Page 102 of Trapped

“Meet me at the location of my choice. Come alone.”

Cash heaved in a breath and let it rush out. “How do I know I can trust you to help me?”

“You don’t.”

His curses raged over the phone line. “I don’t know if this is such a good idea. Maybe you’re after me, too.”

“And maybe I’m the only one who can save you,” Luntz said.

“Screw you,” Cash answered and pressed the “off button.”

He looked at Frank and Sophia. “He’ll call back. He wants me—bad.”

“Yeah,” Frank agreed.

Cash pressed his hands against the mattress to keep them steady. He was shaken, and he knew Sophia could see his reaction. The conversation had taken more out of him than he’d expected.

Sophia took a step into the room, and he stiffened.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he answered, praying it was true. He had to do this. It was the only way they could get Luntz. And he had to play his part or the whole thing would go to hell in a handbasket.

Was he up to it? He had to be. Yet a tiny splinter of doubt had lodged in his brain. He had remembered Afghanistan. Everything should be okay. Yet he was afraid to trust that the rest of it was going to work out.

“Maybe you want to take a shower and shave,” Sophia murmured.

“Do I look that bad?”

“You look like you’d feel better if you cleaned up.”

“Yeah. But I’d better not shave. I’ve got to look like a wreck when I meet Luntz.”

“Right. I wasn’t thinking about that. Take a shower and change your clothes. Then we can eat.”

“If I can swallow anything.”

Sophia laughed. “They made you some chicken soup. With lots of noodles. That should be easy enough.”

She was right. He did feel better after showering, brushing his teeth and eating. The soup was really good. He’d only ever had chicken soup out of a can before.

“Did you make this?” he asked Kathryn.

She laughed. “No. Hunter. He didn’t have any good food where they were training him. And he wanted to make sure he knew how to make stuff he liked.”

Cash grinned. “Maybe I can learn to cook too.”

Then he sobered when he focused on Luntz. He had to wait three long hours for the bastard to call back. And he couldn’t stop himself from pacing back and forth across the lounge as he waited.

When the cell phone finally rang, he snatched it up. “Hello?”

“I have a counteroffer,” Luntz said.

“It better be good,” Cash growled.

###

The negotiations went on for the next two days, with Cash coming across as a man at the end of his rope—a man who was willing to do anything to stop the pain in his head. But still a man who was afraid to show himself.

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