Page 104 of High Seduction
John walked back to the house, head pivoting from side to side as he kept an eye on the nearby houses. Erin checked as well, but it was early enough in the day that most of the people in her area were still at work, and there were no children on this section of the block, thank goodness. Last thing she needed was to have kids get involved.
Tim appeared in the doorway, Ken immediately after him. John closed the door, and the three of them headed toward her.
Only Ken split off, taking Tim with him. The two of them got into a second truck parked just down the street, Tim behind the wheel. Erin struggled to see anything that might be helpful—license number, truck model.
Loud banging made her jerk back from the glass.
John scowled in at her. “Stay down. We’re going to your headquarters, and if you’re telling the truth, we’ll be gone in no time. You do anything stupid, I call Ken.”
Erin lowered herself into the corner, head below the level of the windows.
John could still see her through the double glass separating the truck cab from the canopy, but she was out of reach. And out of control when he shot forward from the curb with a jolt that rolled her toward the tailgate.
Erin thrust out her arms to brace against the truck sides.
She stayed low, counting corners as John followed Tim. After the first few, though, she got lost when they didn’t head in a straight line toward HQ, instead taking smaller residential streets to go through most of town.
There was only so much distance to travel in Banff, though, and they were going to be at the business park end soon enough. What was she going to do?
She crawled on her belly, easing toward the tailgate so she could double-check the canopy locks, but there was no way to disengage them easily from the inside.
The road under the tires switched to gravel, and she knew they were almost there. She checked her watch. FiveP.M.There shouldn’t be anyone at HQ at this time of day—not with them being on a break.
She risked a peek over the edge as she shuffled to a safer position near the cab, and braced for the brakes to be slammed on.
Alisha’s car was in the parking lot, which made sense once their training on the coast registered. There were no signs of anyone else, and Erin’s heartbeat slowed one notch. At least more of her friends wouldn’t be unnecessarily involved with these crazy people.
John parked, the second vehicle pulling in beside them.
She sat up, hands pressed to the glass. John ignored her as he stepped past, joining with Ken as he led Tim to the front door of the building.
Tim punched in the security code, then glanced over his shoulder a bare second before he was pushed into the building. The three of them vanished from sight, and Erin swore violently.
This was one of those moments when there was no way she could sit and wait. Whatever it was that Ken and John were looking for, they had no reason to worry about keeping Tim safe once they’d found it.
She had to help him.
Erin changed position and put her feet on the canopy cover over the tailgate. Raising both feet at the same time, she slammed her heels into the glass. The entire flap shuddered.
She did it again, harder this time, carefully aiming at the extreme corner where the small turned lock was the only thing holding the lid down.
With a horrid noise, the lock broke and the glass twisted. She was still trapped, but there was a small space open between the two closures.
Erin scrambled forward, put her shoulder to the glass, and with it wedged open, snuck her hand out to undo the tailgate. The metal slammed downward loudly, and she rolled out as quickly as possible. It might be wasted energy to hide that she was free, but she closed the tailgate before twisting her way to the side of the truck and staying out of sight from any casual glance out the HQ windows.
Half the battle. She was free. Now she had to get into HQ and find a way to save Tim.
Only that.
She ran for the side of the building, her feet sinking into the snow on every step. There were plenty of tracks, though, and she followed a set as the snow got deeper. Not until she was safely out of sight up against the side of the large industrially built structure did she stop to make some plans.
There was more than one way to get into the building, including doors that would set off the silent alarm Marcus had installed. Tim had shut off the main-door alarm, but she’d bet anything that was the only one he’d turned off. The snow complicated matters, but it was more her concern of wanting to go quickly that made her breathing hitch and her heart race.
How long before they found the backpack and whatever they were looking for? How long before Tim became a burden to deal with?
Erin slipped to the hangar door, pausing before she reached the spot when the motion-sensor light would be triggered. Instead, she carefully climbed on the storage units stacked outside the door, moving upward as close to the building as possible until she could reach out and unscrew the bulb.
Down on the ground again, she struggled to open the storage combination lock in the dark, fumbling as she squinted at the tiny, faint numbers. She got the door open and rushed in, tapping her fingers on the shelves until she’d found the flashlight stored there.
