Page 5 of Going Down Hard
Chapter Two
Stone pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head as he bent forward and gaped through the windshield. “Jesus.”
If he didn’t know better, he’d think he’d driven onto a movie set.
The town of Sapphire Falls looked picture-perfect, and he didn’t know whether to be thankful the place was so tiny or curse the lack of anonymity a place this small would afford Sophie.
Chip had locked down her location through her rental car. Luckily for them, it had a GPS tracker fitted and they were able to pinpoint her exact whereabouts with ease. Of course, iftheycould, so could Henry George Hagar.
Although Chip seemed to the think the brains behind the hack into Landlocked’s system was the kid they’d hauled out of bed yesterday…or was it the day before?
He shook his head. Didn’t matter. Right now he had to set eyes on Sophie.
He’d hit LA, cleared customs and called Ford, only to be told to turn right back around and hop on another plane—ticket waiting for him at the counter—to Nebraska. On arrival in Omaha, he’d switched his phone on to find a message telling him a rental SUV was waiting, and to hightail it to a place called Sapphire Falls.
His phone rang, vibrating against his hip where it was wedged in his pocket. Tapping the device wrapped around his right ear, Stone answered, “Yeah.”
“Find her yet?” His boss wasn’t one for pleasantries, especially on a job with an element of urgency, and getting to Sophie was definitely an immediate necessity.
“Just hit town,” Stone responded. He eased off the gas to avoid rear-ending the car in front of him.
“You drive like an old lady,” Ford growled. “I want eyes on her. Chip thinks he’s found Hagar. The stupid asshole used a credit card to pay for a hotel room on the outskirts of Omaha.”
“When?” Stone had driven out of Omaha about two hours earlier.
“Thirty minutes ago.”
“So he’s behind me?” That seemed unlikely. The guy had been on the same plane to LA as Sophie, while Stone had been a day behind. Surely he hadn’t lost her? They couldn’t be that lucky.
“Yeah, but I’m thinking he’s either headed your way, or he’s already been and gotten the lay of the land. All our research shows Sapphire Falls is a teeny-tiny blip on the map.”
“If that,” he muttered, while scanning the main street.
“Our perp is going to want to get at Sophie without drawing attention, and he can’t do that in a town like Sapphire Falls without a plan.”
Stone agreed. Ifhewere doing the stalking, he’d scope out the place—and his target—retreat to a safe location to decide on his strategy, then return to execute the plan at a time when the least amount of people would be around.
“Do we know how’s he finding her?” Stone asked. “Chip said he wasn’t on her flight out of LA, so he can’t have tailed her here. Even if he caught a plane after hers using one of his aliases, there hasn’t been enough time for him to make it to Sapphire Falls then back to Omaha and rent a room. Unless hewason her plane out of LA this morning and we haven’t figured out his new identity.”
“Hmm… Hang on a sec.” Ford put him on hold and Stone maneuvered the car around a truck parked half at the curb and half on the road.
He drove on, following the GPS instructions to the Rise & Shine, and waited for his boss to get back on the line while his instincts told him they were missing something.
“We’ve got a problem.” Ford’s voice boomed in his ear.
Stone’s spine stiffened and his gut rolled with dread. “What?”
“Chip said the room charge was done over the net, so Hagar could be anywhere.”
“Like here.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yep.”
Fuck. “Did we get a good headshot of this prick yet?” Stone needed a face. Until he knew exactly who he was looking for, everyone was a potential threat and so far the man had donned several different disguises from blond to black hair, blue to brown eyes, he was like a chameleon. Add in Sophie’s original vague description and they still weren’t sure who they were looking for.
“I’ll email the best ones we’ve got.”
“Thanks.”
