Chapter 32

CHAPTER

THIRTY-TWO

Heidi tried to shrug out of Edward's grasp. He gripped her arm so tight that it hurt, but he didn't seem to care.

They'd driven down mountain roads, surrounded by nothing but woods before stopping at a shack surrounded by an open field. A weathered barn with a partially collapsed roof stood in the distance. Otherwise, there was nothing.

Why had these guys brought her here? The location didn't make any sense.

Unless these men planned on shooting her and leaving her where no one would find her.

Fear seemed to wrap its invisible fingers around her throat and squeeze, making it impossible to breathe.

Edward dragged her inside the shack.

"Why are we going in here?" she muttered, digging in her heels as worst-case scenarios played out in her head.

"Shut up," Edward muttered. "You're seriously giving me a headache. I have no idea why Rafferty likes you so much."

Rafferty liked her? That was news. However, he had handpicked her for the job. Was that because of her mother?

A musty scent hit her inside the shack. The floor was nothing but earth. Some old wooden furniture had been piled in corners.

What was going on?

Then Edward reached down. Tugged something on the ground.

She gasped when a door opened. This place was just a cover.

Edward led her downstairs. Through a long, dark hallway.

Creepy lights flickered overhead, and the place smelled dank, like earth.

At the bottom of the stairway, they reached another door. Edward punched in a code before ushering her inside a new area, this one more updated and less rustic, with an almost space-age efficiency.

The walls were metal and sterile. Tubes of buzzing fluorescent lights ran neatly along the ceiling. Digital boxes bulged in front of each door, a keypad lit in red on the front.

Heidi's heart pounded harder as she realized where she was. A high-tech bunker, the perfect place for a criminal mastermind to plan his evil deeds.

And also a place no one would ever find her.

Even though Stephen and Gage were tracking her, a bad feeling brewed inside her. Could they even get a signal from her while she was underground?

"What is this place?" She needed to get more information.

Edward scowled. "All you need to know is what you see."

"I'm not the enemy here," she muttered.

"You might as well be."

Her heart thumped harder. She clearly hadn't won this guy over.

"What's it going to hurt to tell me what this is?" she continued to push.

Edward sighed. "We call it the Hive. This is where all the operations are based out of."

"Who built it? How does a place like this even come to exist?"

He continued to lead her down the hall. "When you have the right resources, you can do anything. But, if you must know, this was originally intended to be a bunker for political leaders in case of a nuclear fallout until the government decided to build a place in West Virginia instead. We just took the shell of this place and enhanced it, made it everything we needed. Then we built the shack and the barn to camouflage the space."

"Sounds very sci-fi-ish."

"Call it whatever you want."

She wondered how he fit with Project Elevate. Had he gone through the program with Stephen? Was he in a separate group, maybe one Stephen didn't know about?

Edward paused at a door and punched in a code on a keypad. After a beep sounded, he opened a metal door and shoved her into a room.

She caught herself before stumbling to her knees. As she straightened, she looked up and sucked in a breath.

Rafferty sat behind a metal desk, appearing as if he'd been waiting for her.

"You don't have to be so rough with her," he muttered to Edward. "What did I tell you?"

"She's mouthy and asks too many questions."

"Disobey me again, and I'll have some questions to ask you. Understand?"

Edward shifted behind her. "Understood."

Heidi rose to her full height and observed Rafferty a moment. It had been several weeks since she'd seen him in person, and his looks had changed.

The man had a medium height and build. His hair was dyed jet black, and his face was pale, giving him an almost vampire vibe. His eyes, usually brown, were now green. Contacts? Maybe. Though he was probably in his early seventies, his skin was unnaturally tight, evidence of plastic surgery.

For vanity purposes? Or to change his look and elude authorities?

She wasn't sure.

Either way, bile churned inside her at the sight of the man . . . the man who'd tried to kill her mother. She wanted to lunge across the desk. To give him a piece of her mind.

Instead, she tried to look grateful. To make it seem as if he'd saved her. Like she was on his side.

She swallowed hard as her cover story flashed back to her. She couldn't blow this.

"Thank you so much for saving me." Her voice cracked with emotion. "I didn't know who else to turn to, and I panicked."

Rafferty nodded slowly, his face not showing any emotion. Instead, he leaned back in his seat. A closed laptop sat in front of him, as well as an old-fashioned desk phone.

Why would he have an old phone like that? She couldn't be sure.

Other than those two things, there was nothing personalizing the space—no pictures or decorations. No awards.

Just blank, white walls.

"Why don't you have a seat?" Rafferty nodded at the chair on the other side of his desk. "Grab a bottle of water from the mini fridge in the corner. Then tell me exactly what happened so we can figure out who did this. We have no time to waste."

She grabbed a bottle and took a long sip. Then she sat across from Rafferty and wiped a droplet of water from her mouth with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

His intense gaze bore holes into her as he remained all-business. "We need to get down to business. Who grabbed you?"

"I have no idea who it was. . ." Heidi shook her head, still breathing heavily. She'd drunk so much water so quickly that she had to catch her breath.

Almost as if he hadn't heard her, he said, "Some men are out to get you as revenge on me. I need you to tell me exactly what happened so I can figure out which of my enemies it was."

Heidi swallowed hard at his words. "Earlier, you said you thought it was Stephen."

"Was it?"

She shook her head. "No, I didn't recognize these men."

"Tell me about them."

She ran through the cover story. How she and Donald had been run off the road. How strange men had grabbed her. Put her in their Camry. Taken her to a house in the middle of nowhere.

Then she'd said how they'd left her alone for a few minutes. How she'd seen the opportunity to run, so she had.

But she'd gotten lost in the woods. She'd had to spend the night. Had started again in the morning.

Until she stumbled upon the small town of Norton and had called Rafferty.

"Sounds terrifying," Rafferty murmured, not quite sounding compassionate.

"Who exactly are these enemies of yours? Why are they coming after me?"

"I know you want answers, but I'm afraid I can't tell you that."

"Why not? Why can't I know what's going on?"

"The important thing is that you're safe now. We'll give you clean clothes, food, and a place to sleep."

"For how long?" she asked.

"For as long as necessary." He glanced at the time on his watch and stood. "We need to talk more. However, I have a phone call I need to take. We'll debrief more later. In the meantime, Edward will show you to your accommodations."

"But—"

Before she could say anything else, Edward escorted her away.

This wasn't the way Heidi had envisioned their talk going.

She was going to have to be proactive if she wanted to find out answers.

Stephen continued to spout directions as Gage drove.

They were close to the spot where Heidi's tracker had last pinged. But the longer the radio silence lasted, the tighter the muscles across his chest grew.

The fact Stephen couldn't hear anything anymore wasn't a good sign.

He wanted—no, make that needed —to know Heidi was okay.

As the dirt road continued to narrow, Gage pulled into the woods. They would have to go the rest of the way on foot to avoid being seen.

Wasting no time, they headed toward the location where Heidi had recently been.

Finally, the trees cleared.

He and Gage paused.

A shack stood in front of them—one that didn't look big enough to hold but only a few people at the most. It wasn't the type of place Rafferty would want to stay. In the distance stood a dilapidated barn. They saw no cars or other vehicles.

Something wasn't adding up, and he didn't like it.

Stephen had known this plan was a bad idea. Being here right now only proved it.

A sense of panic—something he rarely felt—filled him, tried to make his bones quiver. So much about this situation was out of his control, and he hated the helpless feeling plaguing him.

"There's an explanation for this." Gage rubbed his neck as he stared at the shack. "We just need to think it through more."

"Yes, we do." He started to step forward when Gage grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Probably not a good idea."

He stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"We're both logical enough to know that Heidi and those men didn't disappear into thin air. Something isn't as it seems. If Rafferty is the man I think he is, there could be cameras or booby traps set up. We don't want to show our hand yet."

"But Heidi?—"

Gage's gaze burned into his. "Let's just take a deep breath before we make any decisions."

Stephen started to rebuke Gage's statement but then clamped his mouth shut instead.

Gage was right. Stephen couldn't let his emotions get in the way.

But he could hear a time bomb ticking in his head—and that was powerful enough to make his nerves explode.