Chapter Twenty-One
“Y ou pulled that laptop out of the box nearly thirty minutes ago. Why isn’t it ready to do what you need it to do?”
Afraid to give away her true motives, Seneca kept her eyes glued to the screen in front of her. “This takes precision. If I don’t get things right, we’ll both be in chains.”
He harrumphed like a displeased toddler instead of the criminal mastermind he thought himself to be.
“It didn’t take this long for you to do this in lockup.”
She sighed heavily. “Because you stole my laptop out of the evidence room and brought it to me. It was already configured and set up. This is a brand-new device. I have to set it up and then I have to download software to write the programming necessary to get your money unnoticed.”
He tapped his fingers on the countertop. “How long is this gonna take? I have something important I need to do.”
She shrugged, hoping she could play him a little bit longer.
Come on, Colton. Where are you? “An hour, maybe two. The software alone could take up to an hour or more to download. Next is trying to get through any of the firewalls and security protocols I’m certain to encounter when trying to steal from a financial institution.
I can tell you now, it won’t be easy. And the larger the number, the harder it’s going to be to get it. ”
Hastings pushed off from the space where he was leaning against the counter and paced back and forth. “Can’t you call Mr. B down here to help you get things moving? Maybe if the two of you put your heads together you can get the money faster.”
Still keeping her eyes affixed to the screen as she tapped a continuous rhythm out on the keyboard.
“Do you really want him knowing what you’re making me do?
The more people who know, the greater the risk that someone’s going to rat us out.
” When he didn’t respond, she decided to keep going.
“Why are you in such a rush? Where else do you have to be when I’m literally giving you the free money you asked me for? ”
She could hear the low growl in his voice. “My whereabouts ain’t none of your business. Get my money and keep your nose out of everything else.”
“If you want your money, you’re going to have to give me the time and space I need to work.”
She glanced up to witness the muscle in his jaw tighten and his lip curl in an unsavory snarl. But when he swallowed and his eyes moved from side to side in his head, she knew her stalling tactics were working.
“Do whatever you need to do. Just make it as fast as you can.”
She dropped her gaze back to the screen and celebrated her acting skills internally. Now all she had to do was keep this up until Colton came. And more than she relied on her next breath, she knew Colton would be the only person to get her out of this alive.
*
Colton sat leaning against his truck in the diner parking lot with his eyes fixed on the diner’s entrance. Jackson stood on the side of him waiting for Holden and Storm to exit with something, anything they could use to find Seneca.
“We’ll find her,” Jackson declared. There had never been a time in all their years of friendship that Colton had ever had the slightest sliver of doubt about anything Jackson said.
But tonight, with Seneca’s life in the balance, even Jackson’s reassurance wasn’t enough to keep the worry far from his thoughts.
“We’d better. Because if we don’t, I’m catching two bodies tonight: Hastings’s and Holden’s.
” He wasn’t joking in the least. He took his duty as a law enforcement agent seriously.
Upholding the law was always at the center of every decision he made.
But tonight, the law didn’t matter a bit if it couldn’t guarantee Seneca’s safety.
Jackson looked at him with understanding in his eyes. He nodded and raised a brow. “If it comes to it, we’ll help you bury ’em if need be.”
His throat tightened. These two men had his back through thick and thin.
Even though Storm was inside with Holden, Colton had no doubt he’d agree with Jackson’s offer of help.
And if it truly did come to it—even though he’d never allow them to get caught up in any legal consequences because of his decisions—knowing they wouldn’t hesitate to help him get the job done was the reason why he’d never choose to have anyone else guarding his six.
The chime of a bell in the air pulled their attention to the door in time to see Holden and Storm exiting. By the time the two men made it to where Colton and Jackson were waiting, Colton’s fists were tightening involuntarily.
“Find out anything?”
The question was out of his mouth before Storm and Holden came to a standstill in front of him and Jackson.
“They were here,” Holden answered before taking a breath then glancing at Storm beside him. “They left together around the time Storm spoke to Seneca. Neither of them said where they were going, and no one saw which direction they went.”
“Shit!” Anger mixed with fear swelled inside of him. Granted, Fresh Springs was small, but without a clue on where they went, it could take hours to locate them.
“You know if the sheriff was driving his cruiser, Holden? If he was, is there any kind of tracking?”
Holden shook his head. “On the cruiser, no. I tried to get a lead on his and Seneca’s cells on the way over here. But he must have ’em off—my team couldn’t get a lock on either of them.”
“So, Seneca is out there in all of creation with this asshole and we can’t find her?” He ran rough fingers through his hair, needing to feel the bite of pain on his scalp to keep himself focused. If he couldn’t keep his head on straight, he wouldn’t be any use to Seneca.
“Storm, tell me again what Seneca said to you. Exactly what she said.”
“You thinking she left a clue?” Jackson’s question hit the nail on the head.
“Yeah. It’s obvious she was trying to let Storm know something; otherwise, she wouldn’t have pretended they were together. That had to be for Hastings’s benefit. Maybe if we can pick her words apart, we can figure out what she was really saying.”
Storm looked up in the sky as if he were trying to pull the memory directly from the air. “She talked about bringing me a Buffalo sandwich. According to Martha-Jean, she said the only thing Seneca ordered was—”
“Carrot cheesecake,” Colton responded. “It’s her comfort food when she’s upset. We’d been arguing before she left, so that tracks. Anything else?”
“I told her to get extra sauce because I loved it. She then responded with something about liking Apple products just as much. Then she ended the call.”
“Apple products?” Colton scratched at the scruff on his face. Something about that phrase niggled in the back of his mind. “What the hell are you trying to tell me, Sen? What the hell do Apple products have to do with any of this?”
He lifted his gaze to Storm again. “Tell me exactly what she said, not the paraphrase. We’re missing something. Seneca is all about details. I need to know exactly what she said.”
Storm nodded. “When I told her how much I loved the sauce she said, ‘Almost as much as I love the newest Apple anything. And just like them, nothing can keep me away from you for too long. I’ll be back before you know it.’”
Colton put his hand on Storm’s shoulder.
“Say that again, Storm?”
“She loves Apple products?”
Colton shook his head. “No, after that.”
“And just like them, nothing can keep her away from me too long?”
Colton snapped his fingers, as he closed his eyes trying to pull on the tiny thread at the edge of his thoughts. If he could just catch hold of it, he knew he could unravel this mystery.
“Seneca, what are you trying to tell me?” He’d lost count of how many times he’d asked this exact question. But he’d keep asking until he finally pieced together this puzzle.
Flashes of the first time they’d made love traveled across the slideshow of his mind. He fast-forwarded beyond the heated touches to just after Holden’s call.
I’m headed to Mr. Bitterman’s electronic store to pick up some new equipment. Seneca’s voice echoed through his head as he sifted through her words. You know how I love my devices and gadgets. Nothing can keep me away from them for too long.
His eyes snapped open as realization coursed through him.
“She’s at Bitterman’s.”
The three men looked at each other before turning to Colton. “How’d you come up with that?” Holden’s question annoyed him, but Colton spared him the courtesy to answer it.
“Seneca doesn’t love just Apple products; she loves any gadget she can get her hands on. She took pieces of a conversation we had earlier and fed them to Storm, hoping I’d make the connection. She’s there. I know it.”
“How you wanna play this, friend? Hargrove said you’re in charge,” Storm continued. “We follow your lead.”
Colton expected that from Storm and Jackson, but when he found Holden nodding his head in tandem, surprise mixed with a healthy dose of suspicion made him squint as he stared Holden down.
The man held his hands up. “Listen, I may be an asshole, but I don’t want to see her hurt. Whatever you need me and my team to do, it’s yours.”
Colton nodded. With Seneca’s life on the line, he’d make a deal with any devil, including Holden, if it meant getting her back safe.
“How many in your team? How long before they could get here?”
“Five including me,” Holden answered. “One man is getting a shipment together that’s supposed to be moved sometime tonight. I can’t pull him. But the other four are at the local inn off the highway. They could be here in ten minutes.”
“Call your folks and wait for them here. When they get here, go on foot. Bitterman’s is only about three or four blocks down the road.
Approaching in a vehicle might tip Hastings off.
Come around the back way through the alley.
You and your men cover the side and the back entrances.
” He then swept his hand across Jackson and Storm.
“We’ll take point going in the front. Text communication only. All ringers off.”