Hustlers (5 page)

Jimmy tapped on his keyboard. “I’m already ahead of you on that. This video and the footage sent to the phone came from the same device. That’s evidence that whoever took your dad, took this girl too. You just have to make sure your dad’s kidnapper is exposed, and Riley can take it from there.”

“What about dad? Where is he?” she asked.

“The GPS on his phone was working up until you got the video. He was inside the same hotel you were.” Jimmy checked his watch. “That was two hours ago. Chances are, he’s still there, but we can’t know for sure.”

“He’s gotta still be there.”

“How are you going to find him? There are a lot of rooms in that hotel.” He turned to face her, his electric blue eyes filled with concern.

“I’m gonna use Starling’s son. Matt will know that hotel better than anyone.”

“Can you trust him?”

“I don’t have a choice.” She pulled a gun out of her bag and weighed it in her hand. “But I won’t be going in alone.”

He widened his eyes. “We don’t use guns.”

“We do when they’ve taken my father.” She scowled and shoved the weapon down the back of her waistband.

E
llie hurried out of the elevator at the penthouse suite. Her heart was racing.
What if Matt’s not there? What if his father is instead?

She clenched her hands into fists. Whatever she ran into, she was going to deal with it. No one hurt her family and got away with it. Narrowing her eyes, she strode down the hall toward the door.

She paused in front of the closed door, about to knock on the polished mahogany wood.
How am I going to explain all this to Matt?
She didn’t think that telling him his father was a monster would be the best way to start.

Fighting her indecision, she raised her fist to knock on the door. The door swung open at the same time, and she came face to face with Matt.

“Shit, er, Matt—”

“Thank god you’re safe.” He interrupted her, pulling her into his arms. “Quick, come in here. I need to talk to you.” He pulled her into the room, releasing her as he turned to close the door behind them.

She spun around as he locked the door and then turned to face her.

His lazy smile was missing as he frowned at her. “I need to tell you something. I don’t know where to begin.”

She silently studied him. Something was clearly going on. “What is it?” she asked eventually.

“I thought he’d got to you. Shit, I fucking knew I should have stayed with my mother. I think my father is doing something bad. I went to your room to ask you out tonight, but it was a mess. I’m sorry. Someone ripped apart all your belongings. When I saw it, I thought my father had got to you.” Matt shook his head.

“Does your father kidnap girls from their rooms often?” She narrowed her eyes.

“What? No, he sends them away. Every time I date someone he doesn’t approve of, he pays them off and sends them away.” He shook his head. “But when I saw your room, I thought…” He trailed off.

“You thought what?” She folded her arms. Did he know what kind of man his father was?

“I don’t know!” He ran his fingers through his hair, looking frustrated. “Something bad.”

Ellie sighed. He didn’t know anything, but he obviously suspected his father of being bad. “He did do something bad. He kidnapped my father,” she said. It was risky, but finding her father was going to be a lot easier with someone who knew this hotel inside and out.

“What?” He widened his eyes. “How do you know?” He frowned. “Why would he?”

She pulled the cell phone out of her pocket and opened the video. She showed it to Matt while studying his reaction.

He gasped when he saw the gun. “What is that? What hard drive?” He appeared confused.

“I took a hard drive from this room. There is evidence of criminal activity on it. Shortly after, someone turned over my room and kidnapped my father. It has to be your dad. I need your help. I need to find my father before they shoot him.”

He stared at her with wide eyes. “Hold on, back up a moment. What criminal activity, and why not just give them the hard drive?”

“Human trafficking, and because I don’t trust them,” she said, trying to keep the urgency from her voice. “I need your help.”

“You need my help to take down my own father, so we can find yours?” he asked incredulously.

“Er, yeah.” She winced, realizing that she was asking a lot of him. “Look, I know it’s your dad, but he’s a bad guy. He’s—”

Matt waved away her speech. “Oh, I fucking know that. The guy’s a nasty bastard, but what I’m saying is that you shouldn’t be anywhere near him.”

“You knew he was doing this?” She stepped back, unsure of if she could trust Matt.

“No! I just knew he wasn’t good. I can’t explain it. I…You don’t treat people the way he does if you’re normal.” He grimaced. “What I mean is, why not just give him back the hard drive, and get your father back?”

“What about the people he’s got in cages, who’s going to help them?”

“Maybe we should call the police.” He reached for the telephone, but she grabbed his hand.

“No. If we call the police, he’ll kill my father before we can get to them. We need to find him.”

“Do you know where he is?” Matt glanced up at her, dropping the phone back in the cradle.

“He’s here. He’s in this hotel. Is there anywhere that’s dark and unused by residents and staff?” She glanced down at the video footage that was frozen on the screen. “It’d have exposed pipes on the walls. It’ll be damp, judging by the rust on them. Is there a place like that in the hotel?” She looked up.

Matt frowned for a moment, causing a crinkle in the skin between his eyebrows. “It sounds like the old tunnels under the hotel.”

“Then that’s where he is.” She turned on her heel and headed for the door.

He grabbed her arm pulling her to a halt. “Wait.”

She spun around with her hands on her hips. “For what?”

“I’m coming with you.” He looked so earnest, so honorable.

“You don’t have to. This is going to be hard for you. I-I don’t want to hurt your family.” She turned away from him. The situation was awful. He was a good person, and she was about to destroy his father. The last thing she wanted to drag him into this mess with her.

He pulled her into a hug. “I’m not letting you do this alone,” he muttered into her hair.

For a moment, she allowed herself to sink into the warmth of his chest. Then she pushed him away. “Okay, but if we’re doing this, we need to do it now. Come on.”

Ellie hurried down the dark tunnels under the hotel. The hotel was a listed building with ancient tunnels running beneath it. She tried to ignore the goosebumps as she brushed past cobwebs, heading down the dark passage with only a shaking torchlight illuminating her way.

“Which way?” she called over her shoulder to Matt.

“Keep going straight. All the other tunnels are dead ends. We need one with a room in it right?”

She nodded, breathing a sigh at the sound of his voice behind her. She stumbled over the bumpy terrain. The old slabs of limestone were cracked and jutting out of the ground. She reached for the wall to steady herself, quickly pulling her hand back when she touched a slimy, cold surface.

Closing her eyes for a moment, she tried to gather her strength.
It’s just an old tunnel. Get a grip.

She felt something bump into her from behind and let out a yelp.

“Relax, it’s just me,” he said, and she felt his hot breath warm the back of her neck.

She frowned as goosebumps popped up on her arms. She didn’t feel very relaxed right now. “Are you sure they’ll be down here?” she asked.

“It’s the only place that would be dark and damp in the hotel.”

She shivered as his breath warmed the back of her neck again. Panic seemed to be bubbling in her throat, but she couldn’t work out why.

“Do you have the hard drive in case we need some leverage?” Matt asked.

She froze. He kept asking about the hard drive. Something clicked in her mind, something she hadn’t considered before.
Why does he keep asking about the hard drive? Is he playing me?

She spun around to face him, stumbling backwards as she reached behind her for her gun. She panicked when she found the waistband of her jeans was empty. The gun was gone.

“Looking for this?” Matt asked as he waved her own gun at her. “You know, Ellie, I think this is an illegal firearm.” He smiled.

“W-who’s Ellie?” She stumbled back, scanning the tunnel for an escape route. There wasn’t one. She knew that something was very wrong. He shouldn’t know her name. She’d been at the hotel under a false identity. He knew her as Sarah.

“Unlike you, I do my homework.” He moved toward her with a glint of insanity in his eyes. “And, what a surprise I got when my next catch turned out to be Stewart Phillips daughter.” He waved the gun in her face. “Be a good girl and turn around.”

“What for?” She stumbled backwards, trying to edge her way down the tunnel. She tripped over a jutting out slab, and cried out as she fell.

She landed on her back, jolting when her head smacked against a rock. She winced, fighting the wave of dizziness that followed and trying to focus. After a few seconds, her vision cleared, and she stared at Matt.

He hovered over her with a wicked smile. “Well, if you want to do it the hard way…” He rolled her over, so she was face down on the floor. He grabbed her wrists, and she felt him looping rope around them.

She widened her eyes.
Fuck this!
She tried to roll over and push him off her, but he pinned down her legs by kneeling on them.

“You’re a fighter, huh? We’ll get a good price for you.” He laughed as he bound her wrists behind her back. “Now get up.”

“Fuck you!” she cried.

A strong hand gripped her bound wrists and yanked her up off the ground. Once standing, he shoved her forward, poking the gun into her back. “Move it.”

She stumbled forward, walking carefully on the uneven ground. “Where’s my father?”

“You’ll see him soon enough.”

E
llie tried to think of a way to escape, but the tunnel was a narrow space without many opportunities to evade her captor. She found it hard to concentrate under the overwhelming hate she was feeling for Matt.
I can’t believe I fell for this asshole!

She was angriest with herself for not seeing how bad a person he really was. She’d been played, and worse, she had gotten her family in trouble because of it.

She tried again to rip her hands free of the ropes, but Matt had obviously been a boy scout. He knew his knots. Her bonds weren’t coming off any time soon, she realized as the rope cut into the skin on her wrists.

“So, you kidnap girls in your spare time? What a fucking hero.” She glanced over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes.

“And you rip people off. What a nice girl you are. I don’t know why I didn’t take you home to meet my mother,” Matt said as he poked the gun into her back, pushing her forward.

“I only rip off bad people. It’s a service to the community. I think putting you out of business is a noble cause, especially if you’re one of those guys that requires your mother’s approval for everything.” She clenched her hands into fists. “How did I miss the fact that you’re a momma’s boy?”