“HOW DID THEY GET AWAY?”
The words were spoken calmly, but Ian Rasmussen was as far from calm as a man could get.
“The plan was to strike when they were asleep and ambush them.” Derrick LeValley lifted a shoulder, let it fall. “They slipped out the back and somehow made it to a neighboring farm.”
“They fled on foot?”
“They stole a vehicle.”
“You should have had them surrounded.”
“We stormed the house. The plan was to overwhelm them quick—”
“I’ve grown tired of your excuses.” Rasmussen shook his head in disbelief. “I do not tolerate failure.”
“We’ll get them, Mr. Rasmussen. Vanderpol might be good, but he can’t elude us much longer.”
“The longer I stay on this continent, the greater the chance of my being apprehended by the police.” Rasmussen ground his teeth. “I will not go back to prison. And I will not leave without taking care of them.”
“I can assure you, we’ll—”
Rasmussen sliced his hand through the air, silencing the other man. He was tired of talk, of promises not being delivered. More to the point, he was tired of being on the run. Much like the prison he’d just escaped from, it was interfering with the lifestyle he was accustomed to. He’d planned on being at his secret villa on the Moroccan coast by now. Because of Leigh Michaels and Jake Vanderpol, that had not happened.
“Do you have even the slightest idea where they are?” he asked.
“We know they’re in Missouri. Maybe Illinois.”
Turning away from his employee, he strode to the window and looked out at the snow-covered street below. He’d made it across the Canadian border during the night. It had cost him twenty thousand dollars, but the border patrol had let them pass. Ian had wanted to kill the son of a bitch for charging so much. But he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. There would be time for revenge later.
He went over to the table and poured tea into a Wedgwood cup. The King Edward hotel was one of the best in Toronto, but he didn’t notice the fine china or elegant furnishings. All he cared about was getting his hands on Leigh Michaels and that bastard Vanderpol. He could not leave this unfinished. He could not leave knowing they were together. Knowing she had betrayed him not once, but twice. That she was giving her body to another man. That they were laughing at him behind his back….
The thought filled him with such rage that his vision blurred. He flung the cup and saucer across the room. “I want them caught! I want it done yesterday. The next man who screws up dies.” He turned to LeValley. “Are we clear?”
LeValley shifted nervously. “Crystal.”
A tense minute ticked by. LeValley cleared his throat and motioned toward the cell phone he’d purchased just that morning. “Our contact at the phone company is standing by.”
“I’ll make the call.” Rasmussen turned to his employee. “Don’t rely on the trace to find them. I want you to dig up everything you can on both of them. Find out who their friends are. Where their families live. Where they might go. Do whatever it takes. Spare no resources. I want them found.”
“They won’t elude us again.”
“I’ll believe that when I have Jake Vanderpol’s blood on my hands.”
LEIGH DIDN’T KNOW how she managed to fall asleep. It was too damn cold to do much of anything except shiver. But somehow she dozed. She was dreaming about Jake when the chirp of her cell phone jerked her awake. Startled, she sat up and looked around. It was dawn, and they were stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dry corn and brittle winter trees. Jake was pumping gas.
She unclipped the phone from her belt. Confusion swelled when she noticed the name of one of her coworkers on the display. “Hello?”
“If you want to live you’ll listen to what I have to say.”
A chill that had nothing to do with the temperature shuddered through her at the sound of Rasmussen’s voice. “You tried to kill us last night,” she said. “Why would I listen to anything you have to say?”
“It’s you I want, Leigh, not Vanderpol.”
She was trembling so hard she could barely hear him. In the back of her mind, she remembered Jake telling her not to speak to Rasmussen on the phone. But how had he gotten a hold of her coworker’s phone?
“If you want to save his life, come to me. You know I won’t hurt you. It’s the only way I’ll let him live.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“If I find you with him, you will hear every single one of his screams as he dies a slow and painful death. Is that what you want?”
“I want you to leave us alone.”
“You and I have unfinished business. I have no quarrel with Vanderpol. If you want him to live you’ll meet with me.”
She felt the phone shaking against her ear. She heard her heart thundering in her ears.
“Have you slept with him?” he whispered.
Leigh disconnected and sagged against the seat.