Then D.J. s.h.i.+fted slightly so that he was looking more directly at him. "I didn't mean to zone out on you. I promised you answers. Ask away. I'll tell you what I can."

Translation: he'd hide as much information as he could. Jerk.

"Are you in the military?"

"No."

Cody tried again. "But you carry weapons because you need them close at hand."

"Yep."

Okay, enough was enough. He'd tried to be patient, but this was no game they were playing. His temper, while normally slow to heat up, burned hot when it finally ignited. Frustration had him slamming his fist against the steering wheel.

"d.a.m.n it, D.J., just answer the f.u.c.king questions! Reggie's my best friend and the closest thing to family I have. If you've sucked her into some kind of criminal s.h.i.+t, I will come after you."

The b.a.s.t.a.r.d actually laughed, which just p.i.s.sed Cody off even more. He cut across three lanes to pull off at the next exit, ignoring the squeal of tires and the blare of horns from other cars. He drove into a service station and parked.

Climbing out of the cab, he stomped around to the pa.s.senger side and waited for D.J. to join him. He had no doubt the man could pound him into dust, but he'd get in a few good licks of his own before he was down and out.

To his surprise, D.J. held up his hands in surrender.

"Sorry, you're right. I shouldn't have laughed. But, d.a.m.n, you remind me so much of myself at times. Let's top off the tank and see if we can get a map of the area. While we're here, we'll pick up a couple of drinks and something full of grease and sugar to eat. Once we're on the road again, I'll start at the beginning."

"Fine, but you better have some d.a.m.n good answers."

He was glad they'd bought a sack full of cold drinks and snack food. After all the talking D.J. had been doing, his throat was dust dry and his stomach was growling.

Right now Cody seemed content to mull everything over, but the questions would be starting up again soon. It had taken the kid awhile to get past the idea that D.J. wasn't spinning some yarn straight out of an urban-fantasy novel.

Once that had happened, his questions had been right on target. He now knew more about the world of the Paladins than anyone outside of the organization. All D.J. could do was wait to see what his companion would do with his newly acquired worldview.

Cody polished his second sports drink and shoved the bottle back in the plastic bag. "So I'm really like you?"

"Yeah, you are. I should've picked up on it that first night, but I had other things on my mind."

Like getting naked with Reggie, but he left that part unsaid.

"That stack of papers you shredded was a history of the Paladins."

That answered one of D.J.'s own questions. He'd suspected that Reggie wasn't the only one who'd read at least part of Brenna's report.

"Yeah. I'll give you another copy when we get through all of this."

Now the hard part. "You're not going to like what I say next, but believe me it's for the best. When we reach the warehouse, I'm going in alone."

"But-"

D.J. cut off Cody's protest. "I won't take an untrained Paladin into a situation like this. For Reggie's sake, I can't afford to divide my attention, but that doesn't mean you won't play an important role. Devlin has a couple of my buddies on the way. If all this goes south, I'll need you there to bring them up to speed."

Cody nodded but was obviously not happy about it. "You think things have gotten worse, don't you?"

"She hasn't called back. So either they found the phone or she's somewhere the phones don't work. Neither option is good."

D.J. signaled and moved to the right. "This is our exit. Once we're off the highway, we'll break out the weapons. Then I'll scout out the place so I'm not going in blind. Once I've got the layout and the current status, I'll put in another call to Devlin and the backup team."

"Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds better not have hurt her."

D.J. knew just how he felt. It was time to let Cody know how the game was played in the Paladin world.

"Scaring her was enough. They're already dead. They just don't know it yet."

There was a new maturity in Cody's eyes when he looked in D.J.'s direction. "Good. I can't wait for you to tell them."

Chapter 9.

Reggie braced herself for another confrontation with her captors. She'd thought the guy was back to look for his cell phone, but he hadn't mentioned it.

"You're coming with me. The man wants to see you."

She stayed seated. "Tell him I'm not interested. I've been pretty tied up today and don't have time for idle chitchat."

Okay, smarting off probably wasn't the brightest thing she could do, but it wasn't in her to submit meekly to the whims of her unidentified kidnappers. She half-expected to be smacked for her impertinence, but instead he simply marched in, grabbed her arm, and jerked her to her feet.

She'd have bruises from his grip, but she didn't complain. He dragged Reggie across the warehouse toward the cl.u.s.ter of men standing near the bottom of the stairs. She recognized the two men who'd abducted her and the two long-haired strangers who'd prevented her escape.

But it was the fifth man who really caught her attention. It was clear by the body language of his companions that he was the alpha dog in the group. He wasn't particularly tall or handsome; in fact, at first glance he appeared to be perfectly ordinary. But then he turned his attention in her direction.

Reptilian-that was the only word she could think of to adequately describe his gaze. In that one instant, she felt as if she'd been weighed, measured, and marked as a total disappointment. His lip curled slightly as he took in her disheveled appearance.

She forced herself to stare back, refusing to look cowed or apologetic. Those tailored clothes he wore wouldn't look so hot either if he'd been kidnapped, drugged, and thrown in the back of a truck. She jerked her arm free and threw her shoulders back.

"Who the h.e.l.l are you?" she demanded. "I want to make sure I give the police the right name when they get here."

The b.a.s.t.a.r.d laughed. "No one is coming for you, Reggie. You don't mind if I call you Reggie, do you? We're going to be spending so much time together, it's only right that we use first names. You can call me-"

He seemed to hesitate over what name to give her. "Ray. Just plain Ray."

"Your parents must have really hated you to call you that, Just Plain Ray, but then I can see why they felt that way."

One of the others made the mistake of laughing. She glanced back to see that it was the one whose phone she'd stolen. Ray glared at him.

"Carl, you might want to remember who pays you."

Then Ray's hand whipped out and smacked Reggie's cheek with a loud crack. The pain was instantaneous. She couldn't stop the tears from falling but stood her ground.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she asked the question that had been bothering her since all this had started. "What could you possibly want with me? I'm nothing special. I'm not rich and I have no family to pay a ransom."

Ray studied her for a few seconds before answering. "I like your honesty, but I have it on good authority that you're second to none when it comes to computers."

He edged closer. "In fact, you managed to breach the security of the organization I work for. If it hadn't been for pure d.a.m.n luck, we'd never have picked up on it at all."

"You work for the Regents?" she blurted out and immediately wished she hadn't. Ray nodded as if she'd just confirmed something for him.

"You slipped in and out, smooth as silk."

She didn't appreciate the approval in his voice. "I didn't do any damage. I was hunting for somebody. That's my job."

"Well, you have a new job now. If you're successful, eventually you'll return home, alive and unharmed."

Ray pegged each of the other men with a hard stare as he said that last part, but that didn't mean they would listen. Right now his men might nod like the dutiful little lackeys they were, but would they keep their hands to themselves when he wasn't around to police their actions?

"What's the job?" Reggie asked.

"You'll find out soon enough. Suffice it to say that I have need of your finely honed computer skills to do a little recovery work for me."

He looked past her toward Carl. "Take her back. We leave in fifteen minutes."

She didn't wait to be dragged back to that makes.h.i.+ft prison, instead walking there on her own. With luck, she'd have time to call D.J. again. She'd try to slip the phone in her pocket when they left, too, and hope her friends could use it to follow.

G.o.d, she hoped so. If Ray and company had any intention of letting her live, they wouldn't have let her see their faces. The man hadn't bothered to deny who it was he worked for either. The Regents might be secretive, but that didn't mean they couldn't be found again. She'd already done it once.

"Get in there."

She did as she was told, mainly hoping he'd lock the door and take off again. As soon as he was out of sight, she pulled out the phone and dialed.

D.J. answered on the first ring. "Thank G.o.d. Bring me up to speed."

She kept it succinct. "We're leaving this warehouse in fifteen minutes. I don't know where they're taking me, but it's to do some hacking for them. There's a guy here who works for the Regents. His name is-"

Before she could finish her sentence, the door flew open and Carl stormed in. The first thing he did was knock the cell phone from her hand. Then he shoved her hard, sending her stumbling back into the rusty shelving.

"Stupid b.i.t.c.h, are you trying to get us both killed? Who the h.e.l.l were you talking to?"

Reggie shot him a smug look, hoping it was convincing. "The police. They're already on their way."

Of course, she had no idea where she was, so even if she had called them, they wouldn't have located her that quickly.

"Yeah, right." He checked the phone to see the last number dialed. Luckily for her, it looked like the phone had broken when it hit the concrete floor.

He cursed and threw it back at her. "d.a.m.n it, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d is going to kill me for this."

Carl took off at a dead run, yelling for his boss. Reggie straightened up, rubbing her arm where it had collided with the shelving. She checked the phone to see if it was completely dead. Hopefully the impact had only jarred a contact loose.

Quickly prying the back off, she pulled out the battery and reinserted it. Then she checked the hinge. The break must be in there because as she wiggled it, the screen flashed on and off. She tried dialing again.

"Reggie?"

D.J. said more but she was only getting bits and pieces. She tried adjusting the fit of the broken hinge, but with only marginal success. The shouting out in the warehouse was growing louder. Time was definitely running short. Then a shot rang out. A scream was cut off midbreath when the gun fired a second time.

"Oh, G.o.d!" Obviously Carl hadn't been kidding.

Reggie instinctively moved farther into the storeroom, trying to put some distance between herself and the horror outside the door. If Ray didn't hesitate to kill one of his own men, she didn't stand a chance.

Ray's voice rang out. "Get the b.i.t.c.h in the truck and take her to the lava caves. Haul a.s.s or the rest of you will join Carl."

Lava caves? That didn't even make sense. But she had mere seconds, at best, to convey the situation to D.J.

"I hope you can hear this. They're moving me now to some caves. The phone's not working right, but I'll keep trying."

Rather than risk losing the phone altogether, she hung up and shoved it in her pocket. Then she picked up a piece of sc.r.a.p metal and used it to sc.r.a.pe the words "lava caves" in the wall to the left of the door where her captors wouldn't immediately see it.

Then there was nothing left to do but wait.

D.J. slammed the phone down and drove like h.e.l.l. They were minutes away from the site pinpointed by the GPS chip in the cell phone Reggie had used. At worst, the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds were already on the run, leaving him no signal to follow.

What the h.e.l.l had happened? One minute Reggie had been coming in loud and clear. The next, he'd heard a man hollering and then a crash, as if the phone had been dropped, followed by silence. When the phone had rung again, the reception had been p.i.s.s poor. All he'd caught was something about being on the move.

Ignoring speed limits, he drove like a madman, trying to reach the warehouse in time.

"Turn left at the next corner. The place should be on the right."

D.J. did as instructed, bringing the truck to a tire-squealing halt halfway down the block, near a run-down warehouse. There was no truck in sight. No sign of anyone at all, and the security gate was wide open. Either they were already gone or it was a trap. He was betting on the former, but he drove forward slowly, knowing appearances could be deceiving-and deadly.

Cody crumpled up the map and tossed it behind the seat. "Looks like we missed them."

"Maybe." D.J. considered their options. "Wait here while I scope out the place. I'll wave you in if it's safe. Otherwise, you keep the truck running and your finger on the speed dial on my phone. The first number listed is Devlin Bane. Tell him who you are and what's happening. He won't steer you wrong."

Cody's eyes were huge behind his gla.s.ses, but at least he didn't argue. D.J. picked up the revolver he kept under the front seat and stepped out of the truck. There was no cover that would keep his approach hidden, so he took off at a ground-eating lope and hoped he'd make it to the door before being spotted.

The warehouse was dark and empty-looking. He waved to Cody, who immediately drove into the parking lot, stopping just short of where D.J. stood.

"The place looks deserted."

The kid looked sick. "Then how will we find her?"

"We've managed to get this close. Don't give up yet."

He grabbed two flashlights from the truck and handed one to the kid. "You go right. I'll go left. Then we'll both go upstairs."

Cody pulled himself together and followed D.J. inside the cavernous interior of the warehouse. Each of them swung the narrow beam from their flashlight in wide arcs, looking for any sign of what had gone down.

There! In the back corner there was something too solid to be a shadow and the wrong shape to be part of the warehouse itself. His mind was telling him exactly what he was seeing, even though he wanted to deny it. He could already taste the scent of blood and death in the stale air.