Odd how she knew as well as he did Lauren wouldn’t be in Atlanta long. The bastard who had been stalking Nola would bring Lauren back here to taunt them.
He reached for his cell phone again to recall Bronco, Crusty and Mako from their posts in the woods and up the road.
Within seconds they were in Nola’s living room, too, pacing, while Rick hung up from calling the police. He dropped into a chair, his brain racing.
Crusty plowed his hand through his mess of hair. “I’ll head over to check in with the OSI. We’ve already got things rolling with David Reis so here’s a good place to start. He got a lead on the Internet crimes and traced the server to a local hotel. We’ll see if there’s more to follow up on that.”
Bronco’s eyes lit with a parental concern, obviously a father himself. “Mako and I will make an end run to the airport. It’s a long shot that we can catch him there, but you never know.”
Rick clenched his cell phone. “We’ll stay here and wait for the police. I don’t want to leave in case she shows up here again. Let’s hope she’s just run off.”
As her squadron comrades drove out onto the street, Nola slid her arm around Rick’s waist in comfort. She sat on the arm of the chair beside him. “I am so sorry. I can only imagine what kind of hell you’re going through right now.”
Hell didn’t even come close to describing this. Hoping at best Lauren was alone on the run. Fearing at the worst she was in the hands of a maniac who blew up cars and planted scorpions. He lost track of how long they sat there letting everything sink in, but they both needed a moment to gather their thoughts before…doing what?
“Rick! The window.” She nudged him. “Your gun. Get your gun.”
He looked up from the rug and saw…hell come to life in front of his eyes. An older man stood in the middle of her front yard, framed by the curtains—
Holding a gun to Lauren’s head.
Chapter 16
Nola blinked, hard. And still the unbelievable nightmare stayed in front of her eyes.
The man outside the window was supposed to be long dead, smothered in a collapsed tunnel in South America. But her vision didn’t lie. Ramon Chavez, the drug lord who’d taken her hostage a year ago, had somehow survived and now had a gun to Lauren’s head.
The teen appeared dazed, as if she’d been drugged with a mild sedative. Apparently the bastard wasn’t underestimating women this time. Suddenly the scorpion sting made sense, too. He’d taken time to import the deadly critters from his part of the world, a message she hadn’t understood, damn it.
Guilt sliced deeper than any poisonous sting. How could she have brought this hell to Rick’s daughter? Every tear streak down the girl’s face made Nola’s heart squeeze tighter. And a coat. The child needed a coat to cover her in those little tank tops she favored.
What a silly thought as the teen shivered in fear with a gun pressed to her head, but the maternal instinct flowered to life so fiercely, it was all Nola could do to keep from launching across the lawn to rip out Chavez’s throat.
Nola couldn’t imagine why in hell the man would come here for her, but then he hadn’t been sane in those days she’d spent with him before. Time for musing would come later. Only Lauren counted now.
“Rick,” she whispered under her breath, trying not to move her mouth in case it upset the man outside. Slowly, she moved toward the door with him. “His name is Ramon Chavez. It’s the South American drug lord who held me captive a year ago. We all thought he died. He’s wily and he’s strong. Don’t underestimate him because of his age.”
“Got it.” Rick tucked his weapon out of sight in the small of his back. “We can’t go out with it showing. He’ll only make me throw it down.”
Somewhere in his fifties, the man looked as if he stayed in shape. She’d fought hard to escape Ramon Chavez, a narrow thing a year ago when she’d been in top condition, and now she could barely walk after the scorpion sting. Rick had an amazing amount of upper body strength, but one swipe to his legs…
She couldn’t afford these negative thoughts.
Her hand closed over the doorknob.
Rick’s hand rested on her waist. “Stay on the other side of me, away from him. I can’t worry about you and Lauren. I love you.”
He opened the door.
Good God. He dropped the “love bomb” like that and expected her to keep her cool? Nola scrambled for her scattered wits and—what do you know?—Rick used her hesitation to put himself between her and the gunman.
Rick braced a hand on the porch post.
Nola pulled up alongside him. “So you’ve finally decided to show your face.”
“I decided the time had come.” He caressed the gun along Lauren’s forehead in a sadistic show of force. “My timing. My control. You may have gotten the better of me once, but I will be the victor this time.”
Nola sifted through his words and could hardly believe how the pieces fit together. The man had come after her because of a wounded ego?