Page 41 of His Sassy Little

Tanner knew his friend meant well but fuck, he couldn’t just sit around anymore. He needed to do something. His girl was out there somewhere, scared, alone, and waiting for him to come for her. How could he sit on his fucking ass when she needed him?

“Seventeen hours and forty-two minutes, Stone.” Tanner turned his agonized gaze to his brother, “That’s how long it’s been since I saw her last.” He placed his hand over Stone’s and lifted it up off his keys, “Fifteen hours of waiting. I can’t just sit around and wait anymore.”

“I get that. I do. The guys have spanned out beyond the town, they’re on it…”

“I should be out helping them!” Tanner was done with this conversation and reached to turn the ignition.

“Guys!” Pup burst out the door, laptop in hand and headset on, “We might have something, get in here!”

Tanner had never moved so fast in his life; he left the keys in the bike and booked it back into the house.

“While we wait for Carter to get here, I should tell you something.” Pup sounded grave as he typed away, “The last call James received before turning off his phone came from a burner phone.”

“Okay.” Tanner wondered where Pup was going with this.

“A burner phone with a local area code.” Finally, Pup looked up, “Someone in Lilton tipped him off.” Pup went back to typing but continued on, “I also got the data from before his laptop shut off sorted through. He had to have known I was monitoring him. He covered what I needed in a shit-ton of useless data. I found it, though. There’s a bank across from Ralf’s that has a security camera that faces toward the diner. I know this because the last thing he looked at before shutting down was footage from a few weeks ago that showed Spike and Arabella leaving the diner together.”

“Fuck!” Tanner was having a hard time keeping his shit together.

“The footage was emailed to him. I traced the email back to its source…” When Pup stopped typing completely and looked Tanner straight in the eyes, Tanner knew. Whatever he was about to say was going to piss him right the fuck off. “The email was sent using The Hellhole’s WiFi.”

“You have to be fucking shitting me.” Stone echoed Tanner’s own thoughts, “Tell me you’re making a bad joke, kid.”

“Sorry, can’t do that. Someone used The Hellhole’s WiFi to tip off Captain James O’Conner to the location of his wife. There is also the fact that no one jimmied the alarm. The code was entered manually upon entry. Mix that with the fact that the tracker was ditched so quickly and…”

“We have a leak.” Tanner and Stone said it together and in the same grim tone.

***

“How much longer is it going to take the kid to get here?” They’d been waiting fifteen minutes for Carter–one of the guys who’d been out searching–to come and share his findings.

“Any mi…” Pup’s words were cut off by the door flying open. A younger guy with spiked blond hair came crashing in.

“Think we found them,” Carter said breathlessly, “Fifteen miles east of town. That new factory they’re building out there.”

“You sure it’s them?” Tanner asked, skeptical.

“Pretty sure.”

“Tell us everything you know.” Stone injected before Tanner could.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Arabella was tired, so tired. She hadn’t allowed herself to sleep since being taken. She wasn’t sure how long ago that was because she was blindfolded again. What was the point of it? She’d already seen where she was and who was with her. At least she understood being bound to the chair, but why the damned blindfold?

Arabella was also thirsty. Her mouth felt like cotton, but she was determined she wouldn’t drink anything they offered her. Not that they had offered her anything to drink, or eat for that matter. Did James plan to starve her to death? Was this some if-I-can’t-have-you-no-one-can type thing where he planned to torture and kill her?

Arabella’s mind had been working non-stop imagining all the horrible ways James would kill her. She’d imagined everything from being buried alive to a bullet in the head. Personally, she’d prefer the bullet; it was quicker.

No one had spoken to her since James made her change. In fact, she hadn’t heard much of anything since then. A few times she thought she heard some whispering, but she could have just imagined that. It was eerily quiet. The kind of quiet you got in the country where cars hardly drove by, and people were scarce. The only difference was, in the country, at least you heard bugs and birds. She couldn’t even hear those.

Hang tight, Little Hurricane. I’m coming.

Every time Arabella began to lose hope, she’d hear Daddy in her head, reminding her to keep it together, stay calm, don’t give up, stay safe, or any number of other things she needed to hear at the time. She knew it was in her imagination but it was keeping her sane.

Arabella felt herself drifting off and shook her head to keep herself awake. No way was going to fall asleep with these assholes. James loved waiting until she was vulnerable and unsuspecting to attack and she wasn’t about to give him the opportunity. Keeping herself awake was getting harder, though. She really hoped Daddy got here soon; she wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold on.

Arabella was startled awake when the chair she was tied to went toppling violently on its side. Her head hit the concrete floor and she saw stars even with the blindfold still covering her eyes.

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