The second the elevator opened, Alexis strode toward the glass doors that led outside. Agents, other people, security guards and staff—the lobby was full. She wanted to run, but what would that prove except to make her look like a guilty fool?
“Lex.”
Ugh. Was he really going to do this? Bradley probably thought she was as guilty as the FBI did. She wanted to curl in a ball and cry for days. Even if he didn’t, and he was actually trying to… She choked. Was Bradley trying to help her? He had to know there was nothing okay about this. Not one single thing. The FBI was too busy looking at her to even spare a second trying to find Rachel. Bradley probably figured cozying up to her would make her want to spill all her secrets to him.
Hah.
She pushed open the glass door and stepped out into the cold air. What time was it? The dark sky was covered in a layer of clouds, not that stars were usually visible. Maybe she should go somewhere she could see stars. Somewhere quiet, like Montana. Or Wyoming. A place with one area code for the whole state. Where her nearest neighbor was a mile away, and she could get a dog that would keep her company.
“Lex.” His voice was entirely too close.
She spun to face him. “No.”
That look. Ack. It got her every time when he trained that warmth and softness at her. Like they had a secret no one else knew.
“Don’t.” She couldn’t handle that right now.
“The FBI will find Rachel. And if that doesn’t happen before the time limit, I’ll give the kidnappers all the money and get her back. I will.”
Tears spilled over for the millionth time today. She swiped at the offending emotion. “One of the Secret Service agents was in on it. I remember he said he wanted his money, and the kidnapper killed him. I don’t know who has Rachel, or where she is. Anything could be happening and I can’t help.”
“Lex.” He groaned her name and pulled her into his arms.
Her cheek landed on his T-shirt, between the open sides of his jacket. How could anyone be this warm? He must burn up in desert countries. Under fire. Every day nothing but heart-pounding danger. A sob worked its way up.
“Always taking the world’s weight on you.” His chest moved like he’d laughed. “Protecting everyone, making sure everyone else is okay. Not even caring what happens to you in the process.”
She pushed back. “What are you talking about?”
Bradley simply lifted one eyebrow.
“We need to get Rachel back.” That was the focus here. Not…whatever he was talking about.
“I know. But the FBI has all the leads, and all the evidence. They’re not telling me everything.” He paused. “Did you know Rachel has a maybe boyfriend?”
Alexis shook her head. “Do you mean Steve?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Do I?” It couldn’t be the Steve he’d met with yesterday, could it? Surely the world wasn’t that small.
She squeezed her eyes shut for a second, then said, “They’re going to find out…everything.”
He shook his head, a smile tugging on the corner of his mouth. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll be here, and when it’s done I’ll still be here.”
“Brad.” She bit her lip.
“Let’s go, okay?” He let her go—hello, cold—and clasped her hand as he led her to his truck.
“I have to do something.” She wracked her brain. “I can’t just sit at home.”
“It’s the middle of the night.”
She shot him a look. “And you’ll be able to sleep when Rachel is…”
Bradley stopped at the passenger door. “Yeah, probably not.”
“Then let’s go.”
He cocked a brow.
“I have somewhere I want to look.” She climbed in and shut the door herself. Because she didn’t always need his help, okay? When he climbed in, she said, “Can I look at your phone? I need a map. Mine doesn’t do that, and the FBI has it anyway.”
He swiped across the screen and handed it to her. “Folder in the middle.”
She opened the maps app and found the hotel. Bile rose from her stomach to her throat.
“Where are we going?”
She handed it to him. “There.”
“And where is this?”
God, am I actually going to have to tell him? “Somewhere she might be.”
That was, if the same person from before was the one who’d kidnapped her now. If he wanted to re-create what had happened.
Alexis grabbed the water bottle in the console and sipped. She didn’t care how old it was, she was going to throw up.
“This another one of your secrets, like that passel you were keeping from the FBI?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Liar.
“I told them you couldn’t keep a secret to save your life.”
She rounded on him. “I guess you don’t know me as well as you thought you did.”
Except that wasn’t true, was it? Bradley was the only person who’d broken through. Which was why the awkward scene of the morning after had been so heartbreaking. They’d been so young, and neither of them had really known how to handle something so huge. At the first hurdle, they’d stumbled. Caved to Rachel’s overblown surprise and…walked away. She’d been happy for them in her own way. When she’d calmed down. But they’d left things between them to lie in a way that caused her to think about it—about what could’ve been—every day since.
Bradley huffed under his breath and drove. When he pulled up to the hotel, he said, “Am I coming inside with you, or you want to do this on your own?”
She definitely didn’t want to do this alone.
“Let’s go then.” He cracked his door, and she glanced at his back as he got out.
How did he do that? It wasn’t natural for him to be able to just…read her that way. Who did that?
Alexis followed him to the entrance, sickness sloshing in her stomach with every step. She wasn’t going to eat for days at this rate. Maybe not until Rachel was back home. Safe, where she belonged.
Not suffering the whims of a sick madman.
Could it really have been Lincoln? He’d been the only one in her house with her during the time the ransom video was sent. But hackers put files in computers all the time. Right? It could’ve easily been planted and sent remotely, made to look like it was her. Just because she’d stepped out of the room didn’t mean Lincoln was one of the kidnappers.
“What?” Bradley’s hand on her arm waylaid her at the door.
She shook her head. “I’m just trying to figure this all out.”
The FBI would find Lincoln’s information in her phone. He’d texted to tell her he was coming over, after all. They’d question him. And if he was involved, then they would figure it out. Alexis didn’t need to worry about his guilt. If he was part of the kidnapping, then that meant it had nothing to do with…what happened before. He’d been out of town during that weekend, anyway.
She shook her head. “I have so many thoughts spinning around up here I don’t know which way is up.”
“Trust that the FBI will find her.”
She nodded, pretty sure she didn’t look convinced.
“We’ll get her back.”
“Let’s go inside.” She didn’t need him being sweet again, distracting her. Alexis needed to focus on this. Not on what should’ve been, wasn’t, and likely would never be. That was fruitless. And it didn’t get Rachel back.
Bradley apparently needed to realize that for himself. It was nice having him here in the meantime. She wasn’t going to cry when he left. Not this time.
Alexis strode up to the front counter. “Is room one-thirteen open?”
The man’s dark eyes widened below his turban. “It is you!”
Bradley’s warmth hit her back. She wanted to lean into it, to rest there, but couldn’t let herself have even that moment of peace. Not in this world she lived in now—the world where she was a harlot, condemned publicly for things people did in private every day.
They didn’t know even half the truth of what had happened. But did anyone care? No.
Bradley’s hand settled on her hip. “What’s this?”
The motel employee spread his hands out, palms up. His name tag said Havi. “Thanks be to you! Business is booming, rooms are booked. Everyone wants to stay in the love motel! You the best thing that ever happened to me!”
Alexis couldn’t even blink. She tried to speak, but all that came out was a squeak.
“So room one-thirteen is booked up, then?”
She was so grateful to Bradley just then, she could have collapsed in relief.
Havi lifted a huge iPhone from the desk and held it up. “I know! We take selfie!” He rushed to a door beside the counter.
Before he pushed through, Alexis fled the lobby. There was no way she was going to be part of this guy’s marketing plan. No way, no how.
Bradley said something to the man, and joined her outside.
Alexis just walked. She read the room numbers, increasing from one-hundred one on up, and headed for where she figured one-thirteen would be.
“You aren’t going to say anything about that?”
“What is there to say?” It was humiliating. But then, that was what she’d agreed to, wasn’t it?
“Lex.” He tugged on her elbow, but she shook him off.
“Don’t. Please.” It wasn’t like she could tell him the truth, anyway.
She heard him sigh, but didn’t turn back. Just tapped her knuckles on the door to one-thirteen. Loud enough she might wake a sleeping person, but not like, This is the Police! loud.
The door swung open. A man in boxer shorts and nothing else blinked at them. “What?”
Alexis looked past him to the room. Mussed bed sheets. A suitcase. Wallet and a phone on the table.
“Nothing. Sorry to disturb you.”
She turned away and headed for Bradley’s truck. Rachel wasn’t here. She’d probably never been here. Maybe this had nothing to do with that. Just because the FBI kept bringing it up—like it was Alexis’s motive for hurting her friend—didn’t mean the two were related. The kidnapping was about money. It was about Rachel and Bradley’s inheritance.
The second she grabbed the passenger handle, he was there, crowding her against the door. No, cocooning her in that warmth. Everything in her wanted to lean into his strength, but he thought the worst of her. What was the point? She would now and forever be tainted.
The last thing she wanted to be was the victim here. But it was so hard. God, I didn’t know it would be this hard. She’d thought the whole thing through, but fast because there hadn’t been much time. She and Rachel had figured out the best plan. Had she known it would be this bad, she’d have thought longer. But the outcome would’ve been the same, wouldn’t it?
Which was why she had to stand fast.
Alexis steeled herself against the onslaught of that muscle memory. The instinctive reflex to lean in to Bradley. To let him take care of her when she had to do this herself.
“Talk to me, Lex.”
She shook her head. “Step back.”
“Lex. Talk. To. Me.” Bradley gently turned her. She picked a spot on his shirt and stared at it, not willing to let him see all the feelings she was no doubt broadcasting on her face. He would know, and she couldn’t let that happen to Rachel.
She said, “Back up. Please.” She could hardly even think when he was this close.
“This is where it happened.”
Of course he’d figured it out. He was a smart guy, but this wasn’t a complicated puzzle. She should have come alone, but with everything happening she didn’t want to be by herself. She wasn’t even the target. She shouldn’t be this scared when Rachel was the one in so much danger.
Bradley touched her cheek. Her eyes lifted, a reflex she couldn’t stop. Maybe she wanted him to find out. No matter the promise she’d made to her friend. Did part of her wish he knew? She squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t go back on her word. Not even for him.
“You thought Rachel might be here?”
She nodded again, too choked up to speak.
“So you do think the two are related.”
Alexis shrugged one shoulder.
“But she wasn’t here,” he said. “So do you have any other ideas?”
She opened her eyes then, and glanced around while she thought about it. “Someone who wants your money.”
“That fact isn’t widely known.” A muscle in his jaw worked back and forth. “But it isn’t a secret, either. Neither is it a secret that if one of us is incapacitated, the other gets control of the full two million.”
“They did their homework.”
He frowned. “They picked the weaker link and took her out of play. Targeted me for the ransom drop, and my desire to save my sister.”
What was she supposed to say to that? Or was he just thinking aloud?
“I don’t care about the money, Lex. I care about getting Rachel back, and nothing else.”
“I know.” She figured he was right about why the kidnappers had done things this way. Not that Rachel would have let him die to keep her money. No. But she’d have known Bradley could take care of himself. Maybe he wouldn’t even have let himself get kidnapped in the first—
Van tires screeched. The door slid open, a roar of metal.
Bradley turned to face the danger, his own instinctive reflex.
Two men jumped out of the back of the van, one a passenger and the other from the driver’s seat. Black clothes, black ski masks. They were tall, and built. Huge scary-looking guys. What on earth—
Bradley rushed them. The three collided like a wave breaking on shore, kicking and punching. Alexis wanted to cup her ears against the sick thuds. The fight was vicious like she’d never seen before in her life.
“Go!” Bradley yelled over his shoulder.
She couldn’t move her legs.
“Lex, RUN!”
He wanted her to…
One of the men broke away from the fight and headed in her direction. Alexis dropped her purse on the ground and took off down the sidewalk.