A Billionaire's Redemption - By Cindy Dees Page 0,87

makeup, a purse.”

Gabe nodded and didn’t further distract the grim man from concentrating on his driving. The SUV screeched to a halt in Willa’s driveway in about two minutes flat.

“Take the front,” the guard ordered as he tore around back.

Gabe leaped the front steps and pounded on the front door, shouting, “Willa! Let me in!”

Nothing. But a few seconds later, he heard the sound of shattering glass, and moments later the guard let him in the front door. “Not here,” the guy announced. “Hospital gown’s on the floor of her bedroom, so she was here.”

Gabe raced through the house looking for something, anything, that would tell him where Willa had gone. A quick circuit of the cottage brought him back to the living room in frantic frustration. The guard was talking fast into his cell phone. He identified himself as Cade McGrath, the team lead on the Merris job.

Gabe scanned the cozy room. A faint scent of gardenias drifted to him and nearly brought him to his knees. Where the hell was she? What made her run? Fear for her safety roared through him. As sure as he was standing here, something was terribly wrong with her. He felt it in his bones.

His gaze landed on the remote control that turned on her white-noise system. Had the bastards from that secret government program snatched her to silence her about their shenanigans? Icy terror flowed through his veins at the thought of Willa in the hands of cold-blooded killers. She’d been so afraid of them. They’d been tapping her phone, for God’s sake....

He leaped for Willa’s telephone, which lay on the coffee table beside the white-noise controller. He snapped at the guard, “If someone was bugging this phone, would they hear me talking into it if I didn’t dial a number?”

“Probably not,” McGrath answered, frowning. “It would be an automated recording system activated when a call came in or went out. The recordings would typically be reviewed later. If there’s a direct surveillance op running, there may be a couple of guys sitting in a vacant house across the street beside the recording device. In that case, they would listen to the calls in real time.”

Gabe punched in the first phone number he could think of—his apartment. He waited impatiently until his computer picked up. Then he spoke loudly and clearly, “I know you guys are bugging Willa’s phone. The senator has been kidnapped and her life is in danger. If it was not you guys who took her, I need you to pick up this line right now.”

He paused, but no one came on the line. He continued grimly, “If it was you guys who took her, I swear I’m going to blow your little program sky-high. By tonight, I’ll have you sons of bitches splashed all over the national news. Willa told me all about you, and I remember enough names and places of your operations and killings to make your lives a living hell—”

A male voice spoke abruptly in his ear. “Is this Mr. Dawson?”

“Yes, it is. Who is this?”

“We did not kidnap Senator Merris. What do I have to do to convince you not to reveal our existence? I assure you, it’s a matter of national security.”

“Whether or not you add to or take away from national security is a discussion for another time,” Gabe snapped. “What I need right now is for you to tell me if any calls have come in to this phone number in the past half hour.”

“One call, Mr. Dawson.”

“Do you have a recording of it?”

“We do.”

“I need to know who called Willa and exactly what was said.”

“The recording hasn’t been reviewed and transcribed, yet. I will have to pull up the actual recording. This will take a moment.”

Gabe waited impatiently and caught the thunderstruck look Cade McGrath was throwing him. He murmured at the guard, “Have you got weapons in your vehicle?”

“Of course.”

Gabe nodded, and the anonymous voice was back in his ear. “It’ll be quickest if I play the recording for you.”

Gabe put the receiver on speakerphone so McGrath could hear, too. They listened in dismay at the electronically altered voice. A child had been kidnapped to force her cooperation? No surprise, Willa was throwing herself on her sword to save the kid. Then the caller mentioned the Vacarro Field. Gabe and McGrath looked at each other in relief. That was where they’d find Willa. If they were in time.

“Let’s go,” Gabe bit out.

* * *

Willa looked over at James

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