Liam would track her phone. Did he already know where she was? She hoped he was on his way. Rae glanced around the room to get her bearings.
The burst of light disappeared, but she’d learned enough about the room. There was one door. Sure, there was a window, but she doubted it would be easy to open. Probably nailed shut. Even if it wasn’t, this place could be in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. She could climb out, but where would she go? She needed to explore and find out as much as she could, then she could figure out her escape.
The room was sparse, and although she’d only caught a clear glimpse of it with the flashlight beam, it seemed like her abductor had already removed potential weapons. Rae found the bedroom door. To her surprise, it wasn’t locked. Hearing a voice, she crept down a short hallway and into a massive living room where a fire blazed in the fireplace. The front door swung open. Cold air and snow swirled into the room. She stepped back into the shadows.
The man in the black mask. Her pulse roared in her ears, joining the wind and helicopter rotors. Snow covered his head and fell from his shoulders. He tugged off the mask.
Wayne?
The pilot.
The breath whooshed from her.
He’d given her the water—tossed it to Ivan, who’d handed it over. She hadn’t seen a watch on him then.
Rae struggled to wrap her mind around the fact that this man—Ivan and Sam’s friend and employee—had abducted her. Wayne had been the one who had stolen her laptop. He had needed to learn how much she knew about Zoey. And he’d shoved her on the slopes and was the man who drove the Hummer.
He quickly tried to get on his cell, cursing that he couldn’t get a signal. Then he moved around until he found one. She kept her back pressed against the wall in the shadows.
“She’s here. I brought her to Morning Glory like you asked. I don’t care what you do with her. I’m not a coldhearted murderer. I’ve hauled human cargo around enough. I’m done. I want everything you have on me erased. Destroyed. Do you hear me? And another thing—I have to leave now or else I won’t get out of here. I had to hide her vehicle and keep low until it was safe to get her into a helicopter and bring her here. Now the blizzard is starting to move in. She’ll be stuck here, so I wouldn’t worry about an escape. When she wakes up, she can throw another log on the fire. Do with her what you want, but just know that she’s my last job for you. I made a mistake. One. I’m done paying for it.”
The door slammed.
Rae’s heart jumped around inside. She ran out into the empty living room. She gasped for breath. No . . . No, no, no.
Rae flung the front door open. Snow blew past her into the room. “Don’t leave me here!”
For the person on the other end of that call to come for her and . . . do what he wanted with her.
The helicopter lifted off.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Saturday, 10:15 p.m.
Samara Davidson’s Home
Samara opened her laptop and, while waiting for it to boot up, glanced out the window. “Not a good time to be searching for someone.” Then her striking eyes found and held Liam’s. “You care deeply for her.”
“You’ve got that wrong. I’m working with her to find Zoey.”
Her smile told him she didn’t believe him. Her attention returned to the laptop. “Wayne has been embezzling from the company.”
Ivan gasped. “What? That can’t be. Here, let me see.” He whipped the laptop around and stared at it. “This is all gibberish to me. How do you know?”
Seriously? “And how is that going to help me find Rae?”
“Patience.” Her tone was firm. She tapped on the keyboard again. “I’ve been compiling a file on him. I wasn’t sure about any of it, but if you remember, Ivan, he was the one who initially brought Simon and Enzo in for those helicopter rides.”
She scrolled through images of Wayne with Simon and Enzo, and then of Wayne with only Enzo over the last few years since Simon went missing.
“You’ve been following him?”
“I’ve wanted to find a way to help Zoey. To save her. To bring her home. In the meantime, life has passed us all by and she has built another life away from