Red After Dark (Blackwood Security #13) - Elise Noble Page 0,67
car. They’d warned the sheriff to be ready for that possibility, but nobody had confidence the man would actually deliver, so Blackwood had a crane on standby. They couldn’t simply winch the vehicle out—the shoreline was a sharp drop rather than a gentle slope, and Piper must have been going at some speed when she entered the water because she’d ended up thirty feet out among clusters of rocks. If they could get paint fragments that matched Kyla’s car from the dent in the back of Piper’s, plus the invoice from the auto body repair shop and a statement from Beth’s witness, it might be enough.
But they only had two days to do it.
Alaric forgot how tired he was as he unclipped his fins and used the rope they’d tied to a tree to haul himself up the rocky incline to the van.
“Emmy?” No answer. “Nick?”
The silence unnerved Alaric, and his chest tightened. For the first time in days, there was nobody watching, and even the birds had deserted them. But he began to breathe again when Nick emerged from the truck, a phone pressed to his ear.
“We found the car.”
“Just a second.”
That was it? That was Nick’s reaction? Six days, they’d been looking for the damn vehicle, and a call was more important?
Wait. Why was the call more important?
Alaric dumped his BCD and tank, then unzipped his wetsuit. The tight neoprene felt cloying on land, even more so when it combined with the fear gripping his throat.
“What happened? Where’s Emmy?”
Nick looked as if he’d rather be anywhere but by the lake at that moment.
“Uh, she got kidnapped. But chill, it’s okay.”
Alaric gave his head a shake. Could he have decompression sickness after all? Hallucinations were a symptom, weren’t they?
“For a second there, I thought you said Emmy got kidnapped.”
“Yeah, she did.”
No, that wasn’t right. Emmy couldn’t have been kidnapped. She was carrying a machete, for fuck’s sake.
“Is this a joke?” Knox asked. “Because it’s not funny.”
“It’s no joke. Ridley’s men have been keeping an eye on us, and I guess they realised we were getting close to the car because they decided we needed a distraction.”
“Why are you just standing there? Didn’t you try to stop them?”
“We need to find Ridley, and that’s probably where they’re taking her. So we figured the best idea was to stand back and give them a clear run.”
Alaric’s guts threatened to heave their contents all over the grass. “And when you say ‘we,’ you mean…?”
“Black and Emmy.”
“Why the hell didn’t she tell me?”
“Look, I suggested she should, but she said you’d try to stop her.”
“Of course I damn well would have. Eric Ridley’s killed two dozen people in cold blood. We need to go after her. Which direction did they head?”
Alaric had a gun in the truck. He might not have killed anyone in a few years, but assassination was like riding a bike. Satisfying and good for the planet. Dammit, why wouldn’t the wetsuit come off? He gave up trying to tug it, grabbed his knife, and began hacking through the neoprene.
“Relax. The shadow team’s with her.”
Oh, so that made everything okay.
“Can she communicate?”
“No, they knocked her out with something, but she’s wearing a tracker.”
Alaric forced himself to breathe. He knew Emmy’s capabilities. Alert and conscious, she’d stand a good chance—no, an excellent chance—of getting herself out of whatever predicament Ridley had planned for her. But out cold? All bets were off.
“What if she’s dead already?”
“We’re monitoring her vitals. She’s fine.”
“For now. If Ridley realises what you’ve done…”
“As I said, there’s a team with her. I’m going to join them, and I’ll call you when there’s any news.”
“No, you won’t, because I’m coming with you.”
“Black said—”
“I don’t give a fuck what Black said. The man’s had it in for me for years, and if he thinks I’m going to stand by while he leaves Emmy in danger, he can damn well think again.”
“He won’t let anything happen to her.”
Black might have been the grandmaster of three-dimensional chess, but sometimes, Alaric thought he cared more about winning than about the wife he claimed to love. And Emmy could be too gung-ho for her own good.
“The only way you’ll stop me from coming is to knock me out too.”
Adrenaline had heightened Alaric’s senses, and he felt Knox step closer behind him. But a barely perceptible hand gesture from Nick stopped the younger man in his tracks.
“Fine. You can ride shotgun. But if you interfere, I’m dumping you at the side of the road because