Read Online Hunted by Kaylea Cross - Free Book Online Page B

myself.”
    Struggling to suppress the snap in her temper, Zoe let out a deep breath. “You wanna come with me then?” Unfortunately that held none of the sexual innuendo she would have liked.
    “Yeah, I’ll go.”
    At least he cared enough to be concerned about her safety. She just wished it wasn’t because of his loyalty to Tuck. “Then you have to stay out of sight when I meet her. If you screw this up and she runs, I swear to God I’ll—”
    He snorted. “I’m pretty good at the whole staying out of sight thing,” he said, his bland tone pointing out that he was a former SEAL.
    “Fine.” Shouldering her purse, she started past him and down the stairs, actually relieved that she’d have him nearby. “Let’s get moving. I don’t wanna be late.”

 
     
     
Chapter Five
     
     
    Carlos pulled into the rest stop off the highway, parked in the shadows near a group of trees far away from any other vehicles, and cut the engine. Two minutes later, headlights appeared in his rearview mirror. The car turned into the rest stop, drove slowly toward him and parked to the right of his truck. He verified that the driver was who he’d been expecting, then got out. The smell of hot pavement and fresh cut grass swirled around him as he rounded the back of the truck.
    Standing beside the car, his contact acknowledged him with a nod.
    Carlos didn’t bother with any social niceties. With a man like this they weren’t expected anyway. “Did you find anything?”
    Gill, an Indian immigrant in his early twenties, glanced around to verify that no one was watching or listening in before responding. “Her cell phone was deactivated this evening around six p.m.,” he said in a strong accent. “I can’t tell if she merely turned it off, or if she’s permanently disabled it. She might have bought a new one, or a throw away phone.”
    “You could’ve told me all that over the phone,” Carlos growled, growing impatient. The longer Leticia had in terms of lead time, the harder it would be for him to find her. “What else have you got?”
    Gill stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I traced her bank account activity. She withdrew two thousand dollars cash from her account at a downtown bank two hours ago. No credit card activity since yesterday and if she’s paying cash now it’s going to make her harder to track.”
    Carlos’s hands tightened into fists at his sides. He’d put that money in her account last week to help her pay for her kid’s fucking braces. Now she was trying to use it to escape him. By trying to support her financially and be a nice guy, he’d given her the means to run. “What else?”
    Gill reached through the open driver’s side window and withdrew something. A file. “I printed off a copy of her phone records for the last month. I took a look through it, highlighted numbers that seemed to keep coming up. See if you recognize any of them, and if the patterns make sense to you.”
    Carlos took the file and started scanning the contents, but there was really only one thing he was interested in. He flipped to the last page and read the final bit of the log. One series of texts and an incoming call jumped out at him immediately. He didn’t recognize the number but the communication had taken place around four, two hours before her phone was deactivated. And it was also the last number she’d contacted. “Start with this one,” he told him. “Find out who it is, get an address or place of work if you can.”
    Carlos immediately began searching through the rest of the pages for the number. Her mother’s number came up a few times, as did her work and two of her friends’ numbers. The unfamiliar one was there too. It showed up from time to time over the past month. Nothing too overt, but clearly Leticia knew the person well enough. If he found out it was another man who’d been trying to lure her away, Carlos would kill him.
    He exhaled to ease the pressure in his chest cavity. “She’s