The Hunted Girls by Jenna Kernan (best book club books for discussion txt) 📕

Cuba” on his palm. Finally she finished wrapping his hands, turning them into mitts, praying that Demko would find his ring and use it to find her.

The team had made a pit stop. Demko stood outside a Wawa gas station on I-4, waiting for Juliette and Tina, when his phone rang. His heart lurched at the caller ID. The call was coming from the replacement phone issued to Nadine during the body-double operation. The FBI had tried but been unsuccessful tracking the device.

“Nadine?”

“Naw, buddy. I just got her phone.” The male voice had a distinctive Southern drawl.

“Who is this?”

“That don’t matter. I got a message for you from the guy wit’ Nadine. Said you’s a friend of his.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m at a truck stop on I-95 outside Lumberton. Some guy paid me six hundred bucks to call you from here. Said Nadine stole your phone and you’d want it back.”

“Where’s Nadine?”

“Don’t know. Just saw the fella. Give me your phone and passcode. I’m running my rig up to Richmond. I’ll leave the phone right here at the counter.” He gave Demko the exit number and name of the refueling station.

“Where did he give you the phone?”

“Lauderdale. Listen, buddy, I got to burn rubber. We good?”

“No, sir. We are not good. I’m a Homicide detective and Nadine is a federal agent and a kidnap victim.”

Juliette had reappeared during this conversation and was already on her phone contacting Director Carter.

“Aw, shit!”

“The man who gave you this phone is wanted for multiple homicides in Florida and Nadine is his captive. You need to stay where you are until the FBI arrives to speak to you.”

“Hell with that.”

“You are a witness. I’m ordering you to—”

The call ended.

“Shit!” He turned to Juliette. “He hung up.”

She handed him her phone and he relayed what had happened to Carter. After the conversation, he handed back her phone.

“Are we heading in the wrong direction?” asked Juliette.

“Possibly. Or he wants the FBI to think he’s traveling northeast.”

“Well, the opposite is south and west. This way.” She pointed at the highway.

Tina spoke from behind him, making him jump. The woman was quiet as her cat. She held a sack of boiled peanuts and a Mountain Dew. The electric green liquid reminded Demko of radiator fluid.

“Someone found Nadine’s phone?”

Juliette filled her in and Demko’s phone rang again.

“I can track her phone again, now we know it’s on,” said Tina. “I have all her passwords.”

“Do that,” said Demko.

Tina went to work. “Yup. There it is.”

Twenty-Nine

The Huntsman had taken Jack at midday, leaving Nadine locked in a hog trap with bug spray, food and water. He had not returned until the following afternoon. At twilight, they’d crossed the inlet back to the tangle of mangroves. There he’d floated the craft onto the trailer and hauled it, and her, from the murky swamp.

Once back at the truck, Lionel gave Nadine a phone and let her make the call to Apalachee Hospital on speaker.

“Yes, I just learned that my fiancé was taken to your ER.”

“Would you like me to check for you?” The hospital’s operator had a nice matronly voice and a hint of Brooklyn in her accent.

“Yes.”

“Might not be in the system yet. Name?”

“Jack Skogen.”

“Let’s see. We have…” The woman went silent. “Who did you say this is?”

She looked to Decristofaro, who nodded.

“Dr. Nadine Finch. Is he there?”

“Yes. He is. Could you hold for a moment?”

Decristofaro took the phone and carefully ended the call. Then he dropped it to the pavement and crushed it under his boot. Extracting the SIM card, he snapped it into two pieces and threw them in the water.

“He’s there,” said Lionel.

“But I don’t know he’s alive.”

“Best I can do. Now let’s go.”

Here in the mangrove forest, no glint of electric lights penetrated the blackness. Tree frogs trilled and insects buzzed while the occasional brown bat swooped overhead. You did not have to venture far in Florida to find wild places. Everyone knew that Florida had thousands of miles of white-sand beaches. But it also had thousands of acres of mangrove forests and saltwater marshes. Where they flourished, few people resided.

“You left him at the hospital?” she asked.

“I left him where he’d be found.”

“Where?”

“Inside someone’s car at a motel near Tallahassee. Set off the alarm to make sure they found him quick.”

Had he been caught on surveillance camera?

“What kind of motel?”

“The kind nobody with money ever sees. Hourly rates. Privacy for the customers.” He pointed at the ruined phone. “But that, they can track.”

He motioned her forward with the electric prod. She rounded the vehicle, halting at the passenger-side door.

“Well. Climb in.”

Had the FBI found her engagement ring yet?

Gabriella Carter called Demko a little after one in the morning.

“We’ve recovered Jack Skogen,” she said.

“Alive?”

“Yes. He’s in a medical facility in Tallahassee.”

He asked for the address.

“Nadine?”

“No sign.”

“I’m on my way.”

The drive to Tallahassee took less than the four hours; it might have taken longer if he hadn’t used the lights and driven 120 miles per hour on I-4 with an escort from highway patrol.

Juliette sat in the front with one arm braced on the dashboard and the other clutching the handgrip.

“You know that won’t help you if we crash,” he said.

“I know it.”

Behind them, Tina was so quiet he almost forgot she was there.

At the hospital, they were escorted to the visitors’ waiting area outside the ICU and found Axel Vea. It was the first time they’d seen him since he’d taken a bullet. The only indication of his near-fatal shooting was the white gauze taped to his neck.

“Agent Vea.” Juliette gave him a hug. “How are you?”

“Better than Jack.” He made a face. “We have to catch this guy.”

“You’ve seen Skogen?” asked Demko.

The corners of Vea’s mouth turned down and he nodded. “It’s bad.”

“Is he awake?” asked Juliette.

Vea shook his head. “Sedated.”

Juliette peeled away to speak to the ICU nurses, ID in hand. There were places in a hospital that a board-certified physician could access that were closed to police.

“We think they’re heading north because