Jack made his voice all business. “I brought a car over for you to use. It’s in the garage and they’re bringing it up. I want you to drive down M Street, then up Wisconsin and turn left onto one of the lettered streets. Don’t tell me which one. If the tracking equipment is working, we’ll find you, come up behind you, and give you the all clear.”
“Okay.”
Morgan reached for her and gave her a quick hug. Then Jack and Max did the same.
“Good luck,” all of them said.
When she started to leave the suite, Shane said, “Wait.”
She gave him a questioning look.
“Let me see your purse.”
She handed it over, and he made sure that everything that was supposed to be inside was there, but he also took out the hotel room key. “Let’s not give away where we’re staying,” he said.
She answered with a nervous laugh.
Morgan stayed behind, and Elena and the three men all went down to the lobby, where they waited for the car she would be driving and also for the SUV. Other people were waiting for cars, and she looked at them, thinking that they were going to the Kennedy Center or restaurants or other fun locations in D.C. They all looked prosperous and confident, and she was sure they’d be shocked to know her mission.
Her car arrived. It was a Honda Civic. Basic and nondescript, but fast, Shane had told her, in case she needed to make a fast getaway from a bad situation.
And what? Leave her brother with the bad guys?
She drove through the evening Georgetown traffic, not bothering to look for Shane and the other Rockfort men. Either they’d be able to track her, or it wouldn’t work.
Shane waited impatiently for the SUV to arrive. It was slow coming up from the garage, and he wanted to scream at the parking attendants to get a move on. But he knew that wasn’t going to do him any good.
Finally the vehicle appeared, and they all climbed in with the equipment that Max had brought along.
When they had pulled out of the hotel courtyard, he opened the suitcase in his lap and turned on the tracker.
Shane’s stomach knotted as he waited for the verdict.
“Got her,” Max said, and they took off toward Wisconsin Avenue and the location Elena had chosen.
When Elena saw the SUV pull up behind her, she breathed out a little sigh. So far, so good.
Shane waved to her, and she waved back, like they were going off to a ball game or something and were meeting at that location.
Her chest was so tight she could hardly breathe as she took off up N Street, then worked her way toward Bethesda, Rockville, and finally Gaithersburg.
As she took the ramp to I-270, she looked behind her but saw no sign of Shane. Which was good, she supposed. If anyone was checking on her, they’d think she wasn’t being followed.
The flaw in the plan was that she couldn’t talk to Shane and the Rockfort men. They could follow her, and they would be able to hear if she spoke to anyone. But it was one-way communication because any microphones on her or the car would show up. She had to trust that they were behind her.
She made it to the vicinity of the warehouse early and pulled up on a side street, sitting in the darkness and waiting for the appointed meeting time. It looked like a rough neighborhood with trash lying around on the ground and warehouse facilities in need of repair. She made sure the car doors were locked as she scanned the area, but no other cars passed. Which meant what? Probably that Mr. Big already had his plans in place.
At nine thirty on the dot, she drove to the correct building, which had a ground-level garage door that stood open. Another car, a blue Hyundai, was parked inside, and she pulled up next to it, looking around at the open space. There were oil slicks on the floor, as well as a dark circle painted in the middle of the space. Aside from that, the interior seemed entirely empty except for the other vehicle.
But someone must have been waiting for her to arrive because as soon as she cut her engine, she heard a phone ringing. It sounded like it was inside the other car. Getting out, she hurried to the driver’s door, pulled it open, and found the ringing phone lying on the driver’s seat.
When she picked it up and answered it, the man Shane called “Mr. Big” was on the other end of the line.
“I see you made it to your first destination,” he said.
“My first?” she asked, acting as though she thought he was going to show up with her brother.
“You don’t think I’m stupid enough to let the Rockfort men follow you, do you?”
She sucked in a sharp breath. He was letting her know that he knew Max and Jack were following her, as well as Shane.
“I don’t think you’re stupid,” she murmured.
“Good. See that camera mounted on the wall to your right?”
She turned and looked. “Yes.”
“I’m watching everything you do.”
“Okay.”
“And now we’re going to make sure they can’t follow you. You’ll be taking the car I left for you. The keys are in the ignition.”
She swallowed. Shane had warned her about something like that.
“And I’m going to make sure that you don’t have a tracker or a gun on you,” he added.
“How?”
“You will take off all your clothing and stand in front of the camera so I can make sure you’re not wearing a wire and you’re not armed.”
Chapter 28
Shane had no trouble following the tracker on Elena’s car. When she’d arrived early, he’d driven past the entrance to the industrial park and kept following the secondary road for ten minutes in case someone was watching to see if he was behind her.
He pulled off onto a side street and turned around, waiting with his lights off to find out what would happen.
Elena’s car started again, and she drove toward the warehouse.
Max looked at his equipment. “She’s driven inside.”
Shane heard a cell phone ring, then Elena getting out of the car and opening another vehicle door.
Then she was speaking on the phone. To Mr. Big, he presumed.
“He figured we’d track her,” Max said.
They listened as the man said, “You will take off all your clothing and stand in front of the camera so I can make sure you’re not wearing a wire and you’re not armed.”
“Jesus,” Shane swore. “Did I hear that right?”
“I think so. He’s making her get undressed.”
Shane clenched his hands on the wheel. “I want to go in there and get her out of this.”
Max put a hand on his arm. “You can’t.”
“I know,” Shane shouted. “But I want to. I mean, that bastard is making her strip.”
“And hopefully she’s alone there,” Jack said from the backseat.
All Shane could do was clutch the wheel and wait.
Elena looked up at the camera. “You want me to take my clothes off?”
“That’s the only way I can be sure you’re not wearing a wire.”
She gulped.
“Think of it like a visit to the doctor’s office. You get undressed for the doctor, don’t you?”
She wanted to curse at the man, but she knew that would do her no good.
“Step into the middle of the garage where there’s a circle painted on the floor. Stand in front of your car and start stripping,” Mr. Big ordered.
She stepped to the spot he’d indicated.
“Or think of it like strip poker,” the voice from the phone said. “Did you ever play strip poker?”
“No,” she bit out.
“Pity. Probably you were too much of a straight arrow. That’s what got you in trouble now, you know. If you’d just brought that information to Alesandro, none of this mess would have happened.”