Chapter 60

chapter

sixty

Gage appeared from his bedroom and glanced around the living area and kitchen.

Nia was no longer on the couch. Where would she have gone? Her room?

“Nia?” he called.

There was no answer.

A bad feeling crept its way up his spine.

“Everything okay?” Austin stepped back into the hotel room, three cups of coffee on a tray in his hands.

“I’m not sure.” Gage stepped past him, headed toward Nia’s room. He didn’t bother to knock.

Because he knew she wouldn’t be inside.

And she wasn’t.

“She’s not here,” he muttered.

Austin grunted. “She couldn’t have gotten very far. She was just here.”

“You’re right.” Gage shoved his gun into his waistband. Then he quickly grabbed the papers and tablet Nia had been looking at. He thrust them into a backpack and slung it over his shoulder.

He and Austin took off from the hotel room.

Gage glanced up and down the hallway, but Nia wasn’t there.

He started toward the elevator but realized it would take too long. Instead, he and Austin took the stairs.

Just as they reached the lobby, he looked through the glass windows facing the street.

Nia climbed into a cab. Before he could reach her, the cab door closed, and the driver took off.

Gage stood, his gaze trailing her. “What is she thinking?”

“I have no idea.” Austin paused beside him, his hands on his hips. “Something clearly changed between the time you left her and now.”

“Yes . . . kind of like what happened at the restaurant with Rob.” His thoughts raced.

Gage hailed a taxi. As he waited, he kept an eye on Nia’s cab.

She was heading in the direction of Rob’s apartment.

Was that where she was going? Had she thought of something else to look for? Was she headed there to get more information?

Finally, a cab stopped, and Gage and Austin climbed inside.

“Follow that yellow taxi up ahead.” Gage pointed at the vehicle a quarter of a mile in front of them.

The driver—a gruff-looking fortysomething man—glanced over his shoulder before shrugging. “Whatever you say.”

Then he took off in pursuit.

The traffic was heavier and slower than Gage would have liked.

He didn’t take his eyes off the cab.

He couldn’t lose Nia.

Because something was going on here . . . something that was more than met the eye.

Nia didn’t know why she needed to go to Rob’s apartment. She just knew she had to get there.

Maybe she’d find answers there.

You should have told Gage , a quiet voice said inside her head.

Yet the voice seemed distant.

Distant and unreachable.

Nia almost felt as if she wasn’t in control of her own mind, and her mind controlled her actions. And her actions . . .

She wasn’t sure exactly what she would do next.

What was going on?

Why did it feel as if Nia was looking at herself from afar, unable to control anything?

Yet she was helpless to fix it.

She spotted the building up ahead and told the driver to stop.

But she had no money. How was she going to pay this guy?

Even though she was cognitive of that fact, her emotions and anxiety seemed to be turned off.

She opened her door and stepped out, her bare feet hitting the asphalt.

Before she could walk away, the cab driver lowered the window and yelled, “Hey, lady. You need to pay up. I don’t know where you think you’re going.”

A man stepped toward them. Thrust some money at the driver. Told him to stay put a minute.

Nia studied the guy.

He was one of the men who’d been in Rob’s apartment when she and Gage had broken in and hid in the safe room.

Danger . . .

Yet she couldn’t move.

“We figured it was just a matter of time before you came.” The man reached for her arm. “I’m going to need you to come with me.”

“Where to?” Nia asked, possessing no will to fight.

“You’ll see.” He led her back into the taxi. Climbed in beside her. Slammed the door.

Then they took off.