“I will not use her to point finger at you this time but keep her for future motivation. I find her interesting.”
Feeling relieved, Kovac waved a hand W couldn’t see, he hoped. “She’s yours with my blessings. I intend to be your best supplier.”
W allowed silence to build before he said, “As comforting as that might sound to others, I am only one who can make such a determination, which is based upon performance.”
Kovac cursed himself for becoming comfortable too quickly. “I understand, Sir. Just wanted you to know I’m in all the way.”
“Once this project is successful, I will contact you to confirm money has been sent.”
Excitement sparked in Kovac. He couldn’t wait. Phoebe would be reported as a runaway and he wouldn’t have to give up his lucrative operation just yet.
Nothing happening Saturday would tie to him.
Chapter 38
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Sam came to with painshooting through his skull. They’d hit him with something hard like the butt of a gun. He blinked his eyes and shook off the fog clouding his brain.
He was in a room with fifteen-foot ceilings and four six-foot-tall windows spaced out around the top on one side. The curved walls were built of radial bricks against a metal structure.
Still dark outside the windows. A red light glowed over the room. He rasped out, “Hallene?”
“She’s not awake yet.”
He turned quickly at the British accent and regretted the movement. “Shit.”
When his eyes cleared again, he saw Hallene lying on the floor with her head in the lap of a teenage girl with pink and blond hair sticking out in corkscrew curls. No makeup, but mascara had run from the corner of her eyes, probably from crying. She had dirty tan pants that stopped at the knees. One side had a tie and the other had been ripped. Her black short-sleeved top hit her short of her bellybutton. Her nails had been painted black at one time but were chewed into the quick.
Phoebe.
The girl scowled at him. “Wot’d you think bringin’ ’er ’ere? She tried to get to me once in some mansion. I was gobsmacked to see ’er. Then that sod ’urt ’er. Thought she’d died. Now you get ’er captured.”
Sam pushed himself into a sitting position and turned to lean against a wall with his knees bent. “I’m Sam. You must be Phoebe.”
“Yeh. Still don’t know wot’s goin’ on.”
