three years ago? That didn’t make sense. If Colton wanted to get to Sean, he could have done any number of things. Hell, if Colton had called him up and asked him to meet for drinks, Sean would have gone, no questions asked. Because the one regret he had was that he hadn’t handled the situation with Colton right. He wished he could do it over again.
But you would have done the same thing, because you needed your crimes to go away. You did it to give yourself a clean slate, you did it for Lucy.
Did Colton think that Sean had picked Lucy over him? Maybe he had. And yes, he would always choose Lucy first. But this wasn’t really a choice between an old friend and the woman he loved. Colton had been into serious crimes, way over his head. His borderline illegal activities—hacking that did good—had changed focus to blatantly illegal crimes. Breaking into a pharmaceutical company. Stealing information. Helping plan the murder of men who were doing their time in prison.
His head hurt. He didn’t know what the hell was going on, but it was far bigger than Sean could imagine. He leaned back against the van wall and closed his eyes.
An hour later—maybe longer—the van pulled off the highway. They went over some side streets, then gravel, and finally stopped.
Colton told everyone to sit tight and left out the back of the van.
Five minutes later he returned with another man. “Chris, dispose of the van. Take him with you,” he pointed to the guy in the passenger seat. “You two, take Rogan to the vehicle. Hunt, you and your men follow.”
Sean was untied from the van, jerked up and half dragged, half carried to the third vehicle, his prison shackles making him stumble. It was an actual black stretch limousine. Hunt strutted, not realizing, maybe, that he wasn’t in charge. When Hunt wasn’t looking at him, Sean saw Colton glare at the back of his head.
Jimmy was a dead man walking. He was in over his head and didn’t realize it.
They were in the middle of a plowed field. Other than that, Sean had no idea where they were. He didn’t know if they’d gone north or south or west. Not east—that would have been the Gulf. They were still in Texas. It was late afternoon by the look of the sky. It would have been a beautiful day if he wasn’t being held captive and wanted for murder.
A limo was … odd. Jimmy was impressed, made a comment to his two goons that this was the way he expected to be treated. The three of them talked too much.
Colton and his two men didn’t talk. Sean couldn’t see the driver, but already that meant Colton had five men working for him.
Probably more.
And they knew to keep their mouths shut.
Colton motioned at one of his men, then gestured toward Sean. The man pulled handcuffs from his pocket and cuffed Sean’s hands in front of him.
“In,” Colton told Sean. He awkwardly climbed into the limo.
Hunt said, “Can’t we just put him in the trunk?”
Colton didn’t say a word. He got in and sat across from Sean and stared at him.
Colton acted like the limo wasn’t out of the ordinary, and Sean wished he’d known what his old friend had been up to since he’d last seen him. Maybe he should have kept tabs on him after their confrontation in the hospital. Maybe he should have reached out, when Sean’s betrayal wasn’t so fresh, and apologized again. Explain better why he did what he did, why he had to do what he did.
They’d been so close at one time, but Sean didn’t know him anymore. He didn’t know how Colton could work with someone like Hunt. Colton wasn’t a violent criminal.
They weren’t in the limo for long. Hunt and his men wouldn’t stop talking, about nothing in particular, though Sean heard something about the DEA agent being toast. He prayed it wasn’t Brad, but feared it was.
And Colton didn’t act like anything was out of the ordinary, his face set, never taking his eyes off Sean.
Fifteen minutes after they got into the limo, it turned toward a gate that opened automatically. The property they drove through was expansive, acres upon acres of lush vegetation and mature trees. Based on the glimpses he’d seen, he only had a vague sense that they were somewhere in the middle of Texas.