Page 22 of Air of Seduction
“Olivia.” Her name comes out as a whisper, and tears fill my eyes.
“Help me, please!” Olivia’s voice is low.
My fingers dig painfully into my thigh until Ronan grabs my hand and braids his fingers with mine. I lift my gaze to his as tears course down my cheeks.
He points to his ear and mouthsspeaker.
“I’m trying.” My voice breaks on the last syllable. I lower the phone from my ear and press the screen to put it on speaker.
“I know. I know you are, Payton.” Olivia’s tone is firm.
My throat clogs from her solid confidence in me. No one ever believed in me while I grew up, not even my own mother. But Olivia does.
“This is Ronan. You’re on speaker. I’m helping Payton find you. Do you know where you are?”
“No. There’s no windows in this room, and I was blindfolded on my way here.”
A sob forces its way out of my mouth, and I squeeze my eyes shut. How the hell are we going to find her if we don’t know where she is?
“Do you hear any sounds? Anything unusual at all that might help us locate you.”
Noah’s voice from right above me makes my eyes pop open, and I raise my gaze to stare at him.
He’s staring down with a fierce intensity in his eyes that makes me want to shrink away from him. But then I realize he’s not looking at me. His focus is on the phone in my hand.
“Only cars driving by outside.” Olivia lets out a dejected sigh. “So, nothing unusual, no.”
Ronan puts an arm around my shoulders. “Do you know if you’re far from where you were staying yesterday?”
“Only about a five-minute walk. Do you know where I was yesterday?” The hope in Olivia’s voice makes me smile through my tears.
I nod, even though she can’t see me. “Yes, we were there this morning, hoping that you were still there.” My eyes are wide as I glance at Ronan. A five-minute walk isn’t that far, but there’s a lot of houses within that range.
Ronan’s lips curve into a smile. “Do you know in which direction you headed when you left the house last night?”
A few seconds go by before Olivia answers. “We went left after we walked out of the house, but after that I couldn’t tell you. I—” The sound of a door slamming reaches us through the phone, and the call immediately disconnects.
“No,” I whisper at the phone.
“Call her back!” Noah’s command is harsh, and I tense.
“Don’t.” Ronan puts a hand over my hand that holds the phone. “If we call her back now, we might tip Barry off that she’s talked to us. We don’t want to do that, because then they’ll leave immediately. If we go now and spread out, we might have a chance to catch them.”
“We’ve got the perimeter. I love the Internet.” Lucas holds up Erica’s hand that’s gripping her phone like they just won a boxing match.
She chuckles before she yanks her hand out of Lucas’s grip and stares at the screen. “It’s a huge area, though, with a ton of houses, even if we only focus on the half of the circle in the general direction they headed. We don’t know how fast they were walking, and perhaps what felt like five minutes to her was more like three or ten.”
“What’s the number she called from? I’ll send Callum a text to ask if there’s anything they can do to help us narrow down our search.” Aidan stands up. “But they’re driving, so I’m not sure how much they can do.”
I recite the number while Aidan types.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go.” Noah is already halfway to the door by the time he turns around. “And send me a picture of Olivia so I know who I’m looking for.” His eyes narrow on mine.
I nod. “I will.”
“And to the rest of us.” Lucas gives me a warm smile before swinging his gaze to Ronan. “Ronan can help you. He’s got our numbers.”
We all file out of the room and head down to the parking garage, and I suddenly remember what happened after our last excursion to find Olivia. An image of the somewhat medieval interrogation room pops into my mind, and I shudder. The whole thing could have been worse, I suppose, but I’ve seen more violence in the last few days than I have in the last ten years, and I know there’s more to come.