at the brothers standing across from each other, power dripped from Kai Bennett. Authority emanated from him, even just standing there.
Every single guard stood an inch taller.
The tension in the air went up a notch, and I felt it even inside the vehicle. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and goosebumps ran down my arms.
Sunglasses blocked his eyes as he listened to what Tanner was saying, but his eyes flashed in my memory—how dead they’d looked when he told me to leave Brooke alone, right after their father had told her Cord was dead.
I felt sick to my stomach, and my hand moved there, as if to keep the contents in.
No one else made my skin crawl with disgust except my father. Kai Bennett and Bruce Bello were cut from the same cloth.
I should have looked away, if only just to keep from emptying my stomach, but I couldn’t.
My heart picked up. I felt it pounding in my eardrums, and I tasted bile in my mouth. But still, I couldn’t look away. Resting a hand on the window, I scooted even closer.
I needed to try to read their lips—beep.
No. They couldn’t.
I heard another beep, coming from the front of the car.
Crawling forward, I heard a third beep. A phone had been left up there. There was a wall and a small window separating the front from the back, but I could get through that window. Feeling it, it moved an inch.
They hadn’t locked it, but I could see why. It took all of my muscles to get it open that one inch. A fourth beep sent my blood rushing through my body. Adrenaline and excitement filled me with almost a frenzied need to get to that phone.
I used my entire body to get the window open farther.
One more inch.
Goddamn, a fifth beep.
The phone was in the console, right underneath my fingers.
I tried again, almost throwing myself backward to get it open a bit more. I didn’t want to rock the vehicle, make them aware of what was I doing, but it worked.
Shit.
I felt the SUV tremble, and I paused, glancing over my shoulder.
The guards remained with their backs to the SUV. The two Bennetts were still talking, neither looking my way. I was safe, for now.
The window had opened another two inches, more than enough to get my arm inside. Snaking it through, with my face pressed against the window, I reached down to the console.
I grabbed the phone, my fingers just grazing it. I cupped it and pulled my arm back through the window.
My pulse jackhammered inside me.
I was shaking, almost uncontrollably, but as I opened the screen, I nearly wept. No passcode needed. I dialed in a safe number to call.
A second later, I heard, “411. What is your information?”
Tears wet my face. “This is Section 8, Hider 96. My location is at these coordinates.”
There was silence on the other end. They were listening.
“I’ve been kidnapped by the Bennett family.”
That was all I needed to say.
They knew what to do, and no matter where I went now, they would find me. That’s what we did. As soon as I gave them my Hider number, Blade would receive an alert. He’d be listening within a second, and right now, I felt sure he was locating me.
A minute later, orders should’ve been dispatched to the nearest Hiders, and within five minutes of those notices, they would be in a vehicle, heading for me.
I only had to wait for them to arrive.
I knew Blade, and one phone wouldn’t be enough for him. He would use this location to find other phones, and he would ping trackers on all of them. Unless the Bennett family had anti-trackers to mask their signals—which I had never heard of—Blade would track me even if we departed from this location before the Hiders found me.
“Four Hiders are en route,” said the voice at the other end of the line. “Terminate this number. Erase your steps.”
Gladly.
I erased the history of the phone call, put the phone back in the console exactly how I’d felt it placed, and went to work getting that window shut.
I had it shut minus a centimeter when the guards began moving.
They parted at my door, and I saw Tanner heading back to me, his head down and his jaw clenched.
I scrambled to my seat, sitting there as if I’d never moved. My head was down when his door opened and he got inside. I sniffled, wiping the tears away