her. “You can’t be here. Seriously. I have enough to deal with, and there’s no way you could find me. Get that gun out of my side.”
His brows drew down as if he wasn’t sure how to respond. “Listen, you psycho. We’ve been sitting here for three days waiting for you to make an appearance, and I’ve had it. Get in my car before I just shoot you.”
She glared. “Waiting here?”
“Yes.” He pushed even harder, and she winced at the pain. “We knew you were here and there’s only one major way in or out of this stupid little town. We knew you’d show at some point, and it’s about time.”
She looked around, panic finally sinking through the fog she’d been in. The area was quiet, and the teenager inside was faced away from the pumps, reading her book. “How did you find me?” She had to get away from him.
He grabbed her hair and pulled, yanking her away from the car and the lights. She fought him, but he shoved the gun to the side of her head, and she grew still, her mind grasping for a way to escape. “We traced the phone call. You’d be shocked the people we know who can help us.”
“You’d be shocked the people I know,” she countered, unable to move far with the weapon at her temple. “I used a burner phone.”
“We didn’t trace you.” He opened the back door of a nondescript brown car and shoved her inside, keeping the gun on her as she followed.
She perched on the worn leather seat, frantically looking for a way out. “You traced my neighbor’s phone.” She should’ve thought of that, but she’d had to check on Mrs. P.
“Yeah.” Brad slammed the door. “I knew you’d check on that old bag, and you did.”
Charles turned around in the driver’s seat, his face an angry red. “It’s about time. I am done with this job.” He started the car and drove away from the gas station and Hallie’s last sense of safety.
Fear climbed through her as the shock receded, helping her focus. “This day just keeps getting worse.” She cautiously reached for the door handle.
“It’s childproof locked,” Brad said, facing her with the gun pointed somewhere in her stomach area.
She froze. If she could get the gun from him, she could at least shoot Charles and stop the car. “What do you want from me?”
“Oh. A lot, and we’ll get to that,” Charles said grimly.
She studied Brad in the darkness. “You seemed like a good guy to me.”
“I am a good guy.” He waved the gun, spittle flying from his mouth. “If you’d just listened to me, we wouldn’t have had to chase you for a solid freaking month. You don’t seem to understand that you put all of us in danger. Marc Lewis isn’t messing around, and he’s going to hire hitmen on all of us if you don’t promise to keep quiet about everything.”
“I promise,” she said instantly. “Is that all? I haven’t told anybody, and as you can see, it’s not like I went to any authorities.” Which was the absolute truth. Sure, she was planning to turn them in, but so far, they couldn’t know that. Hope spun through her.
Brad set the gun on his thigh, his hand securely over it. “That’s true.”
She nodded and patted his knee, so close to the gun. “I know. You scared me, and I ran. But I haven’t turned you guys in. That has to count for something.”
Brad looked toward his brother, and her heart sank.
Charles met her eyes in the rearview mirror. “My brother might think you’re sweet and truthful, but I think you’re full of it. Whichever is true, we’re going to find out the hard way.”
Brad’s shoulders slumped and he barely looked at her. “We’ll figure something out, Hallie.”
That didn’t sound good. Fear made it hard to think, but she watched the ranch land speed by outside, trying to figure out a way to escape. Soon Charles pulled onto a dirt road and followed it, stopping in front of a small, quiet log cabin.
Her mouth went dry. “Where are we?”
Brad reached for her arm. “Rental in the middle of nowhere.”
Charles turned and smiled. “I hope you’re a screamer.”
* * *
The helicopter landed smack dab in the field behind the clubhouse as lightning struck too close, and Trent was the first off, ducking and running full bore for the building. He’d gone stone cold the second he’d heard that Hallie had been taken.