His forehead creases. “You’re lying.”
I lower my head and clench my eyes together, trying to relieve some pressure. “I’m not.”
I can feel his breath on the side of my neck. “Well, since you quit, you can tell me.”
There’s no way to brace myself. Even though he’s pulled the tape from my mouth, I still have it around my wrist and ankles. “I. Won’t. Tell. You. Anything.”
I no sooner get the words out than I feel the steel toe of his boot against my ribs. I suck in a breath and roll to the side from the impact. But I don’t scream, I don’t beg, I don’t let out anything but a grunt.
“Give me her phone.”
The other man walks across the room and brings my phone back. “Open it,” he demands.
I shake my head, and he grabs me by the neck and holds the phone up to my face, using the face recognition software to unlock it.
He tosses me to the floor and walks away. The room is silent, until I can hear Walker through the speaker of the phone. “Brook? Is that you? Brook, baby, tell me where you’re at.”
The man laughs. “I’m sorry, Brook is not able to come to the phone right now.”
Walker’s intake of breath fills the room. His voice is filled with rage. “Rodriguez.”
I snap my eyes open and take in the surprise on the faces around me. They really have no idea who they’re dealing with. They don’t know how powerful Walker and his team really are. They have the world’s information at their fingertips.
The man recovers quickly. “Good, so you know who this is, and I don’t have to introduce myself. You have something I want, and I have something you want.”
“Put Brook on the phone.”
“I said...” the man starts, but Walker doesn’t let him finish.
“I want to talk to Brook now.”
The man brings the phone over and squats down in front of me. He holds the phone out.
“Hey, Walker.”
Walker’s voice is thick and soft. “Hey, honey. How you holding up?”
“I’m good. These three assholes are bullies, but I’m fine,” I tell him, wanting him to know that there’s three of them.
“Good, baby. That’s good.” He takes a deep breath. “I need you to hold on, okay? I’m going to get you out of there.”
“Walker, he wants the codes. Don’t give them to him.”
“You bitch!” the man holding the phone says. He points to the other guy, who pushes me backwards and kicks me again.
I scream, unable to hold it in.
“Brook! Brook! You fuckin’ bastard, you’re a dead man. Do you hear me? You’re dead.”
The man laughs. “Awww, and she said you didn’t care about her. It sounds like you do.”
“Damn straight I do. You give me Brook, and I’ll give you whatever you want,” Walker says.
The men are completely floored with the notion that he’s going to willingly give up the codes. Walker’s voice fills the room. “Unless you touch her again. You put your hands on her one more time, and you get nothing.”
“Fine. Send me the codes and I’ll send you her location. Thirty minutes.”
And then he hangs up. “Set a timer,” he tells the man on the laptop. “We’ll wait for the codes. If we don’t get them, we’ll take her apart, piece by piece.”
I lean down and rest my forehead on the dirty floor, concentrating on my painful breaths. Oh, Walker, what have you done? He’ll do it. He’ll give up the codes, I know he will. He’s that kind of guy. We’re like his family, and he’s protective of his family. I should have been paying attention. I should have done something to stop this from happening.
6
Walker
I hang up the phone and turn to Dylan. “Did you get it? Where is she at?”
“They’re close, Walker. They’re in the mountains. We’ll need the ATVs.”
Dylan holds up a map on his electronic tablet. He zooms out. “Here’s where we are.” He moves the map down to show the northern region, where the mountains are. “Here’s where they’re holding her. I’m pretty sure that’s the old Crawford line cabin. Nobody’s been there in years.”
I move the map with my fingers. “Until now.”
“There’s no roads.”
Dylan shakes his head. “No. They probably drove so far and then either had ATVs to take her the rest of the way or they carried her.”
“How long?”
He shrugs his shoulders. “Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes.”
I grab all the sets of keys that are hanging on the wall. “All right, let’s go.” I nod, already running through the building. Bear and Logan are both with me, and I holler for Dylan to send me the coordinates. He’s the tech guy, and he’ll stay behind to keep us all informed with air and land support.
The rest of the guys all follow behind, and we cart up in the ATVs, side by sides and the off-terrain Hummer. “What’s the plan, boss?” John hollers at me over the roar of the engines coming to life.