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“What will you do?” Take it? Trash it? Punish her horribly for having it?
“Start by turning it to airplane mode so they can’t track the fucking device anymore.”
With an unsteady voice, she rattled off the four-digit code. Trees punched it in, and the screen brightened. His thumbs flew across the flat panel as he whizzed through the menus, then breathed an audible sigh of relief.
“Victor can no longer track the phone?”
“Every way he could digitally locate this device is off. But I’m going to trash it to be safe.” Then he darkened the mobile and looked up. “You still need the bathroom?”
She didn’t, but the urge to flee—before Victor showed up again—rode her even harder. Even if he couldn’t trace his henchman’s cell anymore, Trees was abnormally big and incredibly easy to spot. So was the RV he drove. She could blend in better on her own. Thankfully, the area was busy, and she’d seen more than one conceivable place to hide until she could devise a better plan. “Please.”
He reached into his pocket and extracted a key that looked comically small between his large fingers, then came at her with a warning glare. “Don’t make me chase you again.”
Laila disregarded his implied threat. Now that Trees had stripped her ability to communicate, and Victor had likely seen her with him—twice—staying was too dangerous. She’d already considered the nightmarish possibilities of what Trees could do to her with his massive hands and his massive erection. He’d taken away her freedom, shoved her into this rolling motel room, and separated her from her sister for reasons that suited him. She would not allow him to force anything else on her.
“Of course not,” she agreed. After all, she was incapable of making him do anything. If he chased her, it would be of his own accord.
His menacing expression spoke volumes about how much he didn’t trust her, so she sent him her most innocent stare as he freed her wrist. When he stepped back, he positioned his big body between her and the door.
“Go on.” He gestured to the bathroom.
As she tried to think of another means of escape, Laila made her way inside. Small sink, toilet, and a shower she couldn’t imagine Trees wedging himself into. Above it, a thin rectangle of a window only a cat could slink through. But there must be other ways out of the RV. She refused to give up.
While she relieved her bladder and thought through the situation, the door to the RV opened and shut. She hurried through the rest of her ritual, then peeked out the bathroom door. He was gone. With a glance out the nearest window, she found him pumping gas and talking on the phone.
She prayed the distraction was enough.
Dropping to her knees, she crawled to the exit, lamenting the fact she couldn’t risk prowling through the bags for her replacement phone, and eased the trailer door open. The wind howled. Trees had his mobile pressed to his ear, and the door was on the opposite side. If she was quiet, he wouldn’t hear her escape.
The moment her feet hit the concrete, she eased the door closed, then darted to the edge of the parking lot before disappearing into the shadows blanketing the vacant lot next door. She was unfamiliar with this part of Orlando, but heading toward civilization and lights made sense. If she could find a place to lie low, she would flesh out a better plan.
Since Trees had been driving north, Laila circled back in the opposite direction, crossing the busy highway, then heading for a brightly lit hotel she had seen a few blocks ago.
Under the portico out front, she avoided eye contact with the valet, then walked inside as if she belonged there. She didn’t dare stop to get her bearings, simply headed left, past a bar area, then through another set of double doors and into a center atrium not visible from the street.
She settled in a padded chair on a corner of the patio, away from children splashing in the hotel’s pool under their parents’ watchful eyes, and let out a deep breath. She couldn’t stay here, but at least she had escaped. Now she had some breathing room.
Laila wished she knew where Kane was taking Valeria. But she would continue heading in the same general direction Trees had been until she could contact her sister. She prayed Valeria and Jorge remained safe.
Suddenly, there was a commotion in the lobby. Laila looked up, half expecting to see Trees snarling at a desk clerk as he searched the hotel. Instead, Victor and the thug who had attacked her last night rushed into the building, methodically scanning the space. Her heart stopped as they paused to speak to a hotel employee. The man pointed to the pool.
