| |
I startled awake when Patch lifted me off the bed with each hand clasped too tightly around my upper arms. "Ouch..." I started to yell at him but remembered my goal not to allow them to know they were hurting me. I didn't want to give them the satisfaction.
"Time to be useful, princess." He let go of me in the hall and pushed me in the direction of the conference room.
A gasp escaped me, when I saw Cassie seated at the table. Her face was swollen, and she looked exhausted. It was clear someone had hit her. I felt sorry for her and wondered why they hadn't gotten physical we me. Don't get me wrong, I was glad they hadn't but why treat one of us differently? The only possible reason I could come up with was that it was because Cassie was a federal agent.
I had just looked around the table and noticed Henson was missing, when the door was pushed open so hard it hit the wall. "Sorry, Mr. Randerran. I was in the bathroom and..."
Now we knew that Mr. Big's name was Randerran.
"Sit down and shut up, Henson," Mr. Randerran said, motioning to the vacant chair to my right.
"Ladies, we need to move this along. Our window of opportunity is short."
I wasn't sure whether that window had something to do with the experiments or the fact that both Chance and Jared would realize something was wrong once they were back in communication.
"Look, Randerran, I told you, I don't have the coordinates. She's the one that figured it out." Cassie nodded toward me.
"You both have told me the same story, but your explanation does nothing to solve my problem. I need my experiment back."
"It was telling you the truth when I said I don't know the coordinates. I saw no need to commit them to memory because I could look them up in Uncle Harry's journal if I needed them."
"Finally. Perhaps we're getting somewhere," Randerran said. "Where is this journal?"
"In a safe deposit box."
"Where?"
"At the bank in Wilkins' Gap."
"Great."
Randerran laid out a plan that had us picking up the journal at the bank and then leading his team to the BFFam site. It sounded pretty straight forward. "OK. Get some rest. We'll be heading out in a few hours," he said, standing up.
"What about gear?" Cassie asked.
"You'll have what you need."
The blue-eyed guard I thought of as Blue pushed Cassie toward the door, and I followed with Henson behind me. We were almost to the door when I looked over my shoulder and said, "There might be one problem." Randerran glared at me. "My keys are in my purse at Dr. Bellamy's cabin."
"I'll send someone to retrieve them and meet you in Wilkins' Gap."
"Great. That solves part of the problem, but I can't open the safe deposit box myself."
Mr. Randerran stepped in front of me and squeezed my shoulder again. "No more games, Ms. Mason. I’m out of patience."
"I understand, but we got the safe deposit box before Chance and I were together. We didn't trust each other, so we set it up so neither one of us can open the box without the other."
"Are you telling me you can't open the safe deposit box without Mr. Munroe in attendance?"
"There is another way. We arranged things so our lawyer can access the box with either one of us. We wanted to make sure either of us could access the box if the other wasn't available."
"And where does this lawyer live?"
"In Wilkins' Gap."
He used his hold on my shoulder to direct me down the hall to his office. After agreeing to what I could and couldn't say, he called up Jim Stafford in my contact list, pressed the button to place the call, and handed me the phone. So far things had gone pretty much as planned. I had to hope Jim would respond as I expected.
"Hi, Jim. It's your least demanding client," I said, hoping the change from my usual greeting would let him know something was up. He was on speaker, and I needed him to not question my request. "I need your help with something.
"Sure, Em. Whatever you need."
"I need to access one of Harry's journals in the safe deposit box, but Chance is on a hunt."
"Are you in Wilkins' Gap?"
"No. I'll only have a few hours in town tomorrow. Can you meet me at the bank at noon with your key?"
"Sure. It'll be good to see you."
Mr. Randerran was giving me the wrap up signal. I wished I had thought of something I could say that would let Jim know I was in trouble, but with an audience I just hoped to end the call without raising the ire of my captors. "I wish I had time to talk, but I've got to go. See you tomorrow."