“You’re in a car. Where’s Adam and the others?”
“Heath’s here with me. We were heading to the café.”
“And there you go, breaking another rule.”
Harper stiffened in fear a second before Dillon slapped her lower cheek and mouth, hard enough she tasted blood. Her faint whimper yielded a chuckle from her tormentor.
“Dillon,” Seth’s agonized voice filtered through the laptop.
The bastard grabbed her jaw in his free hand, cruelly digging his fingers into her flesh and pressing her mouth against her teeth. She blinked through the tears blinding her. “The rule is all four of you must be together. Ensure they are there for the next round—if there is one.”
“Dillon, don’t do this. Put me in the fucking chair.”
“Ah, but that’s the whole point, Seth. This is about you having to sit helpless and watch as you lose everything that matters.”
Harper stared at the screen, drinking up Seth’s image. If this was the last moment she had, she had to be honest, make it count. Be as brave and honest as Sienna told her she was last night. Say what she’d been feeling since Heath’s barbecue.
“And we fire in three, two—”
“Dillon, you fucking bastard!” Seth screamed, but his gaze was riveted on Harper.
“I love you Seth,” Harper cried.
The sound of the hammer clicking on the empty chamber echoed like a crack of thunder in the cavernous warehouse.
Harper sank into the chair as all strength drained from her body.
Seth dragged in a shuddering breath as the sunlight through the car’s window highlighted his ashen complexion.
“I’m assuming you’re tracing this FaceTime. In the interests of full disclosure, I should tell you the same hacker I hired to cover the first three posts is scrambling my location. By the time you figure out where I am, our game will have long finished,” Dillon said in a toneless voice. “You have fifteen minutes until the next call.” He clicked a remote, and the screen went blank.
Harper drew in a shuddering breath. She had to talk Dillon down from the emotional ledge he was standing on. If she didn’t, he’d put that revolver to her head again and fire.
“Dillon,” she licked her lips, ignoring the metallic taste of blood. “You could just leave. Now. Before the guys find you.”
“How are they going to find me, Harper?” Dillon chuckled and stepped a few feet away from her. The punishing pressure on her scalp disappeared as he cradled the revolver in his hands. “I just told Seth he can’t trace where I am.”
“But he can.” Time to bullshit. And make it believable. “Heath told me at my apartment that he’d just found some super hacker, a guy who could crack anything. A Russian.” Weren’t they supposed to be awesome at this shit? God, she had no freaking idea. “Said he was setting this Russian on the imposter’s trail. Today.”
Dillon’s eyes widened a fraction before narrowing.
She held his gaze and forced herself to keep her breathing even. “He seemed pretty confident. Told me once he had the proof he needed, he’d be back to arrest me.”
Again, he chuckled. “Do you think I’m scared to face them?”
“No,” she rushed out. Yes, totally. Face down the Justice brothers en masse? Who wouldn’t be? But she wasn’t stupid enough to insult a man when he held a gun on her. “But if you leave now, you’d get away.”
“Ah, see...” Dillon shook his head. “That’s where you have things wrong. Those Aussies aren’t nearly as smart as you think, Harper.”
Keep him talking. As long as he was occupied, he wasn’t holding a gun to her head.
“What do you mean?”
“They didn’t work out I was behind everything.” He leaned forward. “I had to tell them by leaving a note on your journal.”
Her mouth dropped. “My journal? You stole it?”
“That was the purpose behind the break-in. But the idiot I hired fucked up, didn’t disable the alarm on the door camera like I told him how, so I had to go in and do the job myself. You and Heath were in your living room, and I was being the considerate guy, packing more stuff for you, and grabbed what I wanted. Nobody noticed the second small bag I kept in my car.”