Page 76 of Blood Money

Alex clenched her bound hands. A guttural scream came from her throat. “Bitch.” She launched from the chair, hitting Fatima rock solid in the midsection. The table rocked, its legs scraping the concrete floor as it pushed backward. Alex staggered, her chest heaving. Fatima fell on her ass. The laptop perched on the table slid to the floor with a whack.

“Abdullah!” Fatima shouted.

Alex began kicking Fatima in the ribs. She hadn’t known she was even capable of such violence.

Abdullah laughed then grabbed her arms from behind. He shoved her roughly to the floor. Momentum had her rolling several feet from the table until she faced away from Fatima and Abdullah.

The locator. Turn it back on.

This might very well be her only opportunity. Not bothering to unbutton her blouse, she reached down the front of her shirt to her bra.

“You American whore.” Fatima’s footsteps sounded behind where Alex lay struggling to reactivate the locator.

Alex braced for the blow, but not before pushing the locator’s activation switch fully in the other direction. Gray said the locator’s signal was weak, but it was her only chance.

A woman’s enraged scream filled the barn. Fatima’s booted foot connected with Alex’s side. A bolt of pain stabbed into her ribs and she cried out, gasping for air. Fatima grabbed her by the arm, but the blow never came.

“Abia. You idiot,” Abdullah shouted. “If you kill her, she won’t be able to give us what we need.”

Another scream, this one out of frustration. “Tie her to the chair.”

Abdullah grabbed Alex by the arms again and hauled her to her feet. His grip was tight, his fingers digging into her like talons. He dumped her onto the chair. White stars flashed behind her eyelids. Alex leaned over, rocking forward and back, trying not to throw up.

“Well?” Fatima’s tone was demeaning. “Tie her up!”

“If I tie her up, how will she point out anything on the blueprints?”

Alex slowly opened her eyes. They were slow to focus. The laptop still lay on the floor next to the table, but that wasn’t what grabbed her attention. A thumb drive rested on the concrete floor nudged up against the table leg.

A Pyramid thumb drive. The contents of which could be priceless to law enforcement.

Alex sat up slowly, tensing for whatever was to come. When she raised her gaze, the first things she latched on to were Fatima’s eyes glittering with unconcealed malice. The second thing was the gun Fatima pulled from under her shirt and pointed directly at Alex’s face.

She squeezed her eyes shut and tensed. Tears trickled from her closed lids. In her wildest nightmares, she never imagined the end of her life would come this way. So many regrets. No chance to say good-bye. To Nicky. To Gray.

Dear God. This is it. Please, Gray, take care of Nicky.

…

Alex was gone. Kidnapped. He’d promised Alex nothing would happen to her. He’d promised he would protect her.

And I failed.

Gray turned from the patrol car to face the assembly of twenty detectives and uniformed officers. “Witnesses?” he shouted. “Did anyone see anything?”

“Yes, sir.” One cop flipped open his notepad. “I got a couple who saw a blond woman being shoved into a blue van by a dark-haired, swarthy-skinned man. The van headed uptown.”

“How long ago?” Gray shot back.

“About twenty minutes,” the cop responded.

“I got the same information from a couple visiting from Cincinnati,” another cop said. “Blond woman, blue van, dark-haired man. The van went uptown immediately after the explosion.”

“Shit.” Gray blew out a steadying breath. He had to keep it together. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be worth a damn at finding Alex. He turned to Dom. “Canvass the area for city and store cameras. Look at all footage for the last hour. Anyone gets a license plate off the van, run it and the owner’s name and get back to me ASAP.”

“Already on it,” Dom said. “There are two city cameras that may have captured the meet and the van. City techs are downloading the footage as we speak. I’ll go with the uniforms and check every shop and bodega within eyeshot for other cameras.”

Thank God for competent partners.