Desert Ice Daddy by Marton, Dana (pocket ebook reader .TXT) 📕

“Jack,” he said. “They traced yesterday’s call to the same airport where Flint’s transport got blown up.”

She stared with incomprehension. “Do you think there’s a connection?” What did the horses have to do with Christopher?

“Or coincidence. It’s the closest small airstrip that takes private business. Security is not nearly as stringent there as in Houston or Dallas.”

A new worry hit her then. “You think they flew Christopher out of the area?” Her heart about stopped on that thought.

“Hey.” He took her hand for a second, squeezed it. “They wouldn’t take him anywhere. They need him if they want their money.”

True. She made a point to fill her lungs and relax. And meant to squeeze his hand back but he’d pulled away by then. Within a few minutes, she could see the Shell station in the distance.

Her phone rang.

“Stop at the station. Go to the bathroom. There’ll be a cell phone waiting for you there. As soon as I hang up, you’ll throw your own phone and your friend’s out the window.” The line went dead.

Now that she knew about Jake Kenner, she’d been listening for his voice, but it hadn’t been him on the other end. This guy was older, possibly a heavy smoker, judging by the rasp. Which meant that this all hadn’t been just one desperate guy’s bid for quick riches. She told Akeem as much.

“What did he want?” He kept his eyes on the road.

“They want our phones.” She rolled down her window and tossed hers out. “Yours, too. They left one for us at the station up ahead.”

His lips flattened in annoyance, but he did as she asked, tossing his expensive BlackBerry that she was sure held a ton of important business information.

She winced. “Sorry.”

“You have to stop that.” He glanced over. “Nothing matters a millionth as much as you and Christopher.”

Her heart gave a quick staccato beat, and a sudden sense of warmth melted a spot off the block of ice that had been growing in her chest all morning. She wasn’t sure how to respond to Akeem, so she went with changing the subject. “You think they’re watching us?”

He turned his attention back to the road. “They could have a man at the station with binoculars.”

That didn’t make her feel all that comfortable, considering that she had to get out at the station.

They were pulling up to it within a few minutes, nothing but a few square yards of tar top, a square building and six pumps in the middle of nowhere, decorated with a jumble of signs, some of which advertised businesses decades gone.

The place didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

“Want me to do it?” Akeem asked.

“They’d look at you funny if you asked for the key to the ladies’ room.” She drew a deep breath and opened the door, stepped out and tried to look like she wasn’t about to fall apart from nerves.

The station looked deserted save for the man behind the counter inside. When she asked, he handed her the key and the large wooden fob it was tied to. “Here you go, ma’am.”

She walked out, glanced at Akeem in the car as she made her way to the bathroom on the side of the flat-roofed building. As she put the key in the lock, the thought that there might be someone in there waiting for her crossed her mind. But the door revealed nothing but a single stall and a black cell phone on the sink. She shoved it into her back pocket, nodded to Akeem as she came out, locked the door behind her and hurried to return the key. She wanted to be back in the car by the time they called her again.

They didn’t wait long. Akeem barely pulled back onto the road when the phone rang.

“Go to the next intersection then turn left,” was all the voice said this time before disconnecting.

AKEEM WATCHED THE road and stretched his fingers to relax them on the steering wheel. A full hour had passed since the kidnappers had last checked in. The road he drove was no longer paved, the soil dry and full of rocks, the SUV’s tires kicking up enough dust to be seen from a distance. Most of the vegetation—sagebrush and the like—came only about waist high out there. He could see for miles, which meant he could also be seen. The few clumps of prickly pear here and there shielded little. They were, however, coming up to a small stand of acacia trees, the road cutting right through them, their only chance of privacy if they were being watched.

They hadn’t been followed; they were the only car on the road. But there could be people lying low in the bushes. It all depended on how many men were involved in the kidnapping. Two million dollars could buy a lot of help.

He hesitated, not sure whether to say what he was about to say. Didn’t want to scare her, but wanted her to be prepared. “If there’s any kind of shooting, duck where you’re covered with Kevlar. And in case you need to get out, there’s a vest for you in the back under the blanket. You should put that on.”

He pulled into the trees and stopped the car. “Now.” He reached for his own vest. There was no way he could have taken them into the house this morning without the cops noticing.

The vests were thin and flexible, made of the latest state-of-the-art material, unlike the rigid panels Mike had used for the car. He’d prepared by picking a larger shirt that would accommodate the vest, had tried it all on last night to make sure it wasn’t too obvious. He tried not to look at Taylor as he stripped, knowing she was doing the same next to him.

He couldn’t help if he had great peripheral vision.

The pale yellow bra begged for more attention. He turned the other way.

“Okay,” she said after an endless minute.

And without looking at