Page 84 of Trapped

He was pleased to get a reaction out of the man.

“I’ll bet you didn’t know there was a back way in.”

Luntz’s face showed that the guess had been right.

“Too bad you couldn’t control access,” he taunted. He wanted to strip off the guy’s clothing, tie him down on a bed and make him think he was going to end up with his balls handed to him on a platter. But not with Sophia watching. And maybe it was good that she was here, because that would keep him from stepping over a line that he could never come back across.

Outside, Cash heard a car door slam.

Luntz gave him a triumphant look.

Cash turned to Sophia. “Come on.”

He hurried out of the room, and she followed. In the doorway he reached into his pack, then tossed two tear gas canisters inside.

As the room filled with gas, Luntz began to cough, and Cash guided Sophia out the back door and around the side of the house.

Inside he could hear shouts, coughing and cursing.

“You’re driving. Get in the car.”

Sophia climbed into the driver’s seat while Cash turned and shot out all four tires of the SUV that had pulled up in the driveway. Someone came running out the front door, shooting.

Cash ducked into the passenger seat and slammed the door as Sophia took off down the driveway. Careening though the decorative brick posts, she headed for the route that they’d agreed on earlier—in case they had to make a quick getaway.

They drove for several miles.

“Now what?” Sophia asked.

“I don’t know.”

She cleared her throat. “Would you consider calling the Decorah Security Agency?”

“I don’t want to.”

“I know. But I think we’re out of options and out of money.

He sighed, finally conceding the point. “Yeah.”

She pulled the phone out of her purse and pressed in a number. Someone answered on the first ring.

“This is Sophia Rhodes.”

“Thank God,” a woman answered. “This is Kathryn Kelley.”

Cash remembered she was the woman who had recruited Sophia for this assignment.

“Where are you?” Kelley asked.

“In Potomac, Maryland.”

“You, Phil and Baker?”

She sucked in a breath. “Phil didn’t make it. But I have Cash Baker with me.”

“You want us to pick you up?”

She glanced at Cash, who could clearly hear the conversation.

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