The Cocky Thief

Chapter 22

Scott Hart looked at his GPS and at the building in front of them. "I don't think this is right."

"These are the coordinates she sent," said Isobel. "That means it's right." She hopped out of the car and walked right for the convenience store without a second thought.

Scott groaned. He hated variables and right now that's all he had. But Isobel had gone to the website listed on the card that Jennifer had found. All the page had was a basic contact form. Almost as soon as Isobel had entered in her name and an email address, she'd gotten an email with these coordinates.

Even though he knew better than to go blind into situations like this, there wasn't much choice. If they wanted to find this Toni chick, this was the best option. He got out of the car and felt for the appendix holster. He didn't have a lot of ammunition, but the gun that Austin had picked up from the vineyard might prove useful yet.

He locked the car and then followed Isobel inside. She strolled along the back of the store as if she owned the place. She walked most places like that. Even though her daughter was missing without a word, she acted as though there wasn't a care in the world.

But he'd seen a few cracks in that armor that let him know things weren't quite so simple for her. When he'd caught her at the train station, there had been a look of panic in her eyes that told him she wasn't as confident as she projected about their escape plan. And the crestfallen descent of her shoulders when she hadn't been able to reach Melody had told him a hell of a lot more.

That split second was what had him sticking around. It was easy to say that he was there on a mission of vengeance and that was all he cared about, but Catherine was still with him. Catherine would never sit back while someone, innocent or not, suffered. In fact, that was why she was gone in the first place.

The rush of happy memories was quickly replaced with a burning anger that he was all too familiar with. He reached out and grabbed Isobel's arm. "What do you think you're doing?" he bit out in a low whisper.

She glanced down where he held her arm and then back at his face, her disapproval evident. "I'm looking for Toni."

"In the soda section?"

She rolled her eyes. "Obviously not there. But she sent us these coordinates for a reason. I'm betting she's going to let us know where she is any minute now." She pointed to a spot behind him.

Scott looked over his shoulder to the camera that was aimed directly at them.

"That little guy has been following my every move since I walked in."

Right then, the door on the far end of the refrigerator popped open.

"And there she is," said Isobel triumphantly as she went right for the door.

Scott cursed under his breath and followed her through. He wanted to have a hand on his gun and ready, but he knew the camera was on him, so he didn't want to telegraph where his one and only weapon was.

The door led directly to some stairs and he was only on the first one when he heard the door slam shut behind him. And now they were trapped with the person who may or may not be Isobel's daughter. It wasn't as if Toni was all that uncommon of a name. It could be some fat dude smoking a joint and laughing at the two suckers dumb enough to go to random coordinates sent by a stranger.

Except he knew he was wrong the second they got to the basement. This wasn't the lair of some loner computer nerd. The walls were a light purple and the soft glow of the lights kept it from feeling like a basement.