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“Dominic is Xavier’s uncle. He's a complete piece of shit. My dad told me he’s pissed that X moved to Vegas and started getting out of the dirty side of the business.” She stops talking for a minute while we both mull this over. Travis told me it was Xavier’s family behind my mom’s murder, so them being the ones who took us frightens me. I can’t help but wonder if this has anything to do with me and what I saw four years ago.
I ask, “What do you think is going on here?”
She shrugs a shoulder. “I’m not sure, Faye, but I hope someone finds us soon. These are not nice guys. I’m afraid of what might happen to us when we get wherever it is they are taking us.”
“Travis will find us,” I whisper back as our eyes meet. I’m trying to convince myself as much as comfort her.
Her gaze is bleak. She doesn’t think he’s coming for us.
If he was able he already would be here. That means that he’s not. He was alive when they dragged me out of the back seat. I have no way of knowing what happened afterwards. Ana said that they hit him with a chunk of wood or something before they pulled her out.
I know that means we are probably going to have to save ourselves...or die trying.
The things Travis told me, about the older Cerelli’s business being drugs and trafficking women, keep rattling around in my mind. I don’t know if Ana knows this, and I am not going to mention it. She is already scared enough.
I would rather die than be sold into that kind of existence. I can't let it happen to Ana either.
Running away won’t be an option this time, so somehow I will have to find a way to save both of us.
I know if Travis is still alive he will find me. Thinking about the blow he sustained, I have to admit, at least to myself, that he may not be able to. Not in time, anyway. Maybe not ever.
An almost silent sob breaks loose and shudders through me. I don’t know if I will be able to survive losing him, but I know that he would not want me to give up either. So I won’t. I am going to be a little bit weak and cry for what I may have lost before I even had a chance to enjoy it.
Chapter Twenty-One
Travis
After doing some gymnastics in the crumpled cab of my pickup, I finally drag myself up and out the window those assholes stole the girls through. Blake is awake now and seems to be alert and oriented. For the most part anyway. I’m sure that he has a killer headache. His head hit the window damn hard. He has a knot forming on the side of his head and bruises already darken the side of his face.
The only good news is that both of us are able to move, and Blake’s computer survived the crash.
Also in our favor, one of our security teams wasn’t too far away and they are now en route to us. They will get us to our destination, not that we know exactly where we need to go at this point.
Blake is sitting against the side of the wrecked pickup hacking into satellite images. He is trying to locate our attackers to determine what direction they went.
Technology is always helpful. It’s even better when you are equipped to take advantage of the variety of info that is available to someone who knows how to access it.
We are.
We shouldn't even be able to acquire what he is digging into, but he is just that good. Our years in the military only made him better. One of the best our government ever trained. That same government he's been muttering curses under his breath at for the past half hour while his fingers fly over the keyboard.
“About fucking time,” he growls, half smiling before motioning for me to stop pacing and sit down. I haven’t been able to sit still since I got him out and placed the call for assistance. Reluctantly I sit as he hands over the computer.
The screen shows still shots taken by God knows what camera. The girls were loaded into the back of an armored truck by two men. Two others were in another vehicle, which we never saw during the ambush. The damaged front bumper shows that it was the one that rammed us.
He found it! Thank fuck!
“Nice work, man.” I bump him with my elbow and he groans at the contact. I know he’s hurting, and now that I’m sitting still I’m feeling it too.
The trucks we are looking for left here and kept heading in the same direction we had been traveling. Toward Las Vegas. It’s a lucky break. Blake was also able to pull up images of the license plates on both rigs. He is working that angle now, breaking into the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles database.
He makes hacking look easier than I know it actually is, but it shouldn’t take him very long. I hope that whoever owns the trucks have them registered in their name or to an easily identifiable company. That would save us some time.
I don't anticipate it being as simple as that, but after everything going sideways I feel like something needs to go our way.
Somehow, against all odds, someone knew where we were going to be and what we would be driving. I have no idea how or why. Taking Ana to Xavier shouldn’t have drawn anyone’s attention. No one even knew that she was going to be returning to Vegas.
Unless this wasn’t about Ana.
