Page 84 of Cold Silence
“Why are you doing this?” she asked.
“I suppose you deserve to know.” He cracked his water bottle open as if they were hanging out at a coffee shop instead of him abducting her. “I lost money in an investment and needed a quick infusion of cash. So I borrowed it from a loan shark. Figured I had enough time to pay it back. Didn’t work out that way so this was the best solution.”
Big long shot as far as she could see. “How did you get into the building to steal the prototype?”
“I didn’t. Julie did.”
Claire sat forward. “She what?”
“Newsflash. She doesn’t like taking second place to you all the time. She’s qualified to do your job, and you’re taking all the glory when she does all the grunt work.”
“I do my share of grunt work. A lot of things she never even sees. Besides, she never said anything.”
“She shouldn’t have to. She’s your friend. You should’ve seen it.”
He was right. If Julie was unhappy, Claire should’ve picked up on it. “I’m sorry if that happened.”
“Well, it did.” He shrugged as if he didn’t care. “But it helped me until you refused to give up the code, and the loan shark learned the device had no value without that. He demanded I figure it out or we would have to get it out of you.”
“That explains some things, but I don’t get when and why Warren got involved?”
“He was in it from the beginning. I offered him a cut if he helped us steal the software and then figure out the missing piece. But he screwed up somehow and got busted. Lost the prototype.”
“Why would he help you?”
“Simple.” A cocky smile crossed his face. “I blackmailed him.”
“With what?”
“One night he got drunk and told me he killed a guy in a boating accident and assumed this guy’s identity. He was putty in my hands after that.”
“He couldn’t have helped you tonight, so who did?”
“Loan shark’s been most helpful all along. His guy was the one who tried to haul you into the van.”
“Explains why your face isn’t bruised.”
“Couldn’t damage this pretty face.” He cackled. “My guy also gave me the chloroform and sent a guy to drive the vehicle that rear-ended you.”
“And now?”
“Now.” He shrugged. “If you don’t give me the specs tonight, I’ll kill Travis.”
She gasped.
“Yeah. Thought you’d react that way.”
“What makes you think you can kill someone as skilled as Travis?”
He went to a gun cabinet in the family room and pulled out a rifle. He aimed it at her and a red laser dot landed on her hand before slithering up her body. “I’ve won every sharpshooting contest I could enter. He doesn’t expect me, so I could take him out from such a long distance he wouldn’t even know I was there.”
She wanted to gasp again but stifled it. She couldn’t let the man she loved die. Maybe if she told Eric what he wanted she could buy time to get away.
“Give me paper and a pen, and I’ll write down the code.”
He produced a notepad and pen and looked down on her, a maniacal grin spreading over his mouth.
Chills ran down her, but she started writing. Slowly as he watched. She paused at intervals to stretch her back and pretend to rub raw wrists that she wouldn’t even want to touch.
