Page 33 of Gray

“West had one of his guys bring it over to Ford’s house. He pulled it up as soon as he got a ping on Lena’s cell. His team is looking over satellite images from the past few days to determine if there’s been an uptick of movement in the area. Vehicles. Trucks hauling merchandise.”

Gray’s stomach dropped. The only merchandise Ivan moved was women.

“Given it’s slightly rural, there’s a chance we could get lucky and find a cluster of vehicles on a side road that aren’t usuallytraveling that route,” Nick explained. “That doesn’t help us see the homes in those forested sections, however. We need boots on the ground for that. Let’s divide up and search ourselves, driving down all these sideroads. Ivan doesn’t work alone. He has a vast network, and if he’s here, there’s likely a team of guys with him.”

“There were numerous vehicles at the home Lena was held at before,” Gray said, his voice low.

“Exactly. Spotting something like that again could be a big tip off as to where he’s holed up.”

Luke looked up from the printout, eyeing Nick. “And her cell hasn’t pinged again since earlier?”

“Negative,” Nick said with a frown.

“Given the highway this road leads to and the multiple cell towers they’d pass on the way, they damn well might still be in the area,” Gray said. “Or else they turned off her phone, and we’re fucked,” he added darkly. That was a thought he hardly wanted to consider, because then they’d rushed over here for nothing and Lena was being taken farther and farther away from him with each second that passed.

His eyes caught on a pickup truck at the far edge of the lot, the man in the driver’s seat looking right at them. Gray opened his mouth to tell his teammates when his phone buzzed. He muttered a curse as he got a new text, noticing that truck started its engine and slowly drove away.

“Can you read those plates?” he asked, nodding toward the truck. It wasn’t speeding out of there but still felt suspicious. The lot was mostly empty. Why was he watching them?

“Hang on,” Luke said, rummaging through his bag and pulling out a pair of binoculars. The men all kept go-bags in their trunks with changes of clothes and basic gear. At the moment, Gray wasthankful as hell they did. Luke rattled off the plate number as Nick scrawled it down, the truck pulling onto the road.

Gray’s phone continued buzzing, and he scanned over the texts.

Anonymous:You have 24 hours. $50 million or you never see the girl again.

Anonymous:I’ll provide you the number of an offshore account to wire the money. Clock’s ticking.

Anonymous:Maybe I’ll send her offshore when I’m finished with her.

Anonymous:Best pussy I’ve ever had.

“Fuck!” Gray shouted. He turned, punching into nothing but thin air. He wanted to beat the shit out of someone. Wring that guy’s neck and then burn his entire enterprise to the ground. Destroy every molecule in his body. If Ivan dared hurt Lena, Gray didn’t care if he himself ended up behind bars. He’d murder Ivan Rogers along with all of the men terrorizing her.

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked, looking up from the plate number he’d just written down.

Gray held up his phone, letting his teammates read the texts, when the other men’s phones began buzzing as well. Luke swore as a photograph of Lena appeared, and Gray nearly choked as he looked at the image. Lena was still bound to the bed, terrified, but this time a man’s hand was holding a knife to her throat.

“He’s going to kill her. Ivan threatened to slit her throat, and it looks like he goddamn might,” Gray said, his voice rising. “He’ll dump her body offshore afterwards.”

“He’s goading you,” Luke said. “Trying to get a rise out of you to throw us off. She’s restrained and helpless. He’s more concerned with photographing her to taunt us than doing anything else at the moment. He wants his money.”

“You don’t know that.”

“He could’ve easily hurt her by now. Assaulted her. Killed her. Why all the texts? The photos? It’s just a sick, twisted game to him.”

Gray briefly calmed, remembering Lena’s words from the initial kidnapping. Ivan had enjoyed playing with her. Drugging her. Was that what this was about? Another twisted power play by Ivan? He thrived on other people’s fear. He’d built an entire career of selling flesh. Innocent women. His taunts could just be meaningless drivel at this point, meant to upset the team into thinking he’d already assaulted Lena. But what was his end game?

Gray had no doubt he’d eventually rape and kill her. He could only hope neither had happened yet.

“How old is this photo?” Gray asked urgently.

Nick shook his head. “Don’t know. It’s probably in the photo properties. Does that come through on a text? I don’t know if the data is accurate.”

“Call West,” Luke said.

The other men continued talking, Gray’s mind racing. It had been nearly an hour since anyone had heard from Lena. An entire fucking hour. In the thirty minutes after she’d texted Jett that she was on her way, she’d been abducted. And it felt like they were barely any closer to finding her. Sure, they’d discovered her vehicle, but the priority was Lena herself. She was missing, and he wanted to claw his own heart out thinking about whatever pain she was enduring. When he found her, and Gray swore that he would, he’d do everything in his power to show her just how much she meant to him.

“What if they drove right past this area?” Gray asked as he looked down the road, fresh concern coursing through him. “We could be standing around while they’re getting away.”

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