Framed Shadows: Shadows Landing #6, Kathleen Brooks [great novels of all time TXT] 📗

her to Curtis. I know it. I failed her.” Paxton wasn’t the only one who had failed her. Quad was so upset he was in tears. Ryker was so livid he couldn’t even talk. He simply shot off a text and took off on his own. Harper broke a potted plant in anger. Ridge smashed the other potted plant and now Paxton looked in the side mirror to find multiple cars following them.

“What’s that?” Granger muttered as he leaned forward in his seat.

Paxton looked out the window and saw two dots on the horizon. “It’s the old guys in the scooters,” he said with wonder. They’d made it miles but were now sitting by the side of the road up ahead.

Granger picked up the police radio and called in for someone to pick up both the men and their scooters as he slowed down and stopped next to them. Like a train, so did the line of cars behind them.

Paxton rolled down the window. “Thanks for trying to save her. Granger has someone coming to pick y’all up.”

“We’d do anything for Tinsley,” Mr. Gann told them.

“We were able to follow long enough to see which direction they were going once they got out of town. They took her onto Interstate 26 toward Charleston,” Mr. Knoll told them.

“Where would they take her?” Granger asked Paxton.

“It has to be the Myriad headquarters in Charleston. I have an idea. Thank you,” Paxton called out to the men as Granger took off the way Mark had gone. Paxton called into the office and waited for the secretary to answer. “It’s Kendry. Put me through to Agent Whitlock immediately.”

“Can you trust this Whitlock guy?” Granger asked.

“We’ll find out,” Paxton said as he tried to remember to breathe. He put the phone on speaker and waiting to be connected.

“This is Whitlock.”

“It’s Kendry. Mark Trevino of the FBI Atlanta gang unit just kidnapped my girlfriend from Shadows Landing. He’s dirty and working with Curtis Engle.”

“Shit,” Whitlock cursed. “What the hell is going on? Does this have something to do with your case and why your apartment was tagged?”

“I’ll fill you in, but I need to know where they’d take her in Charleston. They got on I-26 heading that way,” Paxton told him.

“Myriad headquarters is in North Charleston,” Whitlock answered immediately before giving the address.

“On it,” Granger said as he radioed in the address so Kord, and probably everyone else behind them, would know where they were going within seconds.

“Give the summary,” Whitlock ordered. It was a leap of faith as Paxton told Whitlock everything. Peter trusted him and that would have to be enough.

“I wish you’d have told me this sooner,” Whitlock told him as Paxton heard the unmistakable sound of him running through the office yelling at his team.

“There was already one FBI agent under Curtis’s pay. I didn’t know who I could trust. I’m sorry, Whitlock.”

“I didn’t say that I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me. My team will meet you at the old chemical warehouse. It’s abandoned, in the industrial district, and about three miles from the Myriad headquarters . Do you know the one?”

“This is Sheriff Granger Fox,” Granger answered for Paxton. “I know the plant, but I know a better, more secure place to meet. Tinsley Faulkner’s cousin is Ryker Faulkner. Let’s meet at his shipping company. We’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Ryker Faulkner? Damn, this just got worse,” Whitlock cursed again before hanging up.

Paxton sent off a flurry of texts. First to the entire Faulkner family, then to Peter, and finally to Cy Davies.

We’re already on our way.

It was hard. Paxton wanted to run straight to the headquarters in the house that they knew was a Myriad hangout and find Tinsley. Even in his anger, in his grief, and in his guilt he knew that was the wrong move. Curtis would shoot her before they even breached the property. He had to be smart about this, which is why he’d texted Cy.

“Breathe, Paxton. We’ll get her back,” Granger told him, but Paxton wouldn’t breathe easily again until he made sure that Tinsley was safe or he’d died trying.

26

Tinsley watched the North Charleston landscape as they drove down the main road that traversed North Charleston. North Charleston’s crime rate was the highest for the area. It was a mix of hard-working people and people like Curtis Engle who came in with their drugs and guns, flashing money around. In turn, it kept some of the neighborhoods literally in the line of fire.

Tinsley knew they planned to kill her. Mark hadn’t hidden his identity. He hadn’t blindfolded her either. She was going to die the second she was no longer of value to them. She had to find a way to appear to cooperate in order to get free and then take her chances with escaping.

Thanks to her family, Curtis’s Atlanta empire was crumbling. He’d lost his drugs, his guns, and half of his stolen paintings. She was his only chance of surviving. If he lost all of the paintings, it wouldn’t only be the FBI and police after him. It would also be the Argentinian mafia who had hired him to fence the art. Tinsley knew Mark was also hanging by a thread, but something told her Curtis might be her shot at escaping. She just had to walk the balance of being cooperative yet still indispensable.

Mark turned left before they reached I-526. They crossed over Bloom Drive and headed for the marsh that lined the Ashley River. She didn’t ask Mark where they were going as the landscape turned from residential to industrial. Mark finally slowed as he turned onto a gravel drive leading to a metal box of a building up on stilts that jutted out over the marsh.

Mark honked and the metal sheeting serving as a garage door was pushed open. Mark drove under the building and the sheeting was lowered back down. Two armed men approached as Mark got out of the car.

“Grab her,” Mark ordered