Of course, he was right, but she felt like she was standing in an open field, being buffeted by a howling wind.
She’d thought she was prepared for whatever this guy was going to throw at her, but she hadn’t been prepared for this. And she’d brought it on herself, like he’d said.
With her teeth clenched and her eyes cast down, she started unbuttoning her blouse. When it was undone, she laid it on the hood of the car. Next, she unzipped her slacks, folded them, and laid them with the blouse.
“Take off the rest of it,” Mr. Big ordered.
She fought to keep her hands steady as she unhooked her bra and took it off, then her panties, so that she was standing naked in front of the camera.
“Look at me.”
“What?”
“Look up at the camera.”
Silently she did as he asked.
“You are under my control now.”
She wanted to scream at him, but she kept the protest locked behind her clenched teeth.
“Very nice,” he purred. “Turn around so I can see the back of you.”
She did, then faced the camera again. “Can I get dressed now?”
“Say please.”
“Please.”
“Actually, no. Take off your socks and shoes.”
She gulped. With no other choice, she bent to comply.
There was a long moment of silence. She stood with her heart pounding, wondering how good a view he was getting. “You have a gun strapped to your ankle,” her tormenter said. “And a tracking device on your other ankle. Is that right?”
“Yes,” she managed.
“Take them off.”
She fought to keep silent as she took off the holster with the gun and untaped the tracker.
“That’s better,” he said. “Stand up and turn around again, so I can make sure you don’t have any more tricks up your…” He laughed.
As ordered, she turned in a slow circle, coming back to her starting position.
“One more thing. Lift up that beautiful shiny, black hair of yours and turn so I can see both ears. I want to know for sure you’re not wearing a Bluetooth.”
Grimly, she lifted her arms, lifting her breasts as she displayed her ears.
“Nice,” he murmured. “You can get dressed in the clothes I put in the backseat of your new car.”
She walked stiffly to the car and pulled out a T-shirt, slacks, and bedroom slippers. There was no underwear. But at least she’d be covered.
Quickly she dressed in the T-shirt and pants, feeling marginally better. Then she scuffed her feet into the slippers.
“Very good. I’ll tell you where to go after you get into the car and leave the garage. Be sure to take the phone with you.”
“Wait a minute,” she called out.
“For what?”
“The information you want is in my purse. I have to get it from my car.”
“Not the whole purse. Take out the memory stick or whatever it is and hold it up.”
“How do I know you won’t…come in and take it?”
“Because I’m assuming your boyfriend’s close enough to rescue you. At least for now.”
Instead of arguing, she walked slowly back to the car, planning her moves as she went. Leaning inside, she pulled her purse toward her, hoping that her body hid what she was doing. She had one chance to get this right, and only one.
She reached inside, taking out the twenty-two revolver and shoving it into the waistband of her slacks. Then she took out the SIM card, the one that had the fake information, and held it up.
“Here it is.”
“What the hell is that?”
“A SIM card. From the phone Blake left in his office drawer.”
She heard the man on the other end of the line curse. Probably he’d sent Bert to search the office, and Bert had left the phone where it was. “Bring it to the new car.”
Again she complied, then slipped behind the wheel and adjusted the seat so she could reach the pedals before starting the engine and driving slowly out of the garage.
He’d separated her from the tracker on the other car and from the one strapped to her leg, but maybe…
She didn’t finish the thought. Mr. Big was speaking to her again.
“We’re going to take back roads to Columbia. That way I can tell if anyone’s following you.”
“Columbia?”
“Yes, to another industrial park.”
“And my brother will be there.”
“If you do what you’re supposed to. Get going. I’ll give you directions as you drive. And, of course, I’ll know where you are at all times.”
Feeling sick, she did as he directed. As she drove down the road, thunder rumbled and a fork of lightning split the sky in front of her like a warning sign.
In the next moment, rain began to pound down on the car.
“Shit!” In the other car, Shane shouted out his frustration. “We’ve lost the sound. We can’t hear what he’s saying to her.”
“We can still track her,” Max said.
“We hope.”
Max fiddled with some dials on his equipment, and Shane could tell from his actions that he wasn’t having any success.
“What’s wrong?” Shane growled.
“The storm is interfering with the tracker we had her swallow. I don’t know…” He didn’t have to finish the sentence.
“Shit.” Shane repeated his earlier assessment. “I thought that thing might not work.”
“It’s the storm. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll get her back.”
Shane drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, praying that Max could work it out, because if he didn’t, Shane wasn’t sure he could keep his sanity.
He would lose his mind if anything happened to her.
He’d been going through the motions of living until he’d met her. And even when he’d told himself he didn’t trust her, he knew he was forming an attachment to her.
He didn’t want to go back to the life where it was a struggle to heave himself out of bed and get through every day.
He wanted to shout in frustration. He wanted to pray aloud. He wanted to start driving and hope that he was going in the right direction and that when they found her, they’d be close enough to save her. But he did none of those things because he was in the car with his two friends, and he wasn’t going to let them see that he was skating on the edge of his emotions.
Yeah, who was he fooling? He was sure they knew what he was suffering, but at least he could hang on to his illusions.
“What have you got?” he said to Max, trying to keep his voice even.
“Nothing yet.”
He didn’t bother cursing again. It wasn’t going to do any good.
He watched rain sheet down the windshield and prayed that the storm would pass.
Finally, there was an electronic beeping from the machine in Max’s lap.
“I got her,” he said.
“Where is she?”
“On back roads. I guess to make it easy to see if anyone’s following.”
“Where’s she going?”
Max was silent for several moments. “If I had to guess, I’d say Ellicott City or Columbia. But the rendezvous point could be a vacant farm out in the country, for all we know.”
“That’s just great.”
“We can circle around, then head for the Columbia-Ellicott City area and see if the signal gets stronger.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“We can head into the backcountry.”
Elena hunched forward, struggling to see where she was going with water pouring down on her windshield. Her headlights cut through the steady rain, making the road in front of her murky as the storm unleashed its worst. She didn’t know this part of Maryland, and she didn’t like driving these narrow roads in a downpour, but she had no choice.