Page 81 of Against the Clock

“How can you be so calm about it?We don’t know if he’s alive or dead or in need of medical attention!”

He reached over and squeezed my hand gently.

“Trevor is going out of town, which means that Mike is alive and they’re hiding him.He’s with Max, and the two of them know plenty of doctors that will treat Mike without it being on anyone’s radar.”

“How do you know this?”

He shrugged and looked out the window, avoiding me.

“Roman.”

“Look, I can’t get into details but trust me when I say that Mike is in good hands.I hate not knowing if he’s okay, but I trust Trevor and Max.If he says that they’ve got him, they’ve got him.There’s nothing more that we can do, Quinn.Right now, we need to trust them to take care of Mike so we can focus on Rosie.”

I let my head fall back and closed my eyes.

“You’re right.I’m sorry.”My shoulders were so tight that they felt permanently attached to my ears.

“You don’t need to be sorry.All of this is beyond stressful, and I get it.But we’re a team, and that means that we all help each other when needed.”

I felt my heart start to slow back down to a normal pace and focused on taking some deep, grounding breaths.I had to get my mind clear if I wanted to figure out where Rosie was.

“Have you found anything else in the phone?”he asked, nodding to it sitting in my lap.

I shook my head and picked it up.

“I haven’t been able to figure out the code.Red could mean anything, and other than dirty texts from countless women, there isn’t anything about other assignments, so it’s not like I can compare them to see if there’s a theme of some sort.”

“Maybe we should call Red?See if they answer?”

I pulled my mouth to the side as I thought about it.

“It couldn’t hurt....”

I unlocked the phone and found the name Red in the contacts, which was fairly easy given there weren’t many names, to begin with.I pressed the call button and put it on speakerphone so Roman could hear it.

We waited quietly as it rang.By the fifth ring, I was already feeling disappointed that they wouldn’t answer.

“Since I’ve been informed that the men I hired are all dead and were left abandoned in an empty cabin without their weapons, I’m going to guess this is Quinn.”

My stomach dropped as I stared at the phone.Roman nodded for me to answer her.

“Where is my daughter,” I demanded, my fingers trembling as I struggled to hold the phone.

“Oh, sweet Rosie?She’s fine.She’s right here with me, getting to know everyone as we get her settled in.She’s quite beautiful, isn’t she?”

“You fucking bitch!”I shouted, blinded by anger.“Tell me where my daughter is now!”

“Tsk, tsk.Always such a hot head.”

I looked to Roman for help, but his focus was on the road ahead of him as his knuckles turned white from gripping the steering wheel.

“How do you know that I’m a hot head?”I asked, forcing myself to calm down.It wouldn’t do any good to sit here and yell at her.I needed to focus on finding Rosie, which meant that I had to get her to tell me where she was.

“I know everything there is to know about you, Quinn.I’ve been studying you for a long time.And quite frankly, I’ve always thought that Justin could do better.”

My nostrils flared as my face twisted with anger.

“She’s just trying to get to you; ignore her,” Roman whispered.

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