Vance stood there; Lee’s bounty hunter.
I blinked up at him, my eyes adjusting to the light.
It immediately hit me that Vance was a different sort than Hank. He didn’t have control over his reactions, maybe didn’t want to and he didn’t try to hide his expression from me. Vance’s dark eyes were blazing angry and his mouth was tight.
He pul ed some keys from his pocket and crouched beside me, his eyes never leaving my face even as his hands went to the cuffs. He freed me from the sink within a few seconds, then he went to work on the cord wrapped around my head, al the while looking at me.
After he pul ed the handkerchief gently from my mouth, his hands went back to mine and he worked on the nylon rope while he asked, “You okay?”
I wanted to laugh and ask him how many girls he found beaten up, gagged and cuffed to sinks in sleazy hotels that answered, “Yeah, sure, peachy.” But it was anything but funny and both Vance and I knew it.
Instead, I said, “I think he cracked a couple ribs.” His eyes flared and, again, he didn’t try to hide it.
He helped me up from the floor, helped me out of the hotel and then helped me into a black Ford Explorer.
Once I was inside, he skirted the car and swung behind the wheel. Without delay, he started the truck, hitting some buttons on the sat nav after he hit a button on the phone, making it ring inside the truck.
“Yeah?” A voice answered before the second ring.
“Got her, do you have a lock on my position?” Vance asked, stil fiddling with the sat nav.
“Yeah. She okay?” the voice asked back.
“I need the nearest hospital,” Vance replied.
Silence.
Then, “Fuck.”
Vance stopped fiddling with the sat nav, reversed the Explorer out of the spot and started driving.
“When you hear the zip code, enter it into the sat nav.
Can you do that?” Vance asked me.
“Yes,” I whispered, then cleared my throat. “Yes,” I said louder.
The male voice gave me the zip code and I entered it.
After I did that, Vance took over, pressing a couple of buttons. The navigation system calculated the route and Vance swung a uey.
Then the male voice said, “What can I report to Hank and Tex?”
“She’s safe. Let me get her checked out. Then I’l cal in and you can let Lee decide.”
“I’m here,” another voice said, a voice I knew was Lee’s.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the window, humiliation burning deep into my already exposed mental wounds. I didn’t know what time it was but it had to be early in the morning, three o’clock, maybe four and Lee and his army were at work for me.
“Hank there?” Vance asked.
My already tense body went rock solid.
“He’s not in the surveil ance room, he’s in my office.
Bobby’s getting him now,” Lee replied.
I let out a breath.