Page 69 of Exposed
Nate! He’d found her.
She smiled and straightened. Then her gaze landed on the deep V of his shirt. Dark hair spiraled between the gaped material and her stomach plummeted.
Carlos!
No, no, no.His beady eyes stared down at her and his fingers dug into her shoulders. His face twisted into a snarl and his eyes raked over her, meeting her gaze. Her heart beat in her chest like a caged hummingbird. Fire shot from his emerald irises, and color crept up the neckline of his black T-shirt.
“Hello, Maddie,” he breathed. He turned her in his arms, gripping her wrists behind her back and shoved her through the door and up the stairs. Hector trailed behind them, his footsteps heavy. Her mind turned in a million circles as she opened and closed her mouth.
She had nothing. And the battered man upstairs would only further weaken her case. Dammit, she hadn’t gotten the chance to call Nate. Her stomach curdled. She wouldn’t let them restrain her again. If it came down to that, she’d take them all.
She swallowed. She had to think of something to talk her way out of this.
CHAPTER 23
Nate stepped outof the elevator and dropped his phone into his back pocket. He scanned the main floor for Ashley’s short raven-headed form. Where the hell had she gone? Only a few people meandered around the deck; everyone had probably gotten off an hour ago when they’d docked. He bit his teeth into the side of his cheek. Maddie had tried to get ahold of him this morning and he’d been too damn hungover to hear his phone. The memories from last night still set fire to his veins but at the end of the day, she wasn’t safe until this case was done.
A dull throb had started across his forehead. He hated not knowing where Maddie was, and the fact that he’d been wallowing in self-pity made it worse. Dylan and Ashley would have kept sharp tabs on her though.
He needed caffeine like a motherfucker. Screw it, he’d get his own coffee and call Ashley. Maybe she’d forgotten something and had gone back upstairs. A hand closed around his elbow, whipping him to the side. He turned and dropped his gaze.
Ashley’s face was as white as a sheet, her brown eyes dark with panic. “She’s gone, Nate!”
His pulse slowed to a dull roar.
Maddie.
His forearm bunched and he ripped out of her hold. He snagged her shoulder in his fist.
“What happened?”
Her lips trembled. “Dylan just called. He was tailing them and someone pulled her into a van. He said it happened so fast—he’s trying to locate the vehicle now.”
His blood drained to his feet. A dark mist closed around his vision, making his head swim. Carlos had been playing them. He’d known she was an informant and now he was going to kill her. Or worse.
Cold sweat collected at the back of his neck and his hands closed into hammer-like fists at his sides. When he got a hold of that sonofabitch, he was going to break every bone in his face. If he so much as touched a hair on her head…
He forced away the quicksand of panic that threatened to swallow him up. He couldn’t crumble now. He towed Ashley back into the elevator and jabbed Dylan’s floor number. They had to find her. He pulled his phone back out of his pocket and dialed Dylan.
He answered on the second ring. “Hello?” Hesitation laced Dylan’s voice.
Nate’s hand tightened on the phone. He could count on one hand how many times Dylan had been rattled. “Where are you?” His words came out clipped.
Part of him wanted to lay into Dylan, but that wouldn’t do Maddie any good. Later, after they found her, he could kill him. It wasn’t all Dylan’s fault. If he hadn’t licked his wounds last night, if he had woken up on time, this never would have happened.
Dylan gave his location. “I wasn’t far when they snatched her, but the streets are so crowded I couldn’t catch up. I’m trolling the area now, but there’s so many fucking white vans.”
The elevator stopped and the doors glided open. “I put a tracking device in her encrypted phone a while ago. You’ll have to walk me through using the system so I can locate her.”
He’d be able to figure it out himself, but Dylan was much faster and it would save time for him to help. “Did you catch a plate number?”
Ashley pulled the key to Dylan’s room out of her purse and slid it in the lock. She shoved the door open and he followed her inside. Some kind of air freshener hit him in the face and stung his nostrils. One glance around showed Dylan had cleaned up.
He slanted a glance at Ashley—she wouldn’t pick up after Dylan. He must have been so morbidly embarrassed by the slop lying around that he’d picked up when she was here.
“I couldn’t make out the middle letter, but I got the rest.”
“Call it in when we’re done.” It would be a long shot that the plate was traceable, but a necessary step. When people got desperate, they got sloppy. He went right to the computers humming on the dining room table and pulled out a chair. Ashley hovered behind him as he put his phone on speaker.
