Max had told her that the tracker on her car was only part of their plan to follow her. The tracker on her leg had been a decoy that the men expected Mr. Big to find and make her throw away. That had happened as predicted. But before she’d left the hotel, she’d swallowed a capsule with another tracker inside. They still should be able to follow her—if the thing was working correctly. She’d been able to tell from Max’s face that he wasn’t one hundred percent certain that it was going to work. But he had acted confident, and she had to be, too.
She drove on through the downpour. It had been an eternity since she’d heard from Mr. Big. Had she lost the connection in the storm? If she had, then what?
Her tension mounted. With no other option, she kept driving, praying that she would hear from the man who was holding her brother. Finally, the phone next to her crackled.
“A road is coming in on the right. Take it.”
She dragged in a breath and let it out before answering, “Okay.”
“Don’t have an accident in the rain,” Mr. Big said, his voice cheerful, and she knew he was confident that he had total control of this situation. Hopefully, he was dead wrong.
“I won’t,” she answered, thinking that he probably was hoping she’d crash, and then he wouldn’t have to trade anything for the SIM card.
Shane drove as fast as he could through the pelting rain and darkness, feeling sick as he calculated his chances of getting Elena out of this alive.
“Take it easy,” Max murmured as the car skidded on the wet pavement and Shane fought to keep control. “If we crash, you’re not going to be any good to her.”
“I know that,” Shane snapped and slowed down a few miles per hour.
“We’re getting closer to her,” Max said.
“Thank God.”
“We’re going faster than she is. We should be able to catch up.”
“Well, not entirely,” Shane cautioned. “We don’t want anyone to think we picked up her trail.”
In the backseat, Jack was consulting computer maps while Max manned the tracker up front.
“I think she’s headed for another industrial park,” Jack said.
“Okay, good. That’s better than an isolated farmhouse where we’d have to get out and sneak through the fields.”
Max made a sound of agreement, then caught his breath.
“What?”
“She’s stopped abruptly. Either she’s there or she had an accident.”
“How fast can we get to her?”
“If you don’t crash, in ten minutes.”
Shane gripped the wheel, knowing that ten minutes could mean the difference between life and death.
Elena pressed on the brake, the car fishtailing on the slick road surface. Ahead of her she could see water flowing across the pavement.
“There’s a flood,” she said aloud.
“What are you talking about?” the man on the other end of the line snapped.
“Water is flowing across the road.”
“Go through it.”
“It looks like it’s too deep.”
She was greeted with a string of curses, then “Just a minute.”
She waited with her heart pounding.
“Back up,” he snarled. “Go to the last intersection. Take Owen Mills Road.”
“Okay.”
She looked behind her and saw that nobody else was dumb enough to be out in this storm.
Turning the wheel, she tried to make a U-turn, but the road wasn’t wide enough for her to do it and stay on the blacktop. Her right front tire crunched onto the wet gravel shoulder. There must be a thin layer hiding mud below because the tire sank in, and she had to back up, the wheel grinding as she fought to gain the pavement again.
Chapter 29
Shane had pulled to the side of the road as he waited for Max to tell him which way to go.
“Wait a minute, she’s moving again.”
“Still heading in the same direction?”
“She’s backtracking, but I think the ultimate destination is going to be the same. She must have hit a spot where she couldn’t get through.”
“You guess,” Shane snapped, then said, “I’m sorry. I’m on edge.”
“We know. Slow down again until we find out what direction she’s going.”
Shane slowed, fighting anger and frustration and his need to save Elena. At this point, he didn’t give a damn what happened to the brother, but if she didn’t come out of this okay, he was going to smash Lincoln Kinkead.
Was this Kinkead’s fault? Maybe, maybe not. But the man had been up to something he wasn’t talking about. Maybe Elena could explain what that was—if he asked her the right questions.
But for the moment, he had to keep his focus on making sure she came back to him, safe and sound.
Elena backtracked along the rain-slick pavement, then made the next turn, as directed. She could see more houses in the area now, although she still didn’t know exactly where she was going.
“Take the next right,” Mr. Big directed. She slowed and turned, seeing that she was coming into another industrial park, although this one was a lot more upscale than the previous location.
“Drive down to location 651 and stop,” the man directed.
Oh Lord, this was it. She was going to exchange the fake information for her brother.
She drove down an access road lined on either side with buildings that held warehouse facilities. At the far end, some of the buildings were illuminated with exterior lights. But for three-fourths of the length, the lane was dark and silent.
She had to squint to see the numbers, which were high up on the buildings and thankfully painted white. When she saw 651, she pulled to a stop, the car parallel to the buildings instead of perpendicular. Looking around, she saw no other vehicles. But that didn’t prove anything. Mr. Big had probably been here for hours, waiting for her to arrive. Making preparations. She shuddered as she wondered what he was planning.
But maybe she didn’t have long to wait.
A light clicked on inside building 651, and she looked up at the back of the small warehouse. It had a loading dock with a garage door that opened onto a platform about four feet above ground level, a pedestrian door, a landing, and a set of stairs leading to ground level.
“Get out of the car,” Mr. Big ordered. He was still speaking to her from the phone.
“She’s stopped again,” Max said. “I think this could be the place.”
Shane sped up, trying to drive as fast as he could and stay on the slick pavement.
At least the rain had slowed to a drizzle.
“Turn here.” He did, leaning forward and peering through the windshield, hoping to see something.
“Slow down,” Max warned.
“Why?”
“We’re almost there. We don’t want the Big Guy to figure out that Elena’s not alone.”
Shane slowed and switched off the lights. He waited a moment for his eyes to adjust before proceeding along the two-lane highway. Luckily, at this time of night and in this weather, nobody else was on the road.
“There’s a turn ahead,” Max said. “Into an industrial park.”
“But the unit where she is won’t be visible from the access road.”
“Good. That means we can get close before we have to get out of the car.”
Shane’s tension mounted as he glided into the complex and looked around at the darkened buildings. Nobody seemed to be here, but that was the point. It was the way Mr. Big wanted it, and he’d had a long time to plan this confrontation. Too bad Shane couldn’t say the same for himself and Elena. Still, he’d given her some strategies, and he hoped to hell she kept her head and used them. The danger was that when she saw her brother, she’d forget that she was already standing in a lion’s den.