“We…we’re just coming home from the bar,” she told him. “Some guys there had the waiter deliver us drinks. We didn’t talk to them and they didn’t look familiar, but they left right after us and there’s a car behind us on the road right now. We can’t help but wonder if it might be them following us.”
She paused and took a deep breath, and his gut clenched.Damn.Someone was possibly tailing them. Could they be related to the guys they were after tonight? They tended to focus on women driving alone, but he wasn’t going to take that chance.
“Listen to me,” he told her firmly. “You go straight back to the lodge, okay? Don’t slow down and don’t pull over. If it is someone following you, they won’t try and cross the property lines. Especially if they don’t know who else might be around.”
At least, he hoped not. Truth be told, he didn’t have any confirmation that they wouldn’t. This wasn’t something they’danticipated. He hoped that the surveillance there might be enough to scare them off, but if they had come this far, there was a chance they were going to take it even further.
“Okay, we’ve still got a ways to go,” Sarah replied, her voice still trembling. “I… Are you at the lodge?”
“Not right now,” he admitted. She let out a small whimper. He hated being so far from her when she was clearly struggling so much, but there was nothing he could do about it.
“Where are you?”
Before he could reply, he heard a noise outside. He cracked the door open and saw a black SUV pulling to a halt next to his truck. Talk about bad timing…
“I’ll explain later,” he muttered to her, dropping his voice so it wouldn’t carry outside the restroom.
“Lawson, I—”
The men stepped out of the SUV—two of them. One of them whistled, calling out to anyone who might have been nearby, and they paced around the truck he’d left there as a lure.
“Listen to me, Sarah,” he told her urgently. “Tell Hannah to call Xavier and fill him in on everything that’s happening. Do it now. I’ll stay on the line with you until you get through.”
“Why?”
“Please, just trust me on this,” he begged her. “I know how it sounds. Just get her to call him, okay?”
“Sure, okay.”
She did as she was told, and, a few moments later, she told him that Hannah had Xavier on the line.
“Okay, good,” he replied as he nervously ran a hand through his hair. He glanced outside once more. One of the men was motioning toward the restroom, clearly sensing there was someone inside. “Now, get her to tell Xavier to call all the men back to the lodge. They’ll meet you there.”
“All of them? Who else is out there?”
“Everyone,” he replied. “And tell Xavier that I have our target. I’ll handle business while they make sure all of you are safe.”
“Target?” she whispered. “Lawson, are you in danger right now?”
“No,” he said quickly. “But I’m looking at two guys who are about to be. You have nothing to worry about, Sarah. You just make sure you’re safe, okay?”
He hung up before she could answer. He knew she was going to be pissed at him after she found out the details of what he and the others had done, so would the other women, but that was a problem for another time. What mattered was making sure that he pulled this off. They finally had these guys right where they wanted them, and he would be damned if he’d let them slip through his fingers.
He turned on one of the restroom taps, and then dived into a stall, stepping up on to the toilet so they wouldn’t be able to see his feet. He wasn’t going to give them the slightest heads-up as to what was going on here. There were two of them, after all, and he would need every advantage he could get.
His heart was pounding in his chest, and he wondered how long it had been since he’d last seen action like this. The adrenaline was rushing through his system, lighting up every part of him, and he clenched his fists at his sides. He was going to make them pay for what they had done, for everything they had pulled on his stretch of road. If he’d known about this before, he would never in a million years have allowed them to get away with it. But this was his chance to bring it to a close.
Or at least, start the process.
“Hello, miss?”
One of the men called out to the supposed damsel in distress as they approached the restroom. They sounded innocent in their inquiry. Helpful. Almost kind. It was a damn good ruse, hehad to give them that, even if he hated that they were clearly so well-practiced at it.
The door to the restroom opened. Lawson could see the two men entering through the crack in the stall. He braced himself. He didn’t know if they were armed, or what they were packing if they were. But he had the element of surprise, and that had to count for something.
“We saw your vehicle outside. Do you need a hand with a tire change?” one of the guys asked. The sound of the tap running was his only response.
Lawson bided his time. He needed to wait until they were right outside the stall before he made his move. He couldn’t risk missing his chance. He couldn’t risk screwing this up.