Page 106 of Wrecked
Chapter 33
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Why did her heart acheso much?
Hallene had never been a slave to her emotions, but she’d handed Sam her full trust.
Should she believe Sam when he said he never thought his team would just show up? The timing of him asking her about Angela and Clercville being safe then his team sticking a phone in the car had shattered her easy faith.
Sam started the engine.
Her phone made a little two-tone noise that had her heart jumping around. “Wait a minute. I need to read this and don’t want to jockey connections if I end up having to call someone.” She opened the phone to a text.
Midnight Ferret had sent:
Van stopped for 2 hrs. C snatching P at 21:00. Location attached.
Midnight must have been shaken by her informing him someone might know he was hacking Kovac’s system, or he’d have sent a map.
The image attached was of a mocked-up news article about a butcher and included the word pound eight times in the text. Different numbers had been placed before each use of pound as if the weight had been in dispute.
Those numbers were latitude entered first and longitude listed second. She knew to take the second set.
Her hand shook. She looked up at Sam. “We have a location on the van.”
“Hey, that’s great news.” He tried his best to sound happy, but she heard the sadness rolling under his words.
She gave voice to what he avoided saying. “But that doesn’t mean we’ll find your high-value target.”
He shrugged as if that was only a small bubble when it was so much bigger. “One thing at a time. Let’s rescue Phoebe, then let me bring in my people to go after our guy. Fair enough?”
That was more than fair, but now she stood to get what she desperately wanted, and Sam might lose out. How quickly the table just turned. “I’ll help you any way I can, Sam.”
“I know you will, hon.”
And he did, but she’d destroyed something important between them earlier. She’d been so panicked over losing this chance to save Phoebe that she’d lunged for her tight-fisted control and crushed his feelings in the process.
She’d never had someone like Sam because she had never let anyone close enough for her to experience true happiness. She had no idea how to nurture that kind of caring when falling back into her work came so much more naturally.
“Where to?” Sam asked, reaching to put the car in gear.
She punched the coordinates into her phone and studied the map. “Looks like the van is maybe parked at a resort. If it’s in the parking lot, would that possibly mean W is inside the hotel?” She looked up at him.
“Doubtful, but let’s start with getting to the van first. We’ll have to scout the area once we find the van. After Kovac’s failed first attempt, I’d expect him to send more armed backup this time. How long should it take us to get there?”
Her insides were having a boxing match with the tension between her and Sam, but she calculated time while punching in the coordinates for the distance. They’d eaten a late breakfast this morning then driven around for a bit, just staying in this area before deciding to grab a late lunch.
It was now close to four in the afternoon. “The drive takes a little over three hours if we don’t hit a bad traffic jam. I’m thinking we need to get there early ahead of the 21:00 time mark.”
“Agreed.”
His calm acceptance battered her conscience. Now she’d drag Sam into another firefight. As if putting him in trouble with his team hadn’t been bad enough?
Did she have to keep destroying his life? “Sam, maybe you shouldn’t—”
He’d started backing up the vehicle again and stopped, putting the car into park. Worry ghosted over his face before he brought up a smile, a sad one, and moved his hand to her cheek. “I’m gonna be just fine when this is done. We’ll get there early, find a place to observe, then you create a diversion while I get into the van.”
He had a way of making everything sound reasonable. She knew none of this was reasonable or even safe, but she would not turn into the weak link for him at this point. “What would your team do?”
