Page 25 of Wicked Suspicion

Chapter 11

Taking a deep breath, Nyx looked back at the phone. It connected to Wi-Fi. That solved the no bars issue, but now she had to worry someone was monitoring the devices on the network. Although, if they hadn’t changed the router password in years, it seemed unlikely that anyone was paying much attention. She needed to figure out how to message, though, ASAP.

Maybe a panel on the phone slid up to reveal a keyboard?

Nothing moved and Nyx took another deep breath. People made mistakes when they gave into fear.

Her older sisters had owned phones like this one. She hadn’t been allowed to touch them because she’d been too little, but she watched. What had they done?

There were letters on each number of the keypad. The number pad was the keyboard.

She pressed the menu key, found something called messaging, and selected text message. The patrol passed the window, and she shifted her gaze from her lap to the papers, watching the man from the corner of her eye. When he left her view, she checked on her guard. He remained in position, his back to the door.

Her hands shook. Feel the fear, acknowledge it, and do it anyway. That’s what her dad told her. She put in Archer’s number and pressed okay. The text field opened.

These old phones probably didn’t have any leeway on the number of characters allowed, so she would need to be succinct. The fact that each letter required a small pause before going to the next raised her adrenaline. Her heart pounded so loudly she couldn’t hear anything except its beat. Despite this, she took her time, making sure everything was correct. There wouldn’t be a second chance.

It required trial and error to discover how to make a space. Punctuation and capitalizing letters were beyond her abilities, but Archer would figure it out. She tried to switch to numbers, but couldn’t make that work either, and typed it out instead.

When she was finished, she reread what she’d entered:

held hostage by drug lord vargas near san isidro me and one other need help nyx

She was well within the character limit. Archer had her location, her captor’s name, and that she wasn’t alone. It was a jumbled mess, not the neat, carefully punctuated messages she preferred, but it was the best she could do.

Nyx hit send.

The screen dimmed, and she saw a sliver of green for the battery. Heart in her throat, she watched the progress bar. Please go. Please go.

It seemed to sit there forever. Nyx checked on the guard again. It must be close to the time limit he’d given her.

The progress bar moved a fraction farther.

Nyx wasn’t sure what had her more terrified—that the guard would open the door and catch her with the phone, or that the battery would die before the message went. Either was a distinct possibility.

Watching the mobile was stressing her out, so she tried to read one of the pages on the table. It was useless. She couldn’t focus.

Her gaze went back to the phone in time to see the message go. Another surge of adrenaline pumped through her body. An instant later, the phone went dark.

Closing it, she wrapped the cord around it. She picked up the blank paper she had at the table and used it to conceal the phone from the windows. Trying for nonchalance, she walked over to return it to where she found it. Her legs felt like gelatin and her entire body shook, but she ignored everything. The phone had to disappear again. The risk was too great otherwise. She buried it the same way it had been when she’d found it.

“What are you doing?” the guard demanded.

Nyx hadn’t heard the door open and started. How much had he seen? She went for an explanation that allowed plausible deniability. “I’m putting away the paper. I had it in case I needed to make notes.” She held up the blank sheets so he could see them, then laid them on top of the cords, and shut the drawer. It didn’t close completely.

She held her breath. Did he believe her?

For an eternity, he stared, as if weighing her words. “Señor Vargas wants you back in your room. Move.” He indicated the door where he stood waiting.

Her legs still trembled, but she followed orders. She was more than ready to return to the suite. It was embarrassing, but Nyx felt safer when Lurch was nearby. Besides, he’d be climbing the walls.

The guard remained quiet, and Nyx was happy not to have to respond to questions. Her nerves were strung so tightly that it took all her attention to put one foot in front of the other.

She needed to tell Lurch she’d sent an SOS, but how did she do that without tipping off anyone who might be eavesdropping?

Problem two, what was his response going to be? She knew how her brother would react. He’d be furious that she took a risk like that when he was around to handle it. Nyx suspected Lurch would feel the same way. He would want her to stand by passively and let him take care of everything.

She understood. He was the one with Special Forces training and experience. He was the one good enough at his job to be assigned to a covert ops unit. The lessons her dad and brother had given her were a drop in the bucket compared to Lurch’s skills.

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