Page 33 of Strangers in Love

Audric’s ransom video had been released the day after he was taken, but his deadline was the day after mine because his wife needed to leverage some of their assets. They were well off, but a lot of what they had was tied up in their construction companies.

They all said they believed that their ransoms would be coming through soon, but I could see in their eyes that they’d lost hope. Even the always-smiling Audric. Hammond and Dana thought they’d been betrayed. Audric thought our kidnappers had gone back on their word. Gia…honestly, I had no idea what Gia was thinking. She’d completely turned inward.

That wouldn’t be me, I vowed. I wouldn’t lose hope because the people I loved would move heaven and earth to find me, and they had the means to do it. I didn’t know much about the others’ finances, but I did know how much money my family had and that they’d spend all of it, call in every favor they were owed, to get me home.

And then I could save the rest of them.

The thought hit me hard enough to make me sit up straight.

Of course! Why hadn’t I thought of that before? My parents could pay the others’ ransoms as well as talk to the people in D.C., asking them to do whatever was needed to get Gia freed. We could get everyone back to their families by Thanksgiving. That’d be wonderful!

I stood up and stretched my legs. I wanted to tell everyone that it’d be okay, but I didn’t think it’d be a good idea until right before I was released, and even then, I’d only reveal part of my plan. If I told them now, and we couldn’t quite get everyone back for the holidays, I’d feel awful.

“Going somewhere?” Audric asked from his space on the back wall. “Bring me back a beer.”

I laughed. Maybe he wasn’t as hopeless as I feared. “It’ll go with the pizza I ordered.”

No one else said anything as I walked the length of the cell over and over. If one of the guards came in, they’d yell at me, maybe grab my arm and push me down, but I was willing to take the risk. I wanted to be ready as soon as they came to get me for the ransom exchange. I didn’t want anything to go wrong.

On my third pass, I heard voices in the hallway. I froze, straining to hear what was being said, even if I couldn’t understand it. Knowing what mood the guards were in was almost as important as the words themselves. It could mean the difference between a barked order or the back of a hand to the face.

They were talking too low for me to recognize their voices, but neither one sounded angry. Then they said something I recognized.

A name.

Serle Lansky.

Was it possible that I wasn’t the only Neutral Ground worker who’d been taken? Could Serle be here too? Held in another cell? Wondering if someone was going to come get him?

And then my heart nearly stopped.

What if they’d taken Freedom too?

She’d been in the hospital, but she could have been taken on her way to the airport the same as I was. She was doing better, but she’d had surgery. Flying home was one thing. Being handled as roughly as I had was something else. And the filth in these cells was an infection waiting to happen.

No, I reminded myself. They would’ve had us do the ransom video together, like they had with Hammond and Dana. Freedom was safe.

But the other people from Neutral Grounds, people like Serle, they could still be in trouble.

Twenty-Four

Eoin

I definitely wantedto meet Freedom Mercier.

I’d once seen Cain reduce a smartass private to tears with two sharp words and a glare.

Freedom had kept him on the phone for forty-three minutes, arguing about why she wasn’t going to fly back to L.A. without her sister. He’d gone back to what I assumed was his bedroom to make the call, so I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but every once in a while he’d get loud enough for me to know he was still talking to her.

Any woman who could go toe to toe with Cain was someone I wanted to meet…only under the right circumstances, though, because I had a feeling Freedom could be fucking scary if she was pissed.

And if she was anything like her sister, I could see why Cain had immediately agreed to help her. I had a feeling the Mercier women were the kind who stuck with a man.

Even from far away.

Like halfway around the world away.

I’d watched Aline’s ransom video a dozen times. I told myself that I was just trying to find anything I could to help us figure out where Aline was being kept, but the truth was, there was something about her that…drew me. I couldn’t think of any other way to say it.

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