The Unforgettable Ex (Captured by Love Book 5) (Volume 5) (12 page)

“I’m ready,” she said cheerfully, walking toward the coffee table to pick up her tote bag. It was wide open as she’d left it, the contents visible to John if he’d cared to look. “Oh, I just need to grab my phone from the bedroom.” She hurried to her dresser and opened a drawer, then made sure she closed it loud enough to be heard. “Now I’m really ready,” she announced, flashing John a grin and heading for the door.

Gavin would be proud of her acting prowess so far.

She got in the elevator, making small talk with Gladys, who now looked pleased with herself for helping out.

“Really nice car, isn’t it?” Gladys asked as they walked to the BMW.

“Yes, impressive,” she said of the sleek sports car. “I can’t wait to see what Gavin’s planned.”

John opened the passenger door and motioned for her to go in.

“Bye, Gladys!”

“Bye! When you come back, come for a cuppa and tell me all about your day.”

“I will!”

John banged the door shut and her breathing shallowed. Had Gavin and her brother seen her text yet? Maybe she should have included her other friends in the message, but it was too late for that.

John settled himself behind the wheel and started the engine.

“So where are we going, John?” she asked casually, giving Gladys another wave goodbye although the elderly woman probably couldn’t see her through the heavily tinted windows.

“You’ll see soon enough,” John said with a smug tone. “By the way, could I borrow your phone? Mine has run out of battery, unfortunately.”

Ah, that was another indication she’d just been kidnapped. But that also meant he still hadn’t suspected her of being aware of what was going on, right? How long could she keep up the pretence before she was found out?

G
avin felt his phone vibrate in his pocket for the third or fourth time, but he ignored it once again. Nothing could drag his attention away from the interrogation happening in the next room that he, Carter and Superintendent Peter Gunn—Carter’s boss—were watching from behind the one-way mirror. He didn’t want to miss a single word.

Austin Sharp had been caught red-handed having lunch with a small-time drug dealer, who’d pointed to him as a major supplier. Now, Austin was about to spill his guts, having been cut a deal in exchange for information about Cameron Biggs and the rest of his cohorts.

“So you’re Biggs’ right-hand man,” Detective Stanley Smith said.

“No,” Austin answered. “I mean, I was, but not anymore.”

“Come on, Austin. You know we can easily tear up that deal if you lie to us.”

“I’m telling you the truth,” Austin insisted. “Biggs has lost friends previously loyal to him, including me. He is so obsessed with messing with the lives of people responsible for putting his wife in jail that everyone’s afraid that we’ll all eventually get caught from assisting him with his personal agenda. He’s been asking us to do more for him when all we want is to lie low and not attract police attention. His focus has turned from illegal drug manufacturing to revenge, and his previous partners now think he’s very bad for business.”

“So where is he?”

“I know four of his hideaways. But since he’s pissed everyone off, he’s stopped telling anyone anything, so I won’t be surprised if he’s now in a new place no one knows about.”

“So what do you know about Biggs’ current plans?”

“This answer is part of my deal, right?”

Stanley nodded.

“Well, I happened to tell him about Molly, a co-worker of mine who’s going out with Gavin Redford, the private investigator who reported Biggs’ wife’s location to the police. Biggs wanted me to kidnap her while she was on a weekend away at Berry as part of his ongoing vendetta against Gavin. I refused because, like I said, I don’t want to get involved in that shit anymore.”

Carter patted Gavin’s back. “At least your cover’s still intact.”

“Yeah,” Gavin answered.

“So,” Stanley continued, “if you didn’t want to have anything to do with Biggs’ non-drug-related crimes, how come you told him about Molly and Gavin?”

“At the time I hadn’t cut ties with him yet. It was only when he asked me to kidnap Molly myself that I decided enough was enough.”

“So what’s his plan with Molly now that you’ve refused to do the deed?”

Austin shrugged. “I suppose he’ll do it himself. By the way, he’s said that Amber—Gavin’s previous girlfriend that he kidnapped years ago—actually escaped. Are you still looking for her?”

“Yes. Do you have any information?”

“No. I just want to say that I think Biggs killed her and didn’t want anyone to know. I have no proof of it, just a hunch. Anyway, there’s another girl he’s keen to get his hands on—a chick named Natasha. I think he’s Gavin’s other girlfriend, and I also happened to mention her to Biggs.”

Gavin’s head whipped towards Carter, who also glanced at him with startled eyes.

“I need to check up on Tash,” Gavin said, already heading for the door.

“I’m going with him,” Carter said to Peter.

“Okay, keep me updated.”

Gavin fished his phone out of his pocket to call Natasha as he hurried out. He froze in his tracks, blood draining from his face. “No.”

“What?” Carter asked, looking over his shoulder. “Fuck.”

“You’ve got to organise a police response to this, Carter,” he said snappily, hurrying out to the parking lot.

“I’ll do it from the car,” Carter said, keeping in step with him.

He got into the passenger seat of Carter’s unmarked undercover police vehicle and checked his phone. The Find My Friends app indicated that Natasha—or her phone—was still moving.

Was she okay? Or had Biggs already found out that she’d set up tracking for her phone and was trying to lead them on a wild goose chase?

He shook his head to clear it, his heart beating fast in fear. He didn’t want to think of the answers to his questions. All he wanted right now was for his little picture on his phone screen, indicating his position on the map, to overlap with the picture of Natasha’s beautiful smiling face.

And when it did, he
would
find her safe and sound. He had to. Anything other than that was too scary to contemplate.

*

G
avin shifted impatiently on his seat. “Can’t you drive faster?”

“What are you talking about?” Carter retorted. “Can
you
drive faster than this?”

He sighed and shut his mouth. Carter
was
driving fast. Very. But it still wasn’t speedy enough for his liking.

Natasha’s phone—and, he hoped, Natasha herself—was now in a house on a large block of land backing the Macdonald River, as of a couple of minutes ago. What the fuck was the bastard doing to her now?

“We’ll get to her in time and she’ll be fine,” Carter said gravely.

He nodded, staring again at the map showing them the way. “I hope she knows we’re almost there,” he said, his heart compressing at the thought of his Tash alone with a criminal.

“Tash has an idea how we work. She’s smart, so she’s probably already realised that we dare not text or call her to avoid alerting her captor to what we’re doing—if she’s still...”

He glanced at Carter as he sucked in a breath. He knew Carter was just as terrified as he was that Natasha’s call for help might have already been exposed. It was a possibility neither of them wanted to say out loud. “I should have checked my phone the moment I got her message,” he murmured.

“We’re guilty of the same thing, Gav,” Carter said quietly. “And don’t forget, she’s
my
sister.”

“I know,” he whispered, Carter’s shared guilt not doing anything to lessen his own.

Five long years of keeping Natasha at arms’ length to keep her safe, and now this. He didn’t know what he’d do if anything happened to her.

“The house is just past that bend,” he said with calmness he didn’t feel. “Best to park here so he doesn’t see us.”

Carter nodded and eased to a stop by the side of the road.

“Do you have a spare gun?”

Carter stared at him. “No.”

“Well, I’ll just have to be careful,” he said, getting out of the car.

He heard Carter bark instructions through the radio not to alert the perp of any police presence until he’d given the go-ahead, then Carter caught up with his long strides.

“There’s the house,” he said in a hushed tone. “We’ll have to go through the back.”

Carter led him towards the driveway of the neighbouring property and into the vast backyard dotted with trees.

“You have your badge, don’t you?” he asked.

“Oh, damn, I forgot,” Carter said sarcastically.

“Just wanted to make sure. We don’t have time to waste explaining to the owners why we’re on their property.”

“We just wanted to admire the river,” Carter quipped.

He smirked, then stopped in his tracks, putting a hand on Carter’s arm to halt him. Up ahead on the next block, two people were chatting near the edge of the river.

His eyes stung with relief. His Tash was okay. She appeared to be telling a story to her companion, judging by her arm gestures, and the guy she was with seemed enthralled.

He squinted his eyes in case they were deceiving him. No, they weren’t. The man wearing the chauffeur’s uniform did look like Cameron Biggs, and he was nodding his head, listening to Tash... amiably.

“Told you she was smart,” Carter said proudly.

“Yeah,” he said with a chuckle.

Still, he wanted nothing more than to zoom over there and whisk her away to safety. But first, they had to figure out how to do that without undoing the great job Natasha had been doing so far.

He didn’t know how the hell she’d managed to fool Biggs, and damn, he was so impressed. He couldn’t wait to tell her just how much.

“
So do you really think he loves me?” Natasha asked, giving John an insecure look.

“Would he have arranged this surprise if he didn’t?” John answered.

“But he’s not here yet,” she said with a sad pout. “I told you he’d do this to me again. He’s often late for our dates. There were even a few times when he cancelled while I was already waiting for him, and work is always his excuse.”

“He’s obviously a very busy man. I think we should get on the boat now and take you to that riverside restaurant he’s booked. No sense continuing to wait here. I’m sure he’ll head straight over there rather than come here first, considering how late he is.”

Her heart raced. “You know what I think?” she said with a huff, hoping she didn’t sound as desperate as she felt. “I think he might be cheating on me with that woman he says is just a work colleague.”

“If that’s the case, he doesn’t deserve you,” John said, taking her arm and steering her towards a speedboat moored at the end of a landing.

Shit. She couldn’t go with him on the boat. What if he took her somewhere out of range of phone signals? How would Gavin and Carter follow them?

But she couldn’t refuse, could she? Once John found out she’d been playing him all this time, he’d quickly drop his own act of being the compassionate listener to a loose-tongued woman. She hid her shudder. He’d be so furious he might even kill her then and there.

“Why should I even see him today at all?” she spat out with bitchy bitterness, stomping and planting her feet firmly on the ground. “I bet that he’s sleeping with that Molly for real, and not just working undercover with her.”

John stopped and faced her. “Undercover?” he asked, giving her that smile again—the one he obviously believed had been encouraging her to share with him information regarding Gavin and his work.

She nodded, her heart pounding hard in her chest. Where on earth were Gavin and Carter? She so did not want to bring up “Molly” and “undercover” in one sentence.

“What do you mean undercover?” John asked casually. “Like with the police or something?”

“I’m not sure, but I think so. Anyway, I’ve seen Molly and she’s very pretty. If they have to act like a couple all the time, don’t you think that’s too much temptation?”

John shrugged. “Depends on what they’re working on. Did he tell you what they’re working on?”

She crossed her arms as if in annoyance. What story could she concoct about this? Would mentioning the name Biggs buy her more time?

“Police! Hands in the air!”

She jumped in surprise at the yell, relief flooding her at seeing Carter appear at the side of the house with his gun drawn. But John was quick to grab her with an arm around her neck and pointed something cold and steely at her temple.

“I don’t think so,” John hissed. “Why don’t
you
put your gun down or I’ll shoot her.”

Carter obeyed, placing his weapon on the ground and raising his arms in surrender. “Just let her go, Biggs. Please.”

She swallowed. This
was
Biggs.

Biggs surveyed their surroundings, snickered, then dragged her backwards towards the boat while keeping his eye on Carter.

“Let her go,” Carter repeated.

Biggs laughed evilly. “Sorry,
officer,
no can do. But wait a minute,
officer.
Where’s the rest of your team? Oh, I know. You have no team.”

“They’ll be here any minute. Make it easy on yourself and let her go, Biggs.”

Biggs tut-tutted. “You’re such a liar. No one will be here any minute. You know how I know? Because you’re a fucking
electrician.
You’re the brother of this stupid bitch and the best bud of that pain-in-the-ass Gavin Redford. How did you find us?”

Carter stayed silent.

“How did you find us!” Biggs said insistently, poking her head with his gun.

No!
Natasha mouthed to her brother. If Biggs found out what she’d done, he might pull the trigger.

Carter’s shoulders drooped, looking defeated. “I happen to be working at that house over there,” he said, gesturing to the neighbouring property. “I was surprised to see Natasha standing out here and I thought she was on a date. Then I recognised you. Gavin has told me a lot about you. It dawned on me that you must have dragged my sister here because you think she and Gavin are together. But they’re not.”