9:30 p.m.

Jess held very still and listened.

She considered the time she had been in the vehicle: thirty minutes at the most. Music had blared from the radio the whole time. But not a radio station. A CD, she supposed. Her wrists and ankles had been secured with wide tape.

The two men had spoken in Spanish during the ride but they kept their voices too low for her to comprehend their conversation over the music. Her Spanish was pretty rusty but she would likely have picked up a word here and there if she had been able to hear.

Once they arrived at their destination they’d brought her into a building or house and shoved her into a corner. Wherever they were holding her it wasn’t far from downtown.

Puffing out a breath, she wished they had removed the damned bag. She hated not being able to see. She thought of those moments before the first bastard had grabbed her. Why hadn’t she been paying better attention? How had she allowed someone to sneak up on her like that? News vans had been parked all around Linn Park. Maybe that was the reason she’d ignored the one parked near her car. It damned sure hadn’t driven up while she was talking to Wesley. Her abductors had been lying in wait.

The floor under her felt like wood. No carpet. Not smooth enough to be vinyl or cool enough to be tile. The place smelled of stale tobacco and tequila. She would recognize that smell anywhere. She’d had too many margaritas once. Back in her college days. Way, way too many. She’d puked for two days.

Whoever was holding her had gathered in another room. The low rumble of voices was distinguishable but, once again, not the words.

Judging how long she had been here was a bit more difficult. Fifteen or twenty minutes maybe. Dan would have found her car by now. And her weapon. God, and her bag and phone. Her phone was probably dead. It had hit the pavement hard.

There went two hundred bucks and that was if she was due an upgrade.

She tried to recall if she had gotten the insurance plan and whether it covered thug damage.

Hopefully Wesley hadn’t thought she’d hung up on him. It was a shame he hadn’t gotten to finish telling her about what he’d found on Nina Lopez.

If she didn’t get out of here, the next life celebration she attended might be her own.

Working her hands and twisting her wrists as best she could, she hoped to loosen the tape. With her back to the wall and her hands behind her, maybe anyone watching her wouldn’t notice. She couldn’t discern any other presence in the room, but the bag over her head dulled her senses to a degree so she couldn’t be sure.

Footsteps warned that someone was entering the room. She listened to the steps, estimated there were at least three persons approaching her position. She braced.

“So this is the famous Deputy Chief Jess Harris. Woo hoo.”

The voice was female. Slight Hispanic accent.

“You have to stop this. This is crazy. This lady ain’t done nothing but try to help us.”

Male. Southern for sure.

“DeShawn?” Jess asked. “Is that you? Your grandparents have been worried sick.”

“See there?” the man she suspected was DeShawn said. “We can’t do this, Nina.”

Nina Lopez. Well, well. “You should listen to him, Nina. Your brother is not happy either.” Jess wished again that she knew what Wesley had been calling about. She could have used that right now.

“My brother is dead to me,” Nina snarled.

Young people. They made Jess want to scream. “Well, he may be dead to you but he’s very much alive and looking for you.”

The bag was snatched off her head. Jess drew in a grateful breath.

“He’s going to die at sunrise, jefa. And you’re going to help us make that happen.”

Jess looked from Nina to DeShawn and back. Both appeared to be unharmed. Nina looked ready for war. DeShawn, on the other hand, looked terrified.

“I already said what I had to say to your brother. I don’t think he and I have anything left to talk about.”

Nina flaunted a big smile. “You won’t need to do no talking. You’ll be too busy dying.”

She turned and strutted away. Poor DeShawn. He hadn’t had a chance against a sexy, streetwise girl like Nina. Her gangbanger friend followed her out of the room. DeShawn lingered near Jess.

“Are my grandparents okay?”

Jess nodded. “I sent them to stay with friends so Lopez couldn’t get to them.”

He swiped his hands over his face and shook his head. “I don’t know what’s happening. Everything is out of control.”

Jess had a pretty good idea. “It’s a power play. Nina wants what her brother has. It’s a battle as old as time. Sibling rivalry.”

DeShawn shook his head. “But she doesn’t want any part of the gang life. That’s why she left LA. She thought it would be different here.”

“Sometimes people show us what they want us to see.” Jess had a sneaking suspicion that DeShawn was beginning to understand that he was nothing more than a pawn in Nina’s plans. He was the bait to lure the police into her game. He was the perfect ploy. A good, upstanding young man who would have the community in an uproar to ensure he received the same attention as the white girls had a couple weeks ago.

Worked like a charm.

He squatted down and searched Jess’s face. “I don’t know what to do. She’s got five guys in there planning and plotting with her. There’s three or four more outside. I don’t have a weapon or a cell phone.”

Jess managed a faint smile for the kid. “Listen to me, DeShawn. I’m a deputy chief with the Birmingham PD. My job is pretty important, so you have to believe me when I say that I know the business of police work, right?”

He hesitated a moment but then he nodded his agreement.

“That’s right. I have my own unit with several detectives who do exactly what I tell them to do every day.” Most of the time anyway.

He wrapped his arms around his knees and waited for whatever she had to say next.

“So when I tell you what you need to do, you can feel confident that I know what I’m talking about, right?”

He nodded again.

“Good.” She leaned forward to put her face closer to his. “You don’t worry about Nina or her friends or me. The first opportunity you get, you run.”

His eyes widened in disbelief.

“Your grandparents are counting on you, DeShawn. You run as fast as you can, and don’t you dare look back.”