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Chapter 13
“Can you tell what floor they’re on?”
Texas and I rushed into the lobby of the Bricker and Stein building, frowning when we saw that the front desk was deserted.
Texas pulled out his phone and clicked through a few apps, holding the phone out to show me a map of the interior of the building. It was in the same design as the building blueprints Knix often left lying around the house. I took the phone as we rushed through the elevators. I didn’t know how he’d gotten the blueprints, but I didn’t ask. With Texas’ skills, it was often better not to know.
“Fourth floor,” I said. “I think they’re in the meeting room again.”
He hit the button and we waited impatiently for the lift to rise. Texas reached back and slipped the gun out of the small of his back. I stared down at the phone screen. The red dots blinked bright and alive. And though I knew it was nothing more than a collection of cell phones with a signal connecting with the phone in my hand, I prayed that it meant the guys were okay. If they weren’t…I didn’t know what I would do.
“When the doors open,” Texas said as he flicked the safety off on his gun, “we have to move fast. He’ll hear it ding. If they are in the meeting room, I want you to let me go first.”
“You said he might have people working for him, what if there are too many for you?” I asked nervously. “If they’re too much for the guys then the two of us—”
“You let me worry about the guys,” Texas said, keeping his eyes straight ahead, staring at the line that divided the elevator doors.
“Texas—” The ding of our arrival interrupted me and Texas moved forward, pushing me back as the doors slid open and he moved into the hallway with his arms raised and his gun pointed. Strangely enough, however, there was no one around.
We moved silently into the room, noting the darkened interior. “There’s no one here,” I said, staring down at the phone in my hand. “How—”
“The phones,” Texas stopped at the end of the table and lifted one of the four phones that had been left behind.
“If their phones are here, but they’re not...then where the hell are they?” Fear raced through my system. It clouded over my brain, making the whole room fuzzy. All of the air leaked out of my chest. If Stover did anything to my guys, I would make sure he would regret it. No matter what I had to do. No matter what rules or laws I had to break.
I strode over to Texas and handed him back his phone. I looked at him pointedly. “Find them,” I ordered.
Texas met my stare for a moment before he turned the phone his way. His fingers flew over the screen as I collected the rest of the phones and we made our way back out into the hallway. I led him into the elevator and back down to the lobby. We strode out of the building and went back to where we’d left the car running on the corner. I didn’t even feel the rain as it splattered the side of my face and soaked my hair, making the strands stick to my cheek.
Texas got behind the driver’s seat and tossed the phone in my lap as he cranked the car. “Laptop” he snapped, holding his hand out. I reached beneath the seat and retrieved it.
I glanced down to the phone screen as he clicked open the computer and let his fingers span across the keyboard. I lifted the cell in a shaky grip. It was security footage of the guys as they were led with their hands behind their backs out of the Bricker and Stein building. Every single one of them carried stiff shoulders and stony faces.
“His fucking house!” Texas growled, practically throwing the computer into my lap as he punched in something on the car’s GPS system.
“You found them?” I demanded.
“He took them to his fucking house,” Texas answered. He pressed the green start button on the screen and turned the wheel, steering onto the street. “I can’t believe it. He’s so stupid. I didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to take hostages to their own house.”
I reached up and buckled in, my hands clenching on the seat as we fishtailed taking a turn too fast. The only way I was going to keep a level head was to keep Texas talking. It distracted me from my surroundings. “Why would he take them to his house?”
Texas shook his head, his focus centered between the road and the GPS. “It’s not his actual house,” he said. “It’s a property he owns—a small vineyard outside of the city.”
“How’d you figure that out?” My knuckles turned white as he ran a red light.
“CCTV,” was all he answered.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Texas, they’re going to be alright.”
“I know that.”
“We’ll get to them in time.”
He jerked a firm nod.
“Texas?” He flicked me a sharp look—one so unlike him that it unnerved me. “Just don’t kill us before we get there.”
Fire danced behind his eyes, the fury in his expression was only growing more and more alarming. I reached over and took the gun from where he had set it in the console. I checked to make sure the safety was still off and then I gave him a meaningful look.
