38. Stealing Assets on Hand
Stealing Assets on Hand
Drew
It’s the middle of the night and I’m staring up at the ceiling. Things are shifting so fast. I never imagined I’d have someone to love. But with that comes keeping her safe. And that’s not easy in the current situation.
Not with her there and me here. Though she’s safe there with the others.
But when we get back to the city, we can’t be together every minute of every day.
Not even the guys can do that and they work with Sara.
I doubt she’ll accept a bodyguard. Although, maybe she will after being kidnapped by Peter Sokolov.
Our hotel door chimes like someone just unlocked it. I sit up and glance over at Wyatt passed out in his bed. Maybe it was another room down the hallway. I hate hotels like this. Hearing people’s footsteps and voices in the middle of the night always creeps me out.
The door flings open, breaking the lock on the side of the door, and men in black storm in. Wyatt sits up alert.
“We have your friends, and if you come along nicely, we’ll even put you with them.” The guy sounds cocky. He doesn’t have a gun pointed at our face though.
“How do we know you have them?” I need proof or I’m calling bullshit. There are five guys standing in our room, but I don’t know how many more are in the hallway.
Five guys. Maybe Wyatt and I can take them. There’s furniture that can be used as weapons.
The guy pulls out a phone and presses on something before turning the screen our way. It’s a night vision camera in what looks like the back of a cargo van. Sara sits between Dante and Finn who only have on boxers. Tom and Natasha sit opposite them.
“Good enough?” the guy asks.
Wyatt nods. No one looks harmed, though Tom, Dante, and Finn have their arms behind their backs.
“Give us a minute to collect our things and we’ll come willingly.” Wyatt waits for the person who talked to us to acknowledge him.
“Sure, get your stuff. But no funny business.” The guy doesn’t move from his spot in front of our beds.
Both Wyatt and I move slowly so they don’t worry we’re trying to get the jump on them. We get out of the beds and pull on our jeans and shirts, then stuff our computers and phones into the bags along with anything else we had out for the night.
When we’re finished, we nod to the guy in charge and he leads us out. There are a few more men in the hallway securing the area. Some people duck into their rooms as we walk past.
Once we’re in the parking lot, Wyatt pulls out his keys.
“The brown car over there needs to be returned to Tallas Autos in the next town over.” He pauses, looking expectantly at the leader.
The leader sighs. “Adams, take the car back to the dealership.”
One of the guys steps up and takes the keys.
“Anything else?” the leader asks.
“Not that I can think of. Drew?” Wyatt’s dark eyes fix on mine.
“I got nothing.” I shrug and give the leader a crooked smile. They have our girl. That’s the fastest way to get me to cooperate.
They lead us over to a van and open the back.
We climb in, but as we do, one of the other guys takes our bags from us.
Makes sense. They probably saw us stuff our cell phones in there.
We could dial the Feds. There’s also the chance the Feds might already be tracking the phone we called from, which I slipped into the bag.
When they close us in, I take a breath. “Now what?”
Wyatt leans back and closes his eyes. “Get comfortable and maybe some sleep. We have no idea who they are or where they’re taking us.”
“You don’t think this is Peter?”
He shrugs. “Could be? Or could be any number of people who want to get in good with Peter. No one should have known about that house.”
There is someone who knows about that house, but from all accounts, he doesn’t have the manpower to do something like this.
“Your family?” I don’t want to say father just in case someone is listening in.
Wyatt gives a noncommittal noise.
I rest my head against the side of the van as it starts forward. It’s going to be an even longer night.
* * *
Finn
My mind is racing. My father had me in kidnap training since I was old enough to talk. He always worried someone would come after me. I’m calm, but we don’t have enough information.
The men were all in black with only their eyes showing and no insignia on their clothing. They were tough, but unarmed. If they wanted to take us, it would have been easier to show up with weapons loaded. But whoever sent them didn’t want anything to go terribly wrong.
Either they were concerned about us as hostages or their men as potential victims.
So, no weapons, no obvious leader. They spoke of their boss which could mean anyone.
Sara sleeps against my shoulder. At least they didn’t separate us.
The van comes to a halt. We’ve been back here for hours.
They left some space in the zip ties, but I haven’t made a lot of headway in loosening them.
At least my fingers aren’t numb.
“Wake up, flower,” I say softly.
She sighs and opens her eyes. “Where are we?”
“No idea.” I meet Dante’s eyes and then Tom’s. They both give me a nod. We’re on the same page. We do whatever it takes to protect Sara and Natasha.
I take a slow, steady breath and wait for the doors to open. The men are outside the van now and I can almost hear them talking, but what I get is just murmurs and not words.
Someone knocks loudly on the doors and shouts, “Put the hoods back on.”
Fuck. I glance into the corners for the camera, but it’s useless. There are no lights in here, and the small amount filtering in through the doors doesn’t really give us anything except that it’s daylight now.
Sara lifts the hood and I lean forward to kiss her. Because whatever we’re going into could get dicey, and I need to have her taste on my lips. She presses her forehead against mine.
“I love you.” Her words are so soft they’re barely a breath against my lips.
“I love you.” I need her to know before I do something stupid.
She slides the hood over my head before leaving me. Dante says something softly and she replies before everything gets quiet. Sara releases a breath and takes my arm.
I don’t know how I’m going to protect her, but I’ll do everything I can.