“Everyone?”
Guerra laughed. “Well, not everyone. Someone paid me dearly to make her go away. I got the call to expect her tonight. That’s how I knew to be looking for her before Gunn spotted her.”
Ramsey chuckled. “I’m not surprised she angered someone enough to arrange her disappearance. She’s strong-willed. I’d keep her here, but she’s too tough to break. There’s a reason I tell my scouts to go for the girls who can’t look up. I tell them to flatter the girls. Tell them they’re pretty. It’s such a simple way to start, but oh, so effective. The girls who look you in the eye and say, ‘Thank you’ are the ones you pass on by. It’s the girls who don’t believe the compliments that become my inventory.”
“When you told the Spencer woman she was pretty she didn’t do either,” Guerra pointed out.
“I know.” Ramsey’s voice held irritation. “That’s why she needs to go.”
“So what’s the plan? Do you want me to go kill her? Or do you want to try your hand at breaking her?”
“Neither. I have someone else who will gladly take her. My connection who runs the outfit in Greece. He likes redheads, and I owe him a favor.”
Ramsey went on to talk about a new shipment coming in, but Ethan’s mind blared with the realization that his instincts had been right about Roni. She really was innocent, and if he didn’t get her out of here, she would disappear forever.
Ethan grabbed the doorknob, ready to do whatever had to be done to stop what these men planned. But to run out there now would only get himself killed before he could save her from a worse demise.
But if Guerra was telling the truth, then her home wasn’t safe for her either. Someone she knew and trusted wanted her dead.
If Ethan called in his team right now, Pace would cuff her for sure. She wouldn’t be safe with his men either. Pace was wrong about Veronica Spencer, though. She was the fall guy. Roni didn’t know anything. She was being set up. She was innocent.
But her innocence was the least of Ethan’s concerns at the moment. If he didn’t get her out of here, she would cease to exist forever.
* * *
The map of the estate was a rough-drawn depiction, but it was better than nothing. Maddie had helped with the layout, and knowing that she cleaned many of the rooms, Roni felt comfortable trusting the girl to not get her lost in these warped halls.
Little Xs marked the vicinities where the guards stood, too numerous to count, a military entourage strategically placed, some spots more than others.
The two areas on the map that had an exorbitant amount of guards were her destinations. Whatever required that much muscle had to be significant enough to protect.
Like an exit.
Roni’s bedroom displayed no clock. She could only guess the sun hadn’t made its appearance yet, but it would soon. Then what?
She grabbed at the tail of her scarf in the vicinity of her pounding heart. She needed to keep her fear in check or she would lose her faculties. But physical torture was all too real to her. Years of pain from her burns and multiple surgeries left her with a need to be in the driver’s seat at all times, never wanting to succumb to being in something’s or someone else’s grip again. The memory of being a slave to the pain of years of surgeries and recuperations with no end in sight and no reprieve nearly killed her. If it hadn’t been for Cora she would have lost her mind.
Roni thought of the hopelessness in Maddie’s eyes. That young girl knew the same merciless agony of having no control over her life, and no voice to speak out.
Roni pulled at her scarf harder, realizing her breathing had picked up to an erratic pace. In the mirror of the vanity, she could see her knuckles had whitened with their hold. The understanding that she had been brought to a place where her control was stolen from her again brought on a swift bout of panic. She had to get out of this place. Now.
But how, if she was under lock and key?
She looked at the map again. Thanks to Maddie, Roni wouldn’t be walking blind when she did somehow get out of the room. The girl would be compensated for her help big-time. Roni told her that, but the girl shook her head back and forth. How strange that Maddie wouldn’t hesitate to help another captive escape but refused help for herself. She didn’t believe it yet, but when the time came to put this place in the rearview mirror, Maddie would be buckled in beside Roni.
But first to find a vehicle to make a break in.
There had to be a slew to choose from. What high-class criminal didn’t brandish a showroom full of souped-up horsepower?
She looked at the area on the map with all the guards, the place the cars were kept. Every detail of the route would have to be memorized. She couldn’t keep the map lying around. If it was confiscated, Maddie would pay the price. Flushing it was the only way to prevent fallout and to protect her new friend.
When she thought she had it imprinted on her brain, Roni made her way to the bathroom and watched it disappear. Oh, how she wished she could do the same. Press a button and poof, back in her own house on her mountain in Norcastle, safe from anyone who wanted to harm her. All she could do was be ready to run when the guards weren’t watching.
A knock sounded on her door.
Could this be her opportunity? The lock clicked over, and Roni had one second to make her play.
She reached for a mosaic vase on the dresser and ran at the door. As it pushed wide into the room, she couldn’t see who entered behind it. At full force she barreled at the door and slammed into it with her shoulder, her arm raised high over her head with the vase ready to find its target.
As she heaved her body at the door, she knocked her visitor into a stumble. It took her a second to realize it was Gunn and less than another second to bring the vase down.
But before she could make contact, he turned his body, his arm reaching up to block her assault. He grabbed on to the vase. A battle of strength kept it high in the air, their face levels matched and close.
“Roni, I’m here to help you,” he said, his eyes filled with the compassion he’d lacked back in the garage. Surely a trick.
And she wasn’t falling for it. “My name is Veronica Spencer. Roni is for friends only.”
Gunn pulled the vase from her hand with little effort and tossed it onto the bed. He grasped her wrist still above her head with his free hand. “Then Roni it is, because from where I stand, I’m the only friend you’ve got.”
“You’re nothing but a criminal.” Roni spoke low, less than an inch from Ethan’s face. He could feel her rapid breathing brush his lips, the only sign of fear she emitted, and he would have missed it if he hadn’t closed in to protect himself from her assault. Not that he blamed her. Why should she believe him to be anything but a criminal?
“I know what it looks like, but you need to trust me. I’m your friend.”
“Friends don’t kidnap you and put you in danger.”
Ethan slowly released her wrist and stepped back toward the door, his hands raised to show he meant no harm. He pushed the door ajar, just enough to hear the manpower out looking for him coming. He peered through the crack, knowing it could be any second. He’d raced down here as soon as Ramsey and Guerra left the office to join the guards. “Are you sure about that? Because from what I just learned you’re in this situation because one of your so-called friends put you here.”
Roni came at him, her pointer finger raised to his chest. “I’m here