Page 60 of Protection for Nichole

“What do you mean she isn’t there?”

Jay reached out and clutched Sharp’s forearm. Panic was out of control as it raced through him.

“Let me put you on speaker. Say it all again.”

Danika blew out a breath, and when she spoke, her voice sounded strained. “I ran out to grab gas in the car. I should have stayed here. I came back, and Nichole was gone.”

Apple leaned in closer to the phone. “Did she walk out?”

“I don’t think so. The door wasn’t broken or bashed in, but it was open when I came back. Like wide open. I don’t think she would have left on her own and not closed the door.”

Apple shook his head and then met Jay’s gaze. “I know I’ve been her harshest critic, but she didn’t run out on you.”

Griz was rubbing his hand over his chin. “No, something happened. We need to figure out what went wrong.”

Apple’s eyes went wide. “That guy watching her place.”

The words sent a chill through him. “Fuck. I never figured out who that was. Why didn’t I look into it? Fuck, this is my fault.”

“No way, man. This is the fault of whoever took her.”

Desperation slid through him. “What do we do?”

Griz was used to leading them, so he took the lead. “How do we find her? Who can help us?”

Squat pulled out his phone. “I’ll call Thario.”

Griz nodded. “Good.”

Squat stepped away to call Thario. The other guys were brainstorming ideas. He was screwed. They had no way to know who had taken her or where they were.

He wouldn’t survive if anything happened to Nichole. Whoever had taken her wasn’t going to survive. No question, he would get revenge and make it hurt.

Chapter 47

Nichole shouldn’t have answeredthe door. She’d thought that Danika might have had her hands full when the knock sounded. She pulled open the door, surprised to find some man standing on the porch. She hadn’t known who he was at first, but now she knew exactly who the jerk was—Devon Zabel—and she was very afraid.

He’d hit her with something that had knocked her out. At first, she’d worried about the lump on her forehead, but she could deal with a lump if she survived. The longer they drove, the more she worried about her life.

When she’d finally come to, he started telling her things he had planned for her. She could hear him, but not see him because she was in the back of a van that had no windows, or at least the windows were covered.

“You’re going to learn some important lessons when you are his sex slave.”

His words made her want to shrink. How could he do this? He blamed her for his father’s troubles. But the man had been doing illegal stuff for years. If he hadn’t wanted to be caught,he should have operated above board instead of doing so many illegal activities.

In her reporting she hadn’t realized they were heavy into gangster activity. She’d found the money laundering and embezzlement, along with fraud and a few other financial crimes, but based on what Devon was saying, his father had been a mobster.

Apparently, her reporting had caused him to lose the support of the criminal element as well as the above-board companies who’d been doing business with him. She didn’t really care about the details. She just wanted to escape.

She hoped Jesse knew she wasn’t missing their wedding on her own volition. She wanted to be there. She wanted to be his wife, but now she doubted if it would ever happen. If she didn’t do something to get free, she would never make her way back to Jesse.

The van slowed, and then they turned off the main road. They weren’t on the freeway any longer. How far had they driven? It had been at least a few hours, which meant they were either in Arizona, Northern California, or Nevada.

How could she get a message to Jesse? Could she write something in a bathroom? What could she write with? Devon would find a note on the door or the mirror. She needed to be more inventive if she wanted to escape.

“I’m going to stretch my legs. Be quiet. Besides, there ain’t no one close.”

She didn’t believe anything he said. As he stepped out of the van, she listened for noise. There weren’t any people making noise or animals making sounds. No car noise either. Where were they? If she escaped, she needed to be able to run.

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