Page 95 of Under Pressure

Sean blinked at the paper, then before he could think, he stood and marched out of his office. Blue was nowhere to be seen. “Where is she?”

The guys glanced around.

“Who? Blue?” Gray arched a brow.

“Hey, that rhymed.” Knox laughed.

Walt pointed toward the back of the warehouse. “The guys sent her that way to take a call. Her reception was bad.”

Sean spun toward the guys. “Take a call?”

“Yeah, her dad called.” Gray dealt the cards as Sean’s brain went into overhaul.

He’d seen her take the call, had seen her walk off. But she didn’t have her cell. She had Jonah’s. “Blue!” He headed toward the back of the warehouse, sprinting past Nancy and Polly in their loungers.

“What’s wrong?” Nancy called after him.

He reached the backdoor and slowed down. “Blue?”

The door was unlocked, and one of the slickers Sean kept on a hook in the back was missing.

Knox and Gray came up behind him.

“What’s happening?” Knox asked.

“She’s gone.” Sean punched the door, letting out his frustration, and pushed through the gathered crowd back toward the front of the building.

“Sean?” came Polly’s voice next.

He marched into his office, only then noticing he crinkled the letter Nonna had left him in his hand. He plopped down in his desk seat, laid the paper out, and tried to smooth the wrinkles.

“What do you mean she’s gone?” Gramps asked, crowding in the door with the rest of the group behind him.

“I mean gone.” He grabbed his car keys. Finding her in a car might be impossible in this weather, but he was going to try.

“She’s in danger, we have to find her,” Knox said, and Gray shoved up next to him, nodding in agreement.

Sean’s gaze darted to his phone, and then around his desk for the tracking device he’d shown Blue. It wasn’t there. He jumped to his feet. She’d had it. Had it in her hand the last time he’d seen it. Grabbing up his phone, he opened the app to the tracking device and held his breath. The app loaded, and there, next to a longitude and latitude, was a green dot.

“I’ve got her,” he said in a near whisper, relief filling him. He hadn’t lost her yet. “Call the guys. Tell ‘em we’re all hands on deck.”

23

Chapter 23

Blue

It’d been years, fourteen nearly, since the last time Blue had hijacked a car—she just hoped Sean would forgive her for taking his beloved Jeep. The wind and rain were brutal, the noise from them both a loud, constant thrumming that might have lulled her to sleep had she not been so wired. Her wipers were on full and squeaked at every swipe, and her high beams were on, but she could still barely see past the end of her car. Jonah wouldn’t be happy she was late, but better than not arriving at all.

She pulled up to Jonah’s factory, the one he’d rented to store all of his toys in, and parked. All the lights were on inside, shining upward through the skylights like a beacon lighting the storm. Only an idiot would plan to meet in a building with thismany windows in a hurricane. How had she ended up with an idiot?

The building beckoned her on. She knew what she was in for. She’d known the moment she slipped out of Sean’s warehouse. This was a suicide mission. But when Jonah called to tell her they had her dad, her life stopped mattering for much more than a bargaining piece. If she could save Sean in the process, by keeping him safely tucked away and oblivious, then all the better.

Taking a deep breath, she yanked the hood of the slicker up over her head, jumped out of the Jeep, and made a run for the door. She stepped inside and shook off rain as the door slammed shut behind her. Jonah’s guys were on her in a hot second, pointing guns in her face.

Miles smirked at the sight of her—she wanted to wipe it off his stupid, arrogant face. “You made it!” He slung an arm around her shoulder and propelled her forward with his much bigger frame, laughing as they moved, like nothing was wrong, but he still buried the gun in her side.

She scanned the room from the skylight roof top to the cinder block walls, down to the shellacked cement floor. Every one of Jonah’s guys was here. Every one of them was armed to the teeth. They surrounded the perimeter of the building, standing between boats, fast cars, and other items Jonah had deemed essential for his online venture.

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