hour. Heart in my throat, I watch as we get closer and closer.
“Got a plan, Detective?”
“Yeah, get my girl back safely.”
He nods, turning down the road I indicate. “I can get behind that.”
I lean forward, squinting through the darkness, and spot a limousine pulled off to the side of the road. As we get closer, I can make out Simon Nyx lying on the ground, unmoving. Not far away, Billy Warrant stands at the vehicle’s back door, pointing a gun inside.
“Stop!” I order, already jumping out of the car as Knox slams on the brakes. Whipping my weapon out from the holster beneath my suit jacket, I race toward Warrant yelling, “FREEZE!”
Instead of following my order, he turns and fires a shot at me. Shit! I hit the ground, roll, and nearly laugh in relief when the bullet misses me. By a fucking mile. Warrant should stick to thieving, because he is a terrible shot.
After firing a few more times, he gives up, jumps inside the limo’s driver’s seat and takes off. There’s no sign of Addie, but when I glance at the tracker app, I see the necklace is on the move again. Hopefully, it’s still around her neck and she’s very much alive.
Knox pulls up, and I’m barely inside, before he takes off again. Smoke pours from the Jag’s wheels as they momentarily spin, then the car jolts forward in hot pursuit. There’s no way the limousine can outrun us, and I’m determined to stop it.
There’s a bridge coming up fast and a plan forms in my head.
If we can overtake the limo then block the other side of the bridge, Warrant will be trapped and forced to stop.
Because the last thing I want to do is risk taking a shot and blowing out the rear tires, which would probably make him lose control.
“Cut him off!”
“And I’ll block him in!” Knox yells, as though hearing my thoughts.
But just as he accelerates, the limo blows a tire then flips.
My heart sinks as the vehicle careens sideways, slams into the guard rail and launches over the edge.
No, no, no! For a moment, the limo is airborne, tumbling through the nighttime sky, and then it lands upside down in the cold, dark South Platte River below.
I’m already yanking my door open. I leap out as Knox squeals to a halt, racing over to the edge of the bridge where the guard rail is now gone, most of it shattered and in the water below.
Without a second thought, I launch myself over the edge and pray this part of the river is deeper than it looks.
If not, I’m a dead man falling.