by Amy Star
She picked the next flight to Omaha, which left in just under two hours. She would be cutting it close, but she only had carryon bags, so she would manage. She booked a first-class ticket without guilt, then hurried to grab everything she needed.
Ava left her overnight bags and her laptop by the door, both bags stuffed to the brim. First class was allowed an extra bag, and there was no way she was letting her things out of her sight. She’d had enough drama for one day.
She went back to the kitchen and wrote Eli a quick note, thanking him for everything he’d done and letting him know not to bother looking for her. She would get a new phone number and a new life, and he could live happily ever after with his beautiful wife without worry that Ava would ruin what they had. She wasn’t interested in sharing a man with another woman. Period.
When she finished writing the note, she placed the open wallet on the counter and checked the house one last time to make sure she had everything.
Plan in place and broken heart pushed to the back of her mind, she prepared herself for the long flight and the embarrassing explanation she would have to give Zoey. She knew her friend would understand, and Zoey always knew exactly what to do to make her feel better. She just had to get home and she could put this ugly mess behind her.
She bit back tears as she strapped everything to the larger of the two carryon bags, then opened the door and headed to the Q3. She decided she would return the rental car if she had time. If not, she would drop the key off at the airport information desk near the security line and call the rental company to let them know where to find their key.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Mia strode into Ted McBride’s office and tossed a folder onto the desk with a huge smile on her face. “I told you I’d get what you needed,” she said, plopping down in the chair across from him and putting her feet on the desk.
McBride took the folder and looked through it, then leaned back, a savage smirk spreading across his face. A thrill went through Mia at the sight of it. She knew when she had Ted wrapped around her finger, and finding out what she had about their “guest” was the best discovery she’d ever made.
“It was smart of you to have Matt place those dummy files in the system. He almost blew it when he acted like a damn gorilla, posturing around like some bloated moron, but Jones completely missed the bogus files.” He cleared his throat. “Or should I say, Eli Hudson missed it.”
“He’s done this to more than one company,” Mia continued. “And he’s good. I’m not sure that what Matt did was enough, but hopefully what he did do has them chasing their tales.”
“Are you sure it’s him?”
“He has to be the common denominator because every company that has gone down in the past year has had software installed by a man matching his description. I wondered how the Feds were finding so much out without planting bugs.”
“Now we know.” McBride leaned forward. “They’re going to be here in a few. I’m not sure I want to cause a scene when people start showing up for work at eight.”
“Understood,” Mia said, giddy. “I have a plan already.”
“I’m listening.”
“I had Matt put a tracking chip in Eli’s name badge. I checked his GPS log the other day, and I did a little recon.”
“The suspense is killing me,” McBride said sarcastically, yawning. “It’s too early for wordplay, just spill it already.”
“He’s brought a woman here with him. A heavily pregnant woman.”
This time, McBride sat up, genuinely interested. “A wife?”
“I would imagine. I haven’t gone by when he’s there simply because the location is too remote, but I’ve seen her there when he’s here working, and she’s definitely alone.”
She started to explain her plan, but McBride held up his hand. “The less I know, the better. You do what you have to do to make this go away. You have my permission to do whatever it takes.” He leaned forward. “Whatever it takes.”
“Understood,” Mia said, all but dancing out of the office. She twirled past the janitor, who was finishing up his early morning duties, giving the man her best smile and a high five on the way out. The man looked shocked by her friendliness, but Mia didn’t care. For once, she was going to get to do what she was hired for; protect McBride Industries from threats like Eli Hudson and his crew. They’d been foolish enough to believe that Matt was the head of security, completely missing Mia’s role in the company, assuming that she was just an administrative assistant. She scoffed as she took the elevator to the executive parking garage and stepped into her sleek Corvette. She dialed Matt’s number as she turned down the road, smiling when she went up the freeway onramp and saw Eli parking his Jaguar below. She’d just missed him, which meant his woman was at home, alone and unaware of what was about to happen.
Matt answered the phone, his voice groggy.
“Wake your ass up,” she snapped. “It’s time.”
Eli and Gideon walked past security on their way to a late lunch, waving at the two men and calling them by name. Eli reached for his wallet and froze. “Hold on,” he said. “We have to go back and get my wallet. I must have left it downstairs.”
Gideon looked longingly at the front door, then sighed and accompanied Eli back down to the basement. They retraced their steps, and after more than half an hour of looking, Eli conceded that it wasn’t there.
“When do you remember having it?”
“When I put it in my back pocket as I was leaving for work this morning.”
“Have you looked at it since?”
“No, I didn’t. I ate breakfast at home, and I didn’t need anything out of it.”
“Do you need it now?”
Eli nodded, checking all his pockets again when they got back on the elevator, and then checking his briefcase. “My wallet must’ve fallen out in the car,” Eli said. “I have the interlink card in it.”
Gideon grumbled and followed Eli out of the elevator. They couldn’t move forward with the card, and Gideon didn’t have the clearance to move around the building without Eli. They had to find the wallet before they went to lunch, and Eli could tell that Gideon’s hunger was getting the best of him.
“I’m sure it’s in the car,” Eli assured him. “We can take a long lunch. I think we’ve only got a few things left to do today, then it’s mostly monitoring the data we collect.” He clapped Gideon on the back. “Since I made you wait until after three for lunch, I’ll take you somewhere nice. My treat.”
“Fine,” Gideon said, still grumbling but placated by the offer.
When they got to the car, Eli checked around the driver’s seat, his panic rising with each passing second. “It’s not in here,” he said.
“Could you have dropped it at the house?”
“It’s possible,” Eli said, pulling out his phone to call Ava and furrowing his brow. “My ringer must’ve been off. I have a bunch of missed calls.” He dialed the number that appeared more than once, surprised when someone answered and identified themselves as an employee of his Premier Perks Limitless. “This is Eli,” he confirmed, rattling off his passcode.
“Thank you for verifying your identity,” the man said on the other end. “The reason we are calling is a new authorized user has made an abnormally large purchase only a few minutes after setting their pin. We at Premier Perks Limitless want to ensure that this first purchase is indeed authorized and that the user is entitled to these purchases.”
Eli was annoyed, but he reminded himself that it wasn’t the man’s fault Eli was missing his wallet and feeling short tempered. The man was doing his job. “She’s authorized for any purchase,” he barked.
“Alright, thank you, Sir. I will go ahead and put a note on this account that all purchases are allowed, including airline travel, and-”
“Airline travel?”
“Yes, Sir. Ms. Malone purchased a ticket through Northeast Airlines. By the looks of it, it’s a last-minute First Class ticket.”
&nb
sp; “Where is she going?”
“I cannot tell you from here, but I can give you the confirmation code that appeared on the transaction.”
Eli grabbed a pen and wrote it down, then hung up on the man and logged onto the airline’s website. “Shit,” he said when the flight came up.
“What?”
“She booked a one-way ticket to Omaha.”
“Maybe she wanted to go home.”
Eli shook her head. “She would just take my plane. She knows she can visit home any time. And she’s been talking about bringing her friend out here.” He shook his head again. “No, something is wrong.”
“The wallet?” Gideon asked.
Eli froze, then slapped himself in the forehead and ran his fingers through his hair. “If she looked through it, she might think something else is going on.” He closed his eyes and tipped his head back. “I should’ve told her. If she knew, then she wouldn’t have anything to worry about.”
“We can’t be certain that’s what it is.”
“It is,” Eli insisted. “I’m sure of it. She was so happy here and at the ranch. The only thing that could’ve messed that up is for her to think that there’s something going on.” Eli dialed her number and looked at Gideon. “She’s not answering.”
“I’ll drive,” Gideon said. “You call the airport and see if the flight has left yet.”
Eli nodded, hanging up the phone when it went straight to voicemail for the third time, then dialing the customer service line for Northeastern Airlines. Gideon headed toward the airport while Eli waited on hold, his fear mounting. When he finally got a live person on the line, he all but shouted the confirmation number and asked about the status of the flight.
“That plane departed on time about five minutes ago,” the woman said.
Eli groaned. “Is there any way to call it back?”
The woman was silent.
“I’m desperate,” Eli said. “I’ll pay any cost incurred.”
“I can’t do that, Sir. But I can tell you that no one ever showed up on that boarding pass.”
“What?”
“The boarding pass was printed immediately after purchase, so Miss Malone checked in online, but the boarding pass in inactive.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that Miss Malone didn’t make it to the airport. She did not pass through security, nor did she board the plane.” When Eli didn’t say anything, the woman repeated herself. “Sir, Miss Malone is not on that plane.”
“I’ve got it, thank you,” he said, and hung up. “She’s not on the plane, Gideon. Something’s wrong.”
“Maybe she changed her mind.”
“Then why is her cell phone off?”
“Maybe she’s trying to cool off while she figures out her next move. You said she was independent and smart. She’s probably trying to get those hormones under control before she calls you and rips you a new one.”
Eli groaned again as Gideon turned the car around and headed toward the farmhouse. “What if she checked out the social media pages?”
“Are they bad?”
“Not really, they’re just to establish my alias. But it looks like I have a family. What if she thinks that I’m leading a double life?”
“You are.”
“But not the way she thinks.”
“Suddenly her finding out you’re a bear doesn’t seem so bad, does it?”
Eli glared at Gideon. “I’ve been trying to find the right time to tell her about that, and about my work.”
“Seems like the right time was any time before today.”
“Enough,” Eli said. “Just get there.”
“You don’t want to give her some time to cool off?”
“No,” Eli said. “It’s been hours since she bought that ticket. I need to get this all out in the open, and I’m probably going to need your help.”
“Oh goody,” Gideon said sarcastically.
“Stop busting my chops and get on the toll road. We don’t have time for all this traffic.”
“You’re the boss.”
Ava had just loaded the suitcases in the back of the Audi and had just pushed the button to lower the cargo door when she heard tires crunching on the gravel. She turned, but she couldn’t see the car through the cloud of dust that was kicked up. She waited to see if they kept going down the road. There was a farm about two miles down the road, but most of the cars that made it out that far ended up turning around, completely lost.
When the car began to slow down a hundred yards from the gate she sighed. She didn’t have time to give direction to a lost soul and she wasn’t in the mood for a friendly visit from a new neighbor. She needed to get out of Texas.
Good old southern hospitality was going to have to take a day off, because Ava had run out of patience and smiles.
The car sped down the driveway, skidding to a stop just behind the Audi and spraying gravel everywhere. A frantic, slender blonde with ice blue eyes jumped out of the driver’s seat, running to Ava, tears streaming down her face. Ava was instantly on edge, afraid for the woman who looked extremely upset. “I hit him,” she said, collapsing in Ava’s arms and sobbing. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see him until he was in the road and I hit him.”
“Hit who?” Ava asked, shaking the woman, who was a blubbering mess. “Who did you hit?”
“Your dog. The hound. He ran out from under your fence and right in front of my car. I tried to stop, but-” she choked on a fresh sob. “There’s so much blood. He’s going to need a vet. I’ll pay for it, but he needs you.”
“It’s not my dog,” Ava said. “But there’s a vet down the road. You can follow me-”
“No, I need you to sit in the back with him. He’s hurt bad, and he won’t lay still. Every time he moves, he cries in pain.” The woman looked at her with such sadness that Ava nearly cried herself. “I can’t stand it anymore.”
Ava nodded. “Alright. I’ll go with you, but as soon as he’s with the vet, I need you to bring me back. I’m running late.”
“I will bring you back as soon as I’m done with you,” the woman said as Ava ran toward the back of the vehicle.
Ava’s hand was on the handle, pulling it open, as the words hit her. She turned and looked at the woman, confused by her choice of words. Movement in the backseat caught her attention just as Ava realized that the woman was right behind her instead of getting into the front seat. There was a sizzling sound as a large hand grabbed her wrist from the backseat, then her body seized, and the woman smiled at her.
“Put her in the trunk, then take her car where I showed you, and I’ll meet you there,” she heard the woman say. The woman’s voice sounded far away even though Ava could see her walking beside the man who had appeared out of the backseat. “You don’t have to be gentle,” the woman said as Ava was tossed into the trunk.
She grunted when she hit the floor of the trunk, then there was another sound of what she now realized was a stun gun, and the world went dark.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Eli’s heart sank when Gideon pulled up to the house and Ava’s car was gone. “Where is she?”
“She bought the ticket at the last minute. Maybe she’s at the airport trying to get things sorted out. Or she could be stuck in traffic.”
“I don’t think so. Even if she checked baggage, she should have had plenty of time to make it through baggage check, security and to the terminal.”
“Maybe she decided to drive back to Omaha?”
“She wouldn’t do that.”
“Then, what do you think?”
“I don’t know, but I have a really bad feeling about all this.” He got out of the car and was hurrying toward the house when he stopped and looked at the earth beneath his feet. “Come here, but watch where you step.”
Gideon did as he asked, crouching down to look at the tire tracks and the shoe prints. “These definitely don’t belong to either SUV, and there are three sets of footprints.” He pointed. “Two women a
nd a man to be exact.”
“This isn’t my shoeprint.”
“You’re right, it’s not.” Gideon gave the scene a wide berth, going to the porch and retracing Ava’s steps. “She stood here for a minute and then turned. Probably loading up her luggage when the other car appeared. Here, her footsteps appear to be rushed, then she stops.” Gideon froze. “This isn’t good.”
“What?”
“The man’s footprints get deeper here, as if he gained over a hundred pounds from one step to the next. Then they leave the trunk lighter again.”
Eli’s stomach dropped. “She was kidnapped.”
“She was, and it looks like they used the classic ‘I hit your dog’ ruse to get her near the car. She probably never saw it coming.”
“Then where is her car?”
Gideon followed the prints as Eli watched his best tracker work. “The man got into the car and drove it.”
“They probably dumped it somewhere.”
“If we can get Jameson to track the car, we’ll know where to start.”
“You’re right,” Eli said, taking his phone out and calling Jameson up. He explained the situation, giving Jameson the VIN from the car and thanking his paranoid stars that he’d taken the information down in his phone.
“Found it,” Jameson said after a few moments of silence. “It’s about five miles east of where you are, and it’s not moving. I’m sending to coordinates to your phone.”
“Thanks, Jameson. We’re going to have to hold off on the interlink today.”
“Understood,” Jameson said, then he hung up and Eli jumped in the passenger seat, the GPS coordinates already loaded up on his phone.
Gideon drove as Eli directed him. They ended up at a long, dead end road at the end of a series of long dirt roads lined with dilapidated houses that had been abandoned for years, and abandoned fields that were overgrown with mesquite trees. They found the Q3 tucked in between some trees so tight that Eli was sure whoever drove it had to exit out the hatch. Eli checked it out, but it was empty.