Exposure - Kelly Moran Page 0,107

the storage room. Something was wrong. Very wrong. One of the guards was holding open the door, his face grim. Max and McCannon stood at a table in the middle of the room, Hintz and another guard off to the side.

"Where's Raven?" But he knew. The cold claw of fear gripped his heart to squeeze, and he knew.

All heads turned to him.

McCannon spoke first. "She's gone. Your team searched the building. She's…gone."

No. No, no, no.

Soreno. The sick fuck had his Raven, doing God only knew what.

"Mr. Caldwell, you need to look at this." Max jerked his chin to the table. "Miss Crowne's assistant told me she came back here. It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes ago."

Closing the distance, he glared at the photo of Raven, a knife pinning the picture to the table. He scrubbed a shaking hand over his mouth, too many emotions rioting against his skull.

Max handed him a cell phone. Raven's. He swiped the screen to have an unsent text pop up. She'd been texting him?

To Noah: I have something important to tell you tonite…

That was it. She must've been cut off while typing. And he knew what she'd planned to say. But now she might never get the chance. He might never hear her voice again.

He growled, throwing the phone against the wall to shove his fingers in his hair. Crawling out of his skin. He was fucking crawling out of his skin. Panic rammed his temples, seized the air in his lungs. He paced, fingers clenching into fists to yank his strands.

"Local police are on their way. As soon as we have an idea on her whereabouts--"

Noah clutched the lapels of McCannon's jacket and slammed the agent against a shelf. Items toppled around them. "Where the fuck is she? How did that bastard get in here?"

"Sir?" Hintz was at the emergency exit. "Downer is dead. He was guarding this door."

Noah's gut twisted. He shoved off of McCannon and paced the room. "Where would he take her? Did you get any leads?"

McCannon rolled his shoulders. "Not a damn thing."

They couldn't just stand around while she was being tortured, raped, killed… Noah swiveled to Hintz. "Ready the helicopter. Get in the air."

Hintz was already halfway to the door.

"They couldn't have gotten far. Watch for--" Cutting himself off, Noah straightened. "Watch. Her watch." He pulled his cell out of his breast pocket with a shaking hand and fumbled with the screen to get to the app. "I had a tracking device planted in her watch months ago."

Hintz nodded. "I'll ready the heli to search by air. Text me if you get coordinates."

McCannon barked orders to his agent to pull the car up so they'd be prepared. Max commanded their guards to do the same, telling one man to hang back at the gallery and manage the confused patrons.

The fucking coordinates were still loading. "Come the fuck on," he roared just as a map pulled up. A little red dot appeared near…The Sound? The pocket by that area of the bluff was deserted. Why the hell would Soreno take her there? With the rocks and shoreline, he couldn't even dock a boat in the vicinity. Noah held the screen out to show McCannon. "Let's go."

While they amassed out the emergency exit, Noah texted the directions to Hintz and ran for the SUVs. Climbing in the passenger seat, he yelled for Max to go before his door shut.

He stared at the little ret dot on the screen, clinging to hope it meant she was still alive. He tried to recall what was out that way, not having been near that area in years. The king crab fisherman typically launched farther down if on this side of the sea. Closing his eyes, he pulled the location to mind, struggling to remember.

Shoreline. Trees. Boulders. The winding road past the port. Didn't that road stop at…?

"There's an old crab shack." His knee bounced. "Abandoned. There's only one access by car. It's surrounded by water, too rough to dock."

Max pushed the button to activate Bluetooth. When McCannon picked up, Max repeated what Noah had just said.

"He'll know we're coming then." The FBI agent cursed under his breath. "All right. We'll park as far down and out of sight as possible. Go in by foot." He paused. "If we tip him off, he'll kill her before we have a chance to bring him down. No one does a damn thing without my order."

Noah texted Hintz the update and pulled up the app again.