“What about the others?” she demanded, scrambling to her feet. She shook her head several times as if clearing the drug-induced cobwebs from her mind.
“Tori, Beau and Quinn are here. Everyone is fine.”
“Eliza and Dane?” she asked anxiously.
“They aren’t here tonight. The team was coming back in the morning to discuss our next step. It’s just us and we need to get the hell out of here.”
“Is he here?” Ramie whispered.
Caleb knew exactly who he referred to.
“We don’t know,” Beau cut in. “But we aren’t going to take any chances. We have to get you and Tori someplace safe.”
“And you as well,” Ramie said pointedly.
“Yes, us too,” Caleb agreed.
“We can’t take any of the vehicles,” Beau said. “We can’t be sure they aren’t wired too.”
“How the fuck did he get a bomb into this house?” Caleb bit out.
“We don’t know that he did,” Quinn said in a low voice. “We don’t know what the fuck happened here. For all we know he shot an RPG at us. All I do know is that there was an explosion and now the house is on fire. His proximity to us is completely unknown so I vote we get the fuck out of here as quickly as possible.”
“That gets my vote,” Beau said.
Caleb’s gaze followed Ramie as she walked over to where Tori stood, shaking like a leaf from head to toe. Ramie gently took Tori’s hand in hers and squeezed. To Caleb’s surprise, Tori sent her a look of gratitude and kept her hand in Ramie’s as they set out quickly through the woods surrounding the house.
THIRTY-TWO
“THIS has gone on long enough,” Caleb said coldly. “I want the son of a bitch taken out and I don’t care how it’s done, legally or illegally.”
Dane stood in Eliza’s kitchen, pouring cups of coffee for the ten men assembled in Eliza’s home. Aside from Caleb, his brothers, Eliza and Dane there was also one of the two six-man teams that Caleb and his brothers employed. They only hired the best and it was time for them to do what they did best. Take down a killer.
Before anyone could respond to Caleb’s decree, Eliza walked into the kitchen and Caleb immediately turned his attention to her.
“How are they?” he asked in a low voice.
It had been a hell of a night and morning for Ramie and Tori. They’d trekked through the woods in the dead of night, and Ramie had been terrified that they were being followed. Hunted. Every noise had set them on edge. Their nerves had been wound so tight that by the time they’d made it to a place where Caleb could call Dane to come get them, they’d been utterly exhausted.
Caleb had felt no guilt whatsoever in giving Ramie medication to ward off an imminent panic attack. She’d been hyperventilating by the time Dane had arrived. Tori was every bit as distressed and had hovered anxiously over Ramie, evidently worried about the other woman.
“Ramie finally agreed to lie down and try to get some rest,” Eliza said grimly. “And she only agreed because Tori didn’t want to be alone and asked her not to leave the room.”
Caleb blew out his breath in rage. When would people he loved stop suffering? When would they be safe, or would they ever truly be safe? He ran a hand raggedly through his hair.
“Thanks, Eliza.”
“No need to thank me. Now, do we have a plan of action yet?” she asked pointedly.
“I’m setting up a safe house for them to stay in tonight,” Dane said. “It’ll take me until this afternoon to get surveillance and all security measures in place. Until then I think they should stay here and out of sight.”
Eliza nodded.
“We’ll split the team into threes and twelve-hour shifts,” Dane continued. “First shift gets seven P.M. tonight until seven A.M. tomorrow morning. Second shift will pick up seven A to seven P.”
Caleb couldn’t stomach the thought of sitting back, allowing his security team to babysit him and his brothers while he himself did nothing. He was pissed off and ready to take the bastard apart with his bare hands. If the murderous rage in his brothers’ eyes was anything to go by, they were every bit as frustrated as he was.
Fuck the rules and fuck the law. If Caleb ever got his hands on him he was a dead man.
“I’ll consult with the police and set up times for you to give statements,” Dane said to Caleb. “For now I don’t even want the police to know where you are.”
“It does you no good to hide if Ramie’s stalker still has an established link to her,” Eliza pointed out. “Won’t he know exactly where you are at all times?”
“Maybe you should keep her drugged until we take this bastard down,” Beau said in a serious tone.
“For God’s sake. I’m not going to keep her doped up so she doesn’t disclose our location,” Caleb said in disgust.
“No,” Eliza said thoughtfully. “But you could make it so even she doesn’t know where you are.”
Dane pointed a finger at Eliza. “That’s perfect. I don’t know why the hell I didn’t think of it before.”
“Because women are smarter?” Eliza smirked.
“Smarter assed,” Dane muttered.