Page 105 of High Seduction
Her other prize? The spare key for the door off the training-yard side.
Silence lay thick over the industrial area with only the rare car driving through other buildings, their tires muffled by the snow on the road. The noise of the Trans-Canada Highway was far enough away to be nothing more than a faint hum.
The sense of being alone was nearly overwhelming.
You’re never alone. You’re in my heart.
Tim’s voice whispered inside her head, and it was more than enough to drive the courage she needed to the forefront again. Erin climbed over the chain-link fence defining the training area and made her way to the door. Once she got inside, ideas of how to help Tim were still foggy, but she was going to do the one thing she knew would help—set off the alarm—and the rest she’d make up as she went along.
Slowly, silently, she turned the key. The door opened an inch at a time as she pushed it, careful to slip inside before the wind could pick up and announce her presence.
On the wall beside her, the small green light that shone when the alarm was armed had turned to a faintly blinking red.
Erin closed the door behind her and stepped into the dark unknown.
CHAPTER28
Tim moved as slowly as he could without prompting a shove between the shoulder blades that would send him to the ground a second time.
He’d fallen to his knees in the moments after entering Lifeline, Ken and John looming over him. The temptation to lash out with a leg sweep was strong, and if it had only been him to worry about, he’d have taken the risk. But with Erin supposedly trapped in the back of the truck, he exercised a little caution, until he’d given her enough time to get out and go for help.
Right now it was a waiting game. He’d gotten stuck in the back of a truck once by drunken friends who thought it was a hilarious joke. Even with his blood alcohol running on high, it hadn’t taken much to figure out a way past the locks. Erin should be out in no time.
Once she was free, he calculated it would take another five minutes to run to the highway and flag someone down. Use their cell phone and get the police on the way. If he could stall for a good fifteen minutes, the two assholes tormenting him would be out of his and Erin’s life for a long time.
“Find the damn backpack,” Ken demanded again.
Only the hall lights lit their path. “If I could turn on more lights—”
“Nice try, but no. We don’t need anyone spotting the place lit up.”
“It’s not that strange,” Tim insisted. “My truck is outside, and this is a search-and-rescue base. People come and go at all hours around here.”
“Just find the bag.”
John stepped past him into the staff area and started going through lockers, jerking contents to the floor. Heavy coats, personal storage bags, all of it a mess underfoot.
“That first storage area you checked—is it the only one in the building?” Ken asked.
“No, I’m working my way through them logically. It’s how we do a search—”
He bit back his grunt of pain as Ken hit him in the back of the head with a fist. “I’m not interested in the lessons, flyboy. Think. Where would they have put that pack?”
“Do you know what was in it? I mean other than what you’re looking for?” Tim moved toward the second storage center. “Ropes? First-aid supplies? That makes a difference where someone would unpack it for storage.”
Meanwhile his brain was ticking down an imaginary timer.Erin should be free by now. She should be nearly at the road by now...
Ken paused. “Plastic bags filled with gel. Water bottles,” he offered reluctantly.
Shit.Tim nodded slowly as if deliberating hard, careful to keep his expression neutral. This one was too easy if the ass used his brain instead of the damn gun. “Definitely storage area,” he lied. “That’s where the extra medical supplies like that are kept.”
He opened the door to the oversized room and stepped forward, jerking to a halt as he spotted an arm disappearing around the shelving stack in the right corner.
MyGod, that was Erin. His heart raced again. What thefuckwas she doing here instead of getting help? He paused as if trying to figure out the right direction to go, but his brain was spinning. This changed everything.
Keeping his cool in stressful situations wasn’t usually an issue. Not losing his shit over the woman he loved being back in danger? That was tougher.
Academy Award–quality acting time. He pointed to the left. “Best guess is over here.”
