Betrayed

Chapter 26

When Shane walked into the hotel suite an hour later, Elena rushed to him, and they embraced. She knew the other two men were watching them, but she didn’t care what they thought. She only wanted to wrap her arms around Shane and feel his arms around her.

When Max cleared his throat, Shane eased away.

“You got something we can show Mr. Big?”

“Mr. Big?” Elena asked.

“That’s what we call the boss man, since we don’t know his name.”

Shane pulled out the SIM card. “Kinkead says this will fool them.”

“You believe him?”

“I hope so.”

He looked toward the phones still lying in a pile on the coffee table. “We should make the call.”

“After we eat,” Jack answered. “We figured we wouldn’t have much time for eating later, so we ordered something. It will be here soon.”

The food came ten minutes later. Gourmet hamburgers, potato salad, and coleslaw for everyone, along with ice cream sundaes for dessert.

“If you can’t handle the food, you can eat the ice cream for calories,” Jack explained.

Elena forced herself to nibble some of her burger because she knew the men were watching her, and she didn’t want to look like she was too nervous to swallow. But after a few bites she switched to the ice cream.

A knock at the door made her stiffen. Jack got to his feet quickly and crossed the room. After looking out the peephole, he opened the door, and a pretty woman with dark blond hair walked in.

Elena watched in surprise as the woman and Jack embraced. When they broke apart, he turned to the group.

“Elena, this is my wife, Morgan Rains.”

“Your wife?” she said in surprise. “I didn’t know you were married.”

Jack grinned. “Very much so.”

“I’m glad to meet you,” Morgan said. “I thought you might want to have another female join you in this group of macho guys.”

“Yes, thanks,” Elena managed to say.

“Maybe we could go into the bedroom and talk,” Morgan said.

Elena tipped her head to the side, wondering where this was leading, but she said, “Yes, all right.”

She got up and took the other woman into the bedroom, glad that she’d made the bed before coming out.

Morgan closed the door behind them and gestured toward the armchairs by the window. “Why don’t we sit down?”

Elena nodded and lowered herself into a chair, wondering where this was leading.

Morgan took the opposite chair. “Jack told me you’re determined to go off on a dangerous mission.”

“Are you here to talk me out of it?” Elena demanded.

“No. I’m here in case you need someone to talk to—besides the guys.”

Elena knitted her hands in her lap. “I’ve made up my mind.”

“At least you have a choice.”

“What does that mean?”

“Let me give you the executive summary of what happened when I met Jack. He had infiltrated a homegrown militia planning to attack the U.S. Capitol. After they discovered he wasn’t really one of them, they tortured him for information. He escaped and ended up naked and beaten in the woods near my house. I took him in and tried to patch him up. When they came after him, we had to escape together—and Shane and Max came to our rescue. Then when I was kidnapped and the militia leader told Jack I only had twenty-four hours to live, the three guys risked their lives to save me.”

Elena sucked in a sharp breath. “Truly?”

“Yes. I told you all that because I wanted you to know that I understand how you’re feeling now. And I also want to be here for you. I’m a psychologist.” She stopped and laughed. “When I first met Jack, I thought I might have hooked up with a psychopath.”

Elena blinked. “Why?”

“He did some pretty violent things to get us away from the militia.”

“Okay,” Elena answered, thinking of Shane’s recent exploits—including flying a plane with a bullet wound in his side.

“Can I help you deal with what you’re going through now?”

“It’s the other way around,” Elena blurted out, “from what you said about Jack. I did a lot of things that made Shane mistrust me.”

“Is that why you’re going off to meet a guy who could kill you—to prove your innocence?”

Elena blinked at her bluntness. Didn’t therapists usually let the client bring stuff up? But maybe in this case, they didn’t have time to draw it out.

“No,” she answered. “It’s the only way to rescue my brother. And I’m sorry I dragged Shane into it.”

“I don’t think he’s sorry.”

“He was.”

“And now he’s committed to you.”

Elena kept her gaze fixed on Morgan. “How do you know?”

“I saw the way he looked at you.”

“You can tell from that?”

“Yes.”

Elena swallowed. “Which means I’m making him frantic.”

Morgan shook her head. “These guys don’t get frantic. They stay cool and do what has to be done. And if Shane is letting you meet up with the bad guys, he’s going to be right behind you.”

“I know. If he can.”

“He will. It will help you to focus on that.”

Elena nodded, knowing that the other woman was giving her a pep talk and praying that she spoke the truth.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Morgan asked.

“You did,” Elena answered.

“Then the sooner you get the hard part over with, the sooner you and Shane can plan the rest of your lives.”

“The rest of our lives,” Elena murmured. “I’ve hardly dared to think about that.”

“Keep the thought with you.”

They both got up and went back to the sitting room. “Let’s make the call,” Elena said in answer to Shane’s anxious look.

“And hope he’s been waiting to hear from us,” Shane muttered under his breath.

While Shane had been gone, Elena and the other two Rockfort men had talked about what she was going to say—and what she wasn’t. And now was the moment of truth. The first test to see if she could pull this off.

The three men and Morgan all had Bluetooth earpieces so that they could hear the conversation—and give her pointers if she got into trouble.

Willing herself to steadiness, she punched in the number of her brother’s cell. This time it rang three times before anyone answered. And it wasn’t Alesandro on the other end of the line.

“This is Elena Reyes,” she said.

“It’s about time you called,” a hard male voice said.

“I…I couldn’t do it before.”

“Why not?”

“I had to get away from Shane Gallagher.”

“And you’re saying you did that?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t believe it.” The hard voice punched out the words. “You were with him for days.”

She tried to picture the man on the other end of the line. He sounded like he wasn’t young. Maybe he was in his sixties. She guessed that he was used to having people do what he told them, and he wasn’t happy that she’d kept him dangling. Or that she had some say in the course of this call.

Answering his unspoken question, she said, “Not because I wanted to be with him. I had no choice. I had to pretend I was helping him, but I finally gave him the slip.”

“How?”

She swallowed hard. “I waited until we left that hiding place in North Carolina. When his driver stopped for gas, I got out of the limo and ran.”

“Ran where?”

She glanced at Shane, and he gave her an encouraging look before she went on with the story that they had worked out. “He was in the gas station restaurant, and I ran into a shopping mall. When he realized I was gone, he came after me, but I hid.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“It’s the truth.”

“What if you’re really with him?”

“I’m not.”

“Why did you run away from him?”

“Because he doesn’t care anything about Alesandro.” She gulped. “He just wants to get that information back. That’s why I called. How is my brother?”

There was a long pause, and she wondered if the man was buying the story. “Where are you?” he finally asked.

“How is my brother?” she repeated.

“Alive.”

The way he said it made her wince.

“Where are you?” he asked again.

“I’d be muy estúpida to tell you that.”

“It looks like we don’t trust each other.”

“Truly. So I’m getting off the phone and calling you back in a minute.”

“No! Wait.”

She hung up, feeling a shiver go through her. The man had sounded panicked, which was a small victory for her.

Apparently the others agreed.

“I liked his reaction to that,” Morgan said.

The three men nodded.

Shane came over and put his arm around Elena. “You did great.”

“But we haven’t gotten anywhere yet.”

“You will,” Morgan said. “I could hear the tension in his voice. He’s fighting not to panic.”

“Like me,” Elena murmured.

“You have us,” Morgan said. “I think he’s got nobody.”

Elena grasped at that. Her heart was pounding as she fought the urge to make the second call right away. Instead, she looked at the clock on the computer screen and forced herself to wait a minute and a half before picking up another cell phone and punching in her brother’s number.

This time the man answered on the first ring. “Where were you?”

“Like I said, I don’t trust you not to try and trace this call. I’m not going to talk to you for more than a few minutes on any one phone.”

The man laughed. “And you thought of that all by yourself? What are you, a high-tech spy or something?”

“What, you think I’m some little twit? I’m a woman with a degree in computer science. I work in the IT department of a software company.” She swallowed, readying herself for the real negotiation. “We’d better get down to business. We don’t trust each other, but we each have something the other wants.”

The man made another snorting sound. “Do you have the information from Arnold Blake’s office?”

“Yes.”

“You’d better bring it to me.”

“I won’t unless I know you’re going to bring my brother.”

His tone turned derisive. “You don’t have much of a bargaining position.”

“Neither do you.”

Again there was a long silence. He finally said. “All right, what do you propose?”

“We drive to a location that we both agree on. You bring my brother and I’ll bring the information you want. We’ll make an exchange.”

“And your friend Shane Gallagher will be there to kill me.”

“No.”

“And how will I know you’re telling the truth?”

“I’ll come alone.”

“And he can put a tracking device on your car.”

She sucked in a sharp breath.

“That’s what you were planning, weren’t you?”

“No,” she answered, fighting the urge to scream, because that’s exactly what she had known Shane would do.