Page 41 of Watch Over Me

Stop it, he told himself firmly.No courting bad luck.

He knew how to get out of those zip ties, at least, but he didn't want to draw attention to himself, so he stayed still. For now.

A moment later, the door on the left opened with a loudcreaking sound, and Eddie looked towards it on instinct.

Fuck.

Albert Corner was standing in the entrance, talking to a partially obscured guy in a baseball cap pulled so low he probably barely saw anything.

Eddie turned away quickly. Who knew if Corner would even recognize him from the party, or what would that mean, but Eddie figured it might be better to keep these guys in the dark about his connection to KRK Security, if at all possible.

He kept facing the other way, but his heartbeat sped up again when he heard a raised voice—most likely Corner's—coming from the direction of the door.

Then one of the guys grabbed Eddie by the arm and removed his gag, only to tug him out of the building next, tossing a sack on Eddie's head to block his sight.

"What the hell?" the other guy asked, voicing Eddie's sentiments to the T.

"This place's burned, there's a tracker on the guy. We need to change locations before they find us."

"Tracker?" The man tightened his grip on Eddie's shoulder hard enough to hurt, then paused in his step and Eddie almost stumbled again. He could feel they were outside, but he didn't see anything, and with the way they were tossing him like in a lame game of football, it was a miracle he hadn't fallen down yet. "Where is it?"

Eddie stayed quiet, but it didn't help much, since someone grabbed his hand and removed the watch from his wrist before tossing it to the ground and stomping on it, then kicking it off to the side, from the sounds of it.

Eddie wished he could kick him in retaliation.

"Get in." The guy pushed him into the van again. "We're going for another ride."

One good thing about it all was the realization that ifthey wanted him dead, they wouldn't feel the need to change locations. They'd kill him and leave, not caring about trackers or anything. If they were taking their time to move him, they needed him alive.

A small comfort, perhaps, but it was better than nothing.

* * *

As soon as they were inside some kind of a building again, someone tugged the sack off Eddie's head, almost tossing his glasses off with the force of it.

Eddie grimaced and blinked a few times against the bright light coming from the windows. The new location turned out to be a private residence, but no one seemed to be living in it. It looked more like a staged apartment for potential buyers—rich ones, judging from the top of the shelf security systems and modern, high-end decor.

The man who came in here with Eddie pushed him towards the couch in the open space living room.

"Sit."

"You don't have to push me every time you want me to move," Eddie said, too irritated to keep quiet. He'd had enough of being shoved around at this point. "I can walk."

"Be glad that you can," the man growled as he passed him by. "And better shut up if you want to stay that way."

Instead of arguing further and pissing the guy off even more, Eddie took in his surroundings. Only one of the guys had come in with him this time, probably guessing that with the zip ties on, Eddie was no threat.

Presumptuous, but in Eddie's favor, so he wasn't going to complain.

The apartment was on the ground level, but the view from the windows didn't help him much. He still had no idea wherethey were.

The living room area was large, bracketed with the front door on one side and an open kitchen on the other, next to a corridor most likely leading to a bedroom and a bathroom, maybe more. What interested Eddie the most, though, was the security control panels—one near the door, the other by the counter separating the kitchen from the living room. And there was a tablet connected to the two panels on the shelf under the coffee table.

If he had a few minutes with that tablet, he could get himself out of this mess and call in the calvary to pick him up, since the second guy was likely watching the door from the outside.

The pushy guy who'd come in with Eddie was now talking on the phone, leaning with his hip against the counter and facing away. If he stayed like that for a bit longer, Eddie could grab the tablet from the shelf. He wouldn't do much with it under the scrutiny and with his zip ties still on, but he'd be a step closer.

The knocking on the door was an unwelcome surprise, since the fewer people were there, the better chance Eddie got.

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