If Dave was gone for the evening, Dominic and Alex would have no reason to call him.
Right?
Nothing I could do about it, at any rate.
“You two will have to share a room,” Dominic said. “There’s a bed, and everything is clean and comfortable. It’s connected to Alex’s by a door. That’s the only way out. The windows are barred, so you’ll have to get past Alex if you’re thinking about running.”
“Let’s just tie them up and be done with it,” Alex said.
“No. Our orders are to keep them comfortable here.”
“Fuck the orders,” Alex said.
“You’re getting more like our brother every day,” Dominic said. “You want to switch sides? Say the word.”
“No. I don’t want to switch sides,” she said with sarcasm. “I’m just tired of dealing with these privileged little fucks.”
Privileged?
I was a Steel, and Colin came from a privileged background as well. After all we’d both been through, though, I had a hard time thinking of either of us as privileged.
Whatever.
“I’ll need access to a bathroom,” I said.
“Alex will take you if you need to go,” Dominic said.
“So I’m reduced to being a babysitter. Taking the little toddlers to go pee pee.”
“Alex…”
She sighed. “Sorry.”
I held back a scoff. Bitch wasn’t sorry at all. If she hated this line of work so much, why was she in it? Why did she let Dominic run the show? She put on a tough act, but maybe she wasn’t so tough after all.
I intended to find out.
“All right,” Dominic said. “I’m out of here. I’ll be back in the morning with your breakfast. Dave might get here before me, if he finishes—”
“Shouldn’t we have heard from him by now?” Alex interrupted.
Dominic looked at his watch. “I’ll call him from the road.”
Alex nodded, and relief swept through me. Now Colin would have time to silence the phone if he hadn’t already—assuming he could do so without being seen.
“You two behave yourselves,” Dominic said to us.
“Sure, Dad,” I said dryly.
Colin said nothing.
Dominic left, and I sat, my nerves jittering, waiting for the phone to ring in his crotch, or wherever it was. After a few minutes, I allowed myself to stop worrying. A little.
“Come on,” Alex said.
We followed her into what I assumed was a bedroom. It looked as if an extra wall and a door had been installed to make a nursery or something. “You two are in here.”
“Uh…there’s only one bed in here,” I said.
“Then you’ll be cozy. Shut the fuck up.” She walked through the door. “This stays open, by the way.”
I didn’t dare speak to Colin until I hadn’t heard anything come from Alex’s room for about ten minutes.
“Phone?” I mouthed.
“Died,” he mouthed back in a light whisper. “Battery was almost dead, but I managed to send a text and keep the line open.”
I gave him a thumbs-up. Hopefully its juice had held out long enough for Jade and Talon to trace the call.
“Take the bed,” Colin whispered. “I don’t mind the floor.”
I held a finger to my lips, urging him to be quiet. It didn’t really matter who took the bed. If we came up with a plan, we wouldn’t be here long.
Then I pointed to my left breast. I lifted my shirt and showed him the blade secured in my bra. I still didn’t know what I’d do with it.
“If the phone’s dead,” I whispered, “just tuck it somewhere. Dave will think he left it behind.”
He nodded. “When we go.”
“Plan?” I mouthed.
“Slit her throat,” he mouthed back.
Chapter Fifteen
Bryce
Roughly an hour and a half later, we drove into what appeared to be a deserted mobile home park. Trailers sat in ruins.
“They can’t possibly be in here anywhere,” Ryan said.
“You’d be surprised,” Ruby said. “In my day, I busted a lot of drug rings that were run out of places like this. They could very well be here.”
“You said it could be a setup,” Ryan said.
“It still could be. I don’t know, Ry. But this is a den for criminal activity, I can tell you that much. I feel it in my bones.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” her husband gibed her.
“It means after a decade on the force, you learn to follow your instincts.”
“No lights anywhere,” I said. “If they’re here, it’ll be like looking for a needle in a haystack. We’ll have to check each of these trailers.”
“Not necessarily,” Ruby said. “We look for other things. Tire tracks, for instance. Footprints.”
Ryan kissed her cheek. “That, right there, is why I married you.”
“It’s dark, though,” I said. “Did anyone bring a flashlight?”
“Of course,” Talon and Ruby said in unison.
Of course. The military man and the cop. They’d think of that. Why I hadn’t, I wasn’t sure. It was certainly logical.
Easy. They’d been trained to focus when in dire straits. I hadn’t been. My only thought had been getting to Marj. I was armed because I was almost always armed. My father had made sure I’d gotten my concealed carry permit as soon as I turned twenty-one. Joe, as well. It was pretty much part of getting dressed, as far as I was concerned.
Right now, I was thankful for that lesson learned, even if it had come from my father.
Talon pulled his truck into a secluded spot. “We should do this on foot. Damn. This feels familiar, doesn’t it, Ry?”
“Yeah,” Ryan agreed.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“When we were on that island, looking for Ruby,” Ryan answered. “Tal and I were alone and armed, with no idea where we were going.”
“You found what you were looking for that time,” I said.
“We did. Plus a lot more. Our mother, for one,” Talon said.
“Your mother,” Ryan said tersely.
“Come on, Ryan,” Ruby said. “She was your mother too. In every way that counts.”
Ryan didn’t respond, and I didn’t look into the back seat to see his reaction. None of my business. Plus, we had more important things to attend to.
“Let’s go,” Talon said. “We should split up. Ryan and Ruby, you go together. I’ll go with Bryce.”
“Makes sense,” Ruby said. “Everyone got their phones on?”
We all nodded. We had temporarily retired our normal phones and started using burner phones to stay in contact with each other. It had been sheer luck that Jade and Melanie were still using their original phones. Thank God. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have gotten the text from Colin.
Talon and I headed toward the first run-down trailer to the north of the truck, while Ryan and Ruby headed south.
Talon had his light on the dimmest setting. “I don’t see any tire tracks or anything around here. You want to go in and check it out?”