Page 90 of Deserving Lara
Finally, she pushed play on the program and winced as the only sound that came through the speakers was an extremely loud hum.
“What the fuck is that? I thought you were good at this shit?” Tiny grumbled.
“Chopper,” Brick said almost calmly.
“Can you trace it?” Pipe asked.
Ryan kept the mic open and opened a new tab and once again began typing furiously. She pressed her lips together and sighed as she turned the laptop around to show the others a map. “I don’t have an exact location, only where the phone last pinged.” There was a red dot on the map in the middle of a swath of blue off the West Coast.
“Ricky said there was an island,” she said.
“Shit, there are what, hundreds of islands out that way?” Tonka asked.
“Probably thousands,” Spike said grimly.
“I’m calling Tex. Maybe he has some ideas,” Brick said.
Ryan involuntarily winced.
“You know him?” Pipe asked, seeing her expression.
“Personally? No. But I may have hacked into his databases in order to find info he couldn’t…to feed to you guys,” Ryan admitted.
Surprisingly, Brick smiled. “Oh, he’s gonna want to hear all about you. What was it he said when he was trying to help us find Jas?”
“That whoever Anonymous was, he was better than him,” Tonka replied.
Ryan’s belly churned. She wasn’t sure she wanted to talk to Tex face-to-face…or phone-to-phone. He wasn’t the kind of man who would take kindly to someone else hacking into his stuff. She’d feel exactly the same.
“If we’re looking for an island, we need to get the Coast Guard involved,” Tonka said. “I still have some connections. I’ll make some calls, see what I can get rolling.”
“I’ll call the FBI. Let them know about Carter, and that Stone’s been kidnapped,” Spike said.
“And I’ll get in touch with Homeland Security. They should have the capability to track that chopper,” Pipe said.
Ryan swallowed hard as all the men around her picked up their phones and began to do what they could to find their friends. She peeked over at Tiny, only to find him glaring at her.
“What’s your name?”
“What?” she asked, surprised at the question. With everything else she’d just told them,thatwas what he wanted to know?
“Your name. The one you were born with. I want to know what it is.Now.”
“Why?” she whispered.
Tiny leaned forward, and it felt as if they were the only two people in the room. She was frozen by his icy turquoise eyes as he stared as if he could read her mind.
“Because.”
That wasn’t an answer, and they both knew it. Ryan could make up a name, she’d been doing it for years now. But for some reason, she blurted a name she hadn’t dared even think since the day she’d fled…much less said out loud. “Ryleigh. Ryleigh Lodge.”
Tiny leaned back and nodded. “Smart to keep your current name as close as possible to your real one…Ryleigh.”
That was pretty much the main reason she’d chosen Ryan. It wasn’t a typical female name, but it was as close to Ryleigh as she could get. She’d had too many close calls when she hadn’t answered to the other names she’d made up in the past.
Feeling uncomfortable, and needing some space, Ryan pushed her chair back and started to stand.
Tiny’s hand shot forward and grasped her arm. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough that if she wanted to pull away from him, it would take a bit of force. “Where are you going?”
