Page 69 of In Her Sights
Unbearably slowly, she moved her leg back, returning the wire to its original position. As she stepped over it, pulling her knees up higher than she needed to clear the wire, her heart beat loudly in her ears, even as anger made her hands tighten into fists. Of course Sonny set booby traps. She wondered if that was how he’d caught John and gotten hold of his phone, and then she forced herself to quit dwelling on her worst fears. She couldn’t wait until Sonny Zarver was back behind bars again.
Placing each foot carefully, she moved to the end of a row of shelving. Peeking around a partition, she saw a small huddle of people looming threateningly over a man sitting in an office chair. Shifting so she was slightly more exposed, she got a better view of the bloodied man.
John!
Chapter 22
Although it was nearly impossible to drag her horrified gaze off John’s swollen and bloody face, Molly forced herself to look at the others. There were four of them: Sonny; a big, bouncer-shaped guy she didn’t recognize; a tall man with his back to her; and a shorter, wiry man.
Biting her lip to keep the mental shout from slipping out of her mouth, she watched in horror as the burly guy hovering over John cocked back his fist and then let it fly. The clenched paw swung around, seeming to slow as it headed for John’s already battered face. The man’s knuckles caught John on the side of his jaw, snapping his head to the side as the punch connected with a meaty thump.
Molly flinched as if she’d been the one hit, and she barely kept herself from running toward John’s assailant and tackling him to the ground. She’d see how he liked having a flurry of punches raining down at his face. Her fists were clenched so tightly that her nails dug into her palms, and the tiny pain steadied her thoughts.
Looking closer at the group, she saw that John had been tied to the chair, his legs, arms, and chest gleaming silver with strips of duct tape that circled his limbs and torso. Although his head was bobbing slightly, he looked conscious, and she sent a mental prayer that he stay that way for a while longer. If he couldn’t run or walk or even crawl to the car, she had no idea how she’d manage to get him out.
She hadn’t called the cops, since she didn’t know the situation that John was in. Now, she was still torn. As much as she would’ve loved some armed backup, it would be too easy for one of these guys to put a bullet in John’s beautiful head before anyone could even breach the building.
Her phone vibrated against her leg, and she carefully looked at the screen, taking great pains to hide any flash of light from reaching the huddle of men. It was from Cara, a group text to both Molly’s phone and Norah’s.
I’m in.
Molly squeezed her phone so hard her fingers ached. Her thoughts spun, bombarding her with half-assed plans and impulses, but she forced herself to focus on just the next step, her fingers trembling as she typed out her text.
John’s here. Tied. Sonny +3
In just seconds, a response popped onto her screen.
What’s the plan?
After a short hesitation, Molly sent just the word hold. Although she didn’t know if her sister had spotted John and the four goons yet, Molly wasn’t sure how to direct her to this spot. She hated to see John being hurt, but she knew if she messed this up, then she and John and very likely Cara could be captured or hurt or killed. Her stomach lurched at the thought. It was so much easier to come up with risky plans when it was just her safety on the line. When it was people she loved, it got a whole lot harder. In case Cara disregarded her message, Molly typed Watch out for traps!
Squeezing her eyes closed, she let out a silent, shuddering breath. She could do this. All she needed was a plan. Opening her eyes again, she took in the horrifying tableau in front of her. She needed to even the odds so it wasn’t four with guns against two without—plus a taped-up John. As she forced her thoughts into some sort of order, she slipped closer, using the partition to hide her movements from the group and watching out for trip wires.
In her new spot, huddled behind a stack of cobwebbed pallets, she could hear what the men were saying.
“Who are you working with?” the tall guy asked. Molly recognized that voice from the phone, and she peered around the edge of the pallets, trying to get a glimpse of his face. The sliver of his profile was of little help in identifying him, but the familiarity of his form and that voice itched at the back of her brain.
“I told you.” Even though John’s voice was rough and nasally from what looked like a broken nose, hearing it sent shaky relief through Molly’s entire body. “I work by myself. Why would I want to split the bounty?”
“Liar,” Sonny spat out, and Molly barely kept herself from surging from her hiding place to tackle him. The explosive-loving bastard was the reason they were here in the first place, the reason John was trapped and hurt. Sheer willpower kept her still, but she vowed that she’d drag Sonny back to jail if it was the last thing she did. “You and that nosy bitch were working together. I saw you at Dutch’s.”
John scoffed, the sound wet from the blood that ran from his nose over his mouth. “We don’t work together. She tries to steal my skips, that’s all.”
“If she’s your rival,” the tall man said, “why were you at her house?”
As he asked the question, he turned his head, glancing at the shorter man next to him. When she saw his full profile, Molly froze in shock, her skin washing cold and then hot again.
Detective Bastien!
I knew I didn’t like that weasel, Molly thought as her shock faded and determination took its place. She didn’t dare text from her hiding spot. It was too close, and it’d be too easy for a flash from the screen to catch one of the guys’ attention.
“Haven’t you heard?” John grinned, but it was a macabre sight with his swollen mouth and blood coating his teeth. “You’re supposed to keep your enemies closer.”
“Can we just kill him and get on with it?” The shorter man next to Bastien spoke for the first time, sounding bored. “I have other things to do tonight.”
“I want to know how he heard about this meeting first,” Bastien said. “You don’t have to stick around for that, though. Let’s just do the transfer and be done.”
