Page 82 of Her Dom's Secret Past

It was pretty obvious he wasn’t happy but his orders had come from the top.

“Thank you, Inspector. I appreciate it. Do you know any more?”

“We have people going over CCT now. We’ve pulled it from everywhere we can, including private security cameras. Who has Miss Rowley? My officers tell me you know.”

I couldn’t deny the obvious. I nodded and said, “Fucker named Arthur Riley. Wanted in the UK and Europe, very dangerous—a multiple killer.”

“And he’s here because?”

Shit, this is my fault and this cop knows it!

“He and I have met on several occasions, unfortunately, I missed.”

He nodded and exhaled loudly. “I’m waiting on—”

His phone rang and he held up a hand. The conversation was brief, but he gestured for a pen and paper. While he scribbled notes, I waited until he spoke to me, the phone still connected.

“Okay, we’ve got the registration plate—it’s a rental. Good news is it has a GPS tracking device in it, one of the few in the company. They’re sending the information through now.”

He looked at Charlie. “What’s the fax number here?”

Charlie rattled it off and the officer relayed it to the person on the other end of the phone. Several more police officers had turned up while this was going on and the bridal salon now seemed like a police convention. The fax machine spat out a page document and all eyes turned to Clemson.

“Got it.”

He let me read it after he did. The car was parked at an address in Gosford, and apparently it was an old industrial estate.

He stepped away from me and I heard him speak to someone on the other end, arranging to have various units sent to the scene and telling them to secure the area. Finally, he hung up and scrutinized the room. He ordered several of the officers to remain at the boutique in case the kidnappers rang and the others to come with him.

“Let’s go,” he instructed, showing the address to the other officers.

I elected to ride in the back with the inspector. We took off, sirens blaring. I opened the case he’d given me earlier. Inside were two guns—a Glock 22.40 caliber semi-automatic pistol and a Glock 23. I stuck the 23 in the back of my pants waistband after checking the action and then loading it. Wasn’t how I like to be armed, but it was better than nothing.

“Got Kevlar for you.”

His voice was still brusque as I accepted the vest from a cop in the passenger seat. I took off my jacket, making sure my mobile was still in one of its pockets in case Anabelle—or that bastard Riley rang. I wrangled it on in the speeding car. Then I slid the 22.40 into the holster after loading it and dropped the spare magazines in the vest pockets. I was as ready as I could be. I checked the dash clock—6:46. Anabelle had been in Riley’s hands since sometime around ten.

I steeled myself. I couldn’t allow my love for Anabelle get in the way, but I knew the odds that she was unharmed or even alive were pretty slim. I had to push all thoughts of her away so I could do my job safely. We’d been traveling for close to thirty minutes when the inspector spoke to the officer in the front passenger seat. He picked up the two-way.

“Cut the sirens.”

Clemson glanced my way.

“About five minutes. Gosford has units surrounding the area. TOU have arrived, but they are under orders not to go in yet until we discover the kidnapper’s demands—they don’t like the place, says the area’s a rabbit warren of buildings.”

“I know the kind of people we’re dealing with and they don’t play nice. Tell your people these pricks won’t respond to negotiation and they’re wasting their time if they think any sort of negotiation will be effective.”

We pulled in alongside a few dozen cars. A senior Tactical Operations Unit—TOU—officer came over to us. The name on the vest read Cooper. Clemson did the introductions and Cooper studied me as if I was a piece of dog shit. Obviously, he’d been directed to allow me full cooperation.

“They’re still inside. We got four people on the Range-R, our handheld Doppler radar device. One person is not moving, and we’re guessing it’s our vic. Seems like thevicis on top of a table. The other three have been moving back and forth. One is in a different room here.”

Cooper pointed out on a map of where in the building people were. Clemson and I nodded our understanding.

“We could hear thevicscreaming earlier on but nothing for the past fifteen minutes, and they haven’t moved at all since then.”

My whole body went numb.

Cooper continued his briefing, “We’ve got the place surrounded with our men and then GD cops are in a secondary ring.”

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