Driven by Fire (Fire 2)

Ryder made a dangerous noise in his throat. “Did they leave anything behind?”

“Not as far as I can see. Not that either of them had much. We need to find out where the hell they went and how long they’ve been gone.”

“And what they’re running away from,” Ryder added grimly, heading toward the hall and the stairs to the third floor. He had a good idea what Parker was running away from. He’d tipped his hand, and he’d gotten way too close in his guesses. There was no way she could know they had found the phone, but she had good instincts, and she would have realized her time was about up. It still didn’t explain why the room had been searched, but it didn’t matter. She’d been so damned easy to read when he’d softened her up. Once he got her in bed she’d spill everything.

And where the hell had that idea come from? He wasn’t getting her in bed—that hadn’t been part of the plan. In fact, it would be a very bad idea, and he needed to remind himself of that fact. It wasn’t as if the subject wouldn’t come up—Parker and her little waif weren’t going to be on their own for long. He would find her and drag her back kicking and screaming and, hell, chain her to the fucking bedpost if he had to.

His room was a shambles. The mattress had been torn off the bed, the pillows ripped open, drawers yanked out and dumped on the floor. He stared around him in fury. Why the hell would she think he was hiding something there? He certainly wouldn’t have put her in a room with secrets.

Remy had followed him. “Do you think they left during the night?”

He shook his head. “Parker made herself breakfast this morning—we’ve got her on the security cameras.”

“I don’t suppose the ones on the third-floor bedrooms are working?” Remy said.

“They’re for intel, not voyeurism. No, they weren’t turned on. We should have feeds for the hallways, though.” He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, pushed a number, and got Jack in the control room. A moment later he turned back to Remy. “Two people left an hour ago. Parker was bundled up in something, Soledad was looking pleased with herself, Jack says.”

“Wasn’t he supposed to be watching?”

“No, you were,” Ryder said pointedly. “The question is, if Parker wanted to run off, and she has her reasons, why did she take Soledad when she wanted us to deal with her? Unless Soledad is in on it too.”

“Do you hear that?” Remy demanded suddenly.

“Hear what?” A moment later the sound came. It was a muffled thudding noise from the direction of Soledad’s room.

Remy was on his heels as he stalked back into the smaller bedroom. The thumping noise was coming from the closet door, and he swore, striding across the room to open it.

It was locked. The door splintered in one kick, and a body tumbled out onto the floor, trussed in duct tape and looking furious. Jenny Parker hadn’t run off after all.

“Looks like your little waif isn’t the helpless unfortunate you thought she was,” he said, squatting down beside her. Her eyes were blazingly furious above the gag of silver tape, and he ripped it off, causing her to shriek with pain.

“You have to go after her. I think someone kidnapped her,” Parker babbled, fury and clear embarrassment coloring her cheeks. “She was standing in the middle of the room, looking scared, and then someone hit me.”

“Ma’am, you sure have had a lot of people beat up on you in the last three days,” Remy murmured, and Ryder glared at him before turning his attention back to Parker. He wasn’t in any hurry to release her from the rest of her bonds. “If you didn’t have a concussion before, you probably have one now.”

“I’m fine,” she said in a panicky voice. “Get this stuff off of me so we can go after Soledad.”

“Go after her?” Ryder echoed. “Why?”

“Because she’s been kidnapped, you idiot,” she said, squirming in her bonds.

He made no effort to release her. “She didn’t look coerced in the video feed. She walked out with someone I thought was you. In fact, you’re lucky you started making noise or you’d have been in that closet a lot longer.”

“I’m so lucky,” she said bitterly. “Will you please release me?”

Remy took a curious look at Ryder, then moved in front of him, the knife he always carried with him out and slicing through the tape before Ryder could stop him.

The moment she was free she tried to stand, but she staggered, and Ryder caught her as she fell against him, all warm femininity and fury. He held her a moment until she steadied herself, and then she yanked herself free a bit too enthusiastically, so that she almost fell again.

She managed to straighten up. “We need to go after her,” she told Remy. “I warned you she was in danger, and now someone got past your defenses and took her. I would have thought this would be the safest place for her, but apparently someone just waltzed in with nobody noticing. You should make sure no one took anything.”

“No one’s touched the other rooms,” Ryder said coolly. “Just yours. Someone had to let her ‘kidnapper’ in. Was it you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said bitterly. “If I had I wouldn’t have ended up in a closet.”

“Possibly,” he said, eyeing her. She was still dressed in a pair of his boxers, a T-shirt, and one of his old flannel shirts, which came partway down her long thighs. She looked a hell of a lot better in his old clothes than he did, he thought, then banished the notion. He wasn’t going to be thinking about Ms. Jenny Parker’s undeniable attributes. Not unless he needed to use them.

She was slowly pulling herself back together, and her gaze sharpened. “What do you mean, no one touched the other rooms?” she said. “Did someone . . . Did they . . .” Without another word she pushed past them, racing into the hall and into the trashed bedroom. She came to a halt, frozen in place, and a low wail came from her. “Oh, no!”