Page 135 of Seven Deadly Sins

“Sir?” Harper frowned.

“What’s the next step?”

“When you have the money, I notify the kidnapper.” She glanced at her watch. “We have twenty-three hours.”

The man paled and reached for his phone. “I’ll make some more calls.”

With the promise to return in a few minutes, Harper and Liam stepped from the room and watched from the other side of the mirror where the chief waited. “We’re going to watch that poor woman get cut.” The chief shook his head. “He can’t sell a house in a day.”

“No, sir, he can’t.” A muscle ticked in Liam’s jaw. “At this point, all we can hope for is that we can pacify Thompson over the three days, so the woman isn’t harmed further.”

Harper hated that they’d all accepted the inevitable. Amber Barker would be cut and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Except lie. “How will Robert know we don’t have the money within the allotted time? If we can find a buyer, someone with cash, we’ll have the funding or at least a hefty down payment.”

Both men turned to stare before Liam spoke. “She’ll be cut if we don’t and cut if Thompson finds out we tried to deceive him. Might as well try. Let’s go talk some more with Barker.”

This time Barker looked at them with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. “I have a buyer.”

“Great.” Harper smiled. “Ask for a down payment big enough to purchase some supplies. I’ll take a copy of the receipt once the supplies are ordered and send it to your wife’s kidnapper.” Her idea would work. It had to. “Any evidence of the building proceeding will help your wife.”

The man smiled. “That I can do.” He dialed his phone again and soon had a promise for fifty-thousand dollars to be wired to him before the twenty-four-hour time limit.

~

“How does a pizza and a movie sound?” Liam pulled from the parking lot. “We could use some downtime.”

“That sounds great.” She closed her eyes and rested her head against the back of the seat. “Add in a early night and it’s perfect.”

“Bed by nine.” He grinned, keeping his hands tight on the steering wheel. so he didn’t reach over to give her hand a gentle squeeze. He had to constantly remind himself of the new boundary.

Soon, soft snores drifted from the passenger seat. He left her sleeping in the jeep when he went inside to order the pizza. Harper still slept when he came out fifteen minutes later.

Seeing how safe she felt around him, safe enough to sleep, warmed his heart. She might want to keep him at an arm’s length, for now, but the two of them had a future. He knew it deep down. When this was all over, he’d help her see it too.

“We’re home.” He gave her a gentle shake as the garage door closed behind them. “Let’s eat before the pizza gets cold. You can pick out the movie while I get us plates.”

“Who needs plates?” Her eyes fluttered open. “We can eat from the box, but a diet soda sounds good.” She opened her door. “Thanks for the short nap.”

“No problem. You needed the sleep.” He couldn’t wait to get to sleep himself. Inside, he set the pizza on the coffee table as Harper curled up on one end. “Be right back with the drinks.”

When he returned, she had some silly comedy on the TV and a slice of pizza in her hand. “I thought we could use some laughs.”

“Sounds good to me.” He sat on the opposite end of the sofa to give her space and reached for the pizza. “You did good today.”

She glanced at him in surprise. “The idea came to me in a moment of desperation.”

“Whatever works.” He chuckled. “Let’s pray Thompson is pacified enough. Has the live feed on Amber Barker started yet?”

“No. I think he’s waiting to see whether he needs to torture her. That’s the only reason he has her. No sending her out on jobs.” She reached for another slice of mega-meat as two goofy men rode a scooter through the Colorado mountains.

“I prefer the live feed over the silence. At least then we knew what shape his victims were in.” He toed off his shoes. “Dug into the type of cancer his father of died of. Glioblastoma Brain Tumor. Once detected, the patient usually has less than twenty-four months to live. He would’ve died with or without medical treatment.”

“I wonder if Robert was aware of that fact?” She wiped her hands on a napkin. “Grief can change a person. Sometimes in drastic ways. Robert went so far as to change his look in order to move forward with revenge and take up his father’s so-called quest. He used his career to get both followers and victims.”

“He’ll be looking for more. He can’t do this without help. Someone abducted Amber Barker, and I doubt it was physically him.”

“A new assassin?”

“I sure hope not. We’re trying to keep him from getting more people. We should head back into the air tomorrow.”