Page 46 of A Soldier's Temptation
“Tell me anyway. I think I might need to take some vacation. It sounds like the perfect time to burn some leave.”
John glanced at Ari and she nodded. Telling him everything was the right thing to do. Hopefully, he wouldn’t lose his job.
“Before we explain, you might as well know that not only does my team know what’s going on but so does my ex-SEAL boss, Chase. He runs a Security company based in Florida and I brought him in on this yesterday.”
“Didn’t trust the FBI?” Colin asked.
“Not really. Something seemed off about this whole mess. The missing phone for one. How does that happen? I know you didn’t lose it.”
“Nope, I didn’t even know about it.”
“I believe you, but only because I know you so well. But it set off a shit ton of alarm bells.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“I believe you too,” Ari said. The color was coming back into her cheeks again.
He couldn’t believe she hadn’t had a meltdown yet. The woman had nerves of steel. “How about we go into the other room, I’ll call Chase and we can try to figure this out. We had a development here this morning too.”
“I’m not going to like it, am I?”
“Nope, I think you’re going to be even more pissed off. It also makes me wonder if you’ve got someone playing both sides in your office.”
“I’ve been wondering about that myself,” Colin muttered.
Chapter 12
The phone rang exactly twenty-four hours later. Ari hadn’t slept at all and even John holding her while she tried didn’t help. Thoughts of Shira being hurt, or worse, was making her crazy. If anything happened to her it would be her fault, no matter what anyone tried to tell her. If she hadn’t gotten involved with Paul none of this would have happened.
As the time for the call grew closer, she’d constantly checked the phone to make sure it was charged, and that the ringer was on full volume. She was so hyper-focused that when the phone finally rang, she jumped out of her chair to answer it even though it was inches from her hand on the kitchen table.
The SEAL team and Colin were all there. They’d brought over doughnuts and coffee to try to distract her, but she was still a big ball of nerves. Then they went over the plan for the fifty-millionth time. Ari knew it backward and forward but still wasn’t convinced it would work.
Now that it was time to put the plan into motion, she was terrified. Not so much for her, but for Shira and all the guys. But they were out of time.
After John nodded that the trace was in place, she answered. He and Colin had headphones on and would be able to hear everything that happened on the phone call.
“Hello?”
“Do you have it?” It was the same heavily accented voice as the day before.
“Yes. I have it.” She was lying and thanked God that they couldn’t see her face. They had torn her apartment apart after they’d hung up with Chase’s team and even with seven of them searching they hadn’t found it. Instead, Chase helped John create a new one loaded with fake information Colin supplied.
“I knew you would find it. All you needed was the right incentive.”
“I need to know Shira is okay.” It had been one thing Colin stressed, that they needed proof she was okay.
“Do as I tell you and she’ll be fine.”
“I want to hear her voice again or I won’t do anything.” Demanding anything from the kidnappers freaked her out. She couldn’t believe she’d made them do it yesterday but for some reason, today was scarier.
“I told you she’s fine. You can see for yourself when you get here.”
Colin shook his head ‘no’ and her stomach clenched. If she made it through the call without throwing up all over herself, it would be a miracle.
“I need to hear her voice.” Ari’s voice sounded wobbly and she knew he’d hear it. Not exactly the way to get what she wanted.
Silence first, then what sounded like an argument between at least two people. The sound was muffled, and they couldn’t hear anything clearly.
