Johnny's dark eyes glittered with surprising emotion. "I remember."
As they stared at each other, it felt like the anger shifted, eased. Was it possible the good part of Johnny was still inside this hard, ruthless criminal?
She had to appeal to that side. "Look, you can hate me for what I did. You can hurt me. I don't care. I just need to find Hayley."
"I don't have her, Bree."
"Come into the light. Let me see your eyes."
He straightened and moved away from the desk, stopping a foot away from her. Their gazes met for a long tense moment. So many emotions ran through her. He had lied to her before. But he wasn't lying now.
"Oh, God," she whispered. "You're telling the truth. But if you don't have her, who does?"
"I don't know."
She wanted to ask him to help her, but if Johnny found Hayley, he would never give her back.
On the other hand, what choice did she have? If anyone could find the kidnapper, it was probably him.
A loud crash came from the hallway. A shout. Then a grunt and a heavy thud.
Johnny started for the desk, for the gun, but he didn’t get there.
The door burst open, and her heart jumped into her throat as Nathan barreled into the room, tackling Johnny to the ground.
Eighteen
Bree stared in shock as Nathan and Johnny fought with each other, fists flying, bodies rolling around on the ground. She wanted to help Nathan, but she couldn't do much with her hands behind her back. While she suspected Nathan had taken out whatever guards were in the hall, there would be more men coming. Johnny always had plenty of backup.
She moved toward the desk, thinking if she could find something to cut the ties, she could free her hands and get Johnny's gun, which was still on the desk. Or at the very least, she could put his gun out of reach, so he couldn’t use it on Nathan.
But she'd barely taken a step when two men rushed into the room, pulling Nathan and Johnny apart.
One of them shoved Nathan up against the wall, while the other slugged him in the face.
"Stop," she cried. "Stop."
But they weren't stopping; they were going after Nathan, and he was no match for two of them. Blood was coming out of his nose, and he grunted as one of the men slammed him in the gut.
Johnny got to his feet, blood dripping down his face as well, murderous intent in his eyes.
"Make them stop, Johnny," she begged.
"Why would I do that?" he yelled.
"Because this isn't about him; it's about our daughter." She stepped in front of him, putting herself between him and Nathan. "We need to find Hayley, and we're wasting time."
"He went after me," Johnny argued, his gaze raging. "No one goes after me."
"He thought you had Hayley. But you don't. Someone else does. Please! Nathan can help us."
She could see the battle going on in Johnny's gaze, but finally, he put up a hand.
"Stop," he said sharply.
Nathan slid down the wall as the two men backed off. She didn't know how badly he was hurt, and she wanted to run to him, but she didn't want to infuriate Johnny any further.
Nathan struggled to get up, but his right eye was swelling, and blood was still coming out of his nose.
"You always needed others to do your dirty work, Johnny," Nathan said, obviously not worried about infuriating Johnny. "Now, you stoop to kidnapping kids."
It was her turn to talk Nathan down. "Stop it, Nathan. Johnny doesn’t have Hayley."
Nathan gave her a look of utter disbelief. "He's lying. He always lied to you, and you always believed him. You're doing it again."
"He's not lying—not this time."
"He's playing you."
"I never played her," Johnny interrupted.
"You dragged her down in the mud with you," Nathan returned.
"And you couldn't stand that she picked me and not you."
"This isn't getting us anywhere," she said, cutting into their argument. "We need to bring a little girl home. Can we just focus on that?" She only gave them a second to think about it, and then she plowed ahead, turning to Johnny. "Calvin Baker made a ransom demand from Hayley's father yesterday. They met at the silos. I shot him in the shoulder. Someone else made the kill shot from a sniper position. They had to be a really good shot. They shut Calvin up before he could be interrogated. You say he's not working for you. But you can find out who he was working for, can't you? Because whoever that is has our daughter."
"I could ask some questions."
"Then do it. I don't believe this is just about me anymore," she added. "This is about revenge, and I think it's on both of us."
Johnny's hard gaze met hers. "Stay here." He took his gun off the desk and waved his men out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
After Johnny left, she ran to Nathan's side, wishing she could throw her arms around him. "I'm so sorry. We need to get you to a hospital."
"Forget about me. I'm fine."
"You're not fine."
"Doesn't matter. Do you really believe him, Bree?"
She looked into his eyes, needing him to see past his anger for Johnny. "I do. He didn't know anything until yesterday when he was questioned by the FBI. But before he comes back, I need to get my hands free. Can you help me?"
"Of course." Nathan got to his feet and ransacked the desk, pulling out a pair of scissors and cutting through the tie binding her wrists.
She shook out her hands in relief.
Nathan met her gaze. "Johnny's men kidnapped you. They tied you up and brought you here, and you want to trust him?"
"I don't have a choice. We need to fight fire with fire, and Johnny can find out who Baker was working for."
"You're making a deal with the devil."
"I know. If Johnny helps me find Hayley, he might try to take her."
"He will take her—it's not a question of might."
"Then we'll fight to get her free of him, but at least she'll be alive, and that's what's most important right now." She paused. "Do you know where we are?"
"Auto shop on Hudson," he said tersely. "I guess this is one of his businesses now."
"How did you find me?"
"Sierra told me where she thought you would be."
"She helped you? That's shocking."
"And maybe also a little too easy. Perhaps she thought Johnny would kill us, and she could get rid of us both at once." He pulled out her phone and handed it to her. "I found this in the parking lot."
"I wanted you to know I hadn't run out on you. I knew you'd come looking for me."
"I should have gone into the salon with you."
"Let's not look back." She put her phone in her pocket and glanced toward the closed door. "Where do you think Johnny went? Why did he just disappear like that?"
"Beats me," he said, wiping the blood off his face with the back of his sleeve.
"We need to get you out of here," she said decisively. "Johnny might go after you again."
"Or I'll go after him," he said darkly.
Her phone buzzed, drawing her attention away from him.
A text message.
Her heart stopped as she opened the message and saw a photo of a little girl tied to a chair, tape over her mouth, terror in her eyes, and the word daughter scrawled across it. "Oh, God." She felt sick to her stomach.
Nathan took the phone out of her hand and enlarged the picture while she fought to keep the bile from rising in her throat.
A few deep breaths put her back into control. "Any clue to where she is?" she asked.
"I think she's at Howard School."
"Is that place still around?"
"Yes. Like so many other abandoned buildings in that neighborhood."
Howard had once been an elementary school, about a mile from their high school. It had been condemned a long time ago after toxic spills from a nearby factory had infused the soil.
"Every few years, the city tries to sell it to someone," Nathan added. "But its location in a run-down industrial area and a low-income neighborhood has made developers uneasy that the area can ever be revitalized." He paused. "It's another place from our past."
She met his gaze. "We all used to go there in high school. We got into a lot of trouble there."
"It's also where Johnny beat the crap out of me."
"No," she breathed.