Page 29 of Securing the Odds

“Fuckin’ pain in my ass,” he muttered, but he did move his eyes back out the windshield.

After that, she tried to be more subtle in her quest for her cell phone, but her effort came up nil as she still couldn’t grab it before they reached their destination—a beige stucco tract home in what appeared to be a quiet neighborhood.

After parking in the driveway, Kevin opened her car door, and gun back in hand, he gestured with it for her to get out.

It was a bit of a struggle, but she did manage—with no help from the asshole—to get to her feet. The neighborhood was just as quiet as it appeared and just her dumb luck, no nosy neighbors were lurking about.

“Get moving.” Kevin took her by the upper arm and steered her toward the front door.

The place was as cookie-cutter on the inside as it was the out—earth tones in a sea of standard upgrades. She was directed to a couch in the main room and forced to sit just as two other men entered.

One was average height with brown hair and eyes. The other guy was taller and blond.

“This her?” the taller one asked.

Kevin nodded. “Yeah.”

“I can see the family resemblance,” the taller guy continued.

“Speaking of family,” the short guy piped in. “Don’t you have a phone call to make?”

Kevin produced an evil grin. “That I do.”

Chapter 13

Jake pulledhis eyes from his computer when his cell phone rang. Picking it up, he glanced at the screen and chuckled to himself thinking about the conversation he and Tammy had the other day as he answered. “Have your ears been ringing?”

“I have a problem,” Nate said sans greeting.

“You know I’m always happy to take your money, Reed.”

“This is serious, Carter. Tammy’s been kidnapped. I just received a ransom demand.”

Jake’s whole body stilled. “What the fuck. I just talked to her less than an hour ago.”

There was silence on the other end, then Nate asked, “You’ve been talking to Tammy?”

Fuck, he should have been more tactful. Nate was in full-blown protective-brother mode. Not wanting to waste time, he skimmed the events of the past few days, ending with, “I don’t understand. I thought we took care of this. I made itcrystal clearTammy was no longer to be involved.”

“I won’t ask how you conveyed that message, but they must not have been paying attention. I just hung up with them before calling you. I’ve got twenty-four hours to come up with one million dollars. Doable, but it’ll be tight.”

“You verify they got her?”

“Yes, I even talked to her. She sounded pissed but not scared or upset.”

“Hold on.” Jake put the call on speaker then pulled up his tracking app, silently thanking his paranoid tendencies where Tammy was concerned. “I linked Tammy’s phone to mine the other day. If it’s on her, we’ll have her location, and I can go get her now.”

After a few short seconds, Nate asked, “Well?”

“Hang on, it’s still loading.”Bingo. “She’s in a residential neighborhood off Paradise Road. I can be to her in twenty minutes.”

“I’m leaving now. I’ll be there in a couple of hours. Should we call the cops?”

“No. I’ve got something else in mind.”

“This is a dumb idea.”Decker folded his arms across his chest and leaned his butt against the side of Jake’s car where he’d parked about a half a block down from Tammy’s signal.

Jake pulled his gun from its holster, checked the magazine, then slipped it back in. “We live for bad ideas.”

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