“Iam the one who made the call.” His grip tightened. “I dialed the numbers I was given.”
A small whimper escaped the base of Evie’s throat, but she refrained from moving even an inch for fear the jerk would actually pull her hair from its roots. The man shoved a scrap of paper in her face. “You wrote this yourself, no?”
Through her tears, she studied the inked digits scribbled across the paper’s white surface. The handwriting was a bit off, but that wasn’t surprising given how utterly terrified she’d felt while being forced to write it.
“Th-that’s the right number,” she confirmed softly. “I…I didn’t lie. My father…he hasmorethan enough money to cover the ransom. For me and the girls.”
She’d added that last part because there was no way she’d ever consider leaving her young students behind with these monsters.
“The man who answered said?—”
“Maybe he thought it was a scam,” Evie blurted. It was the only thing that made sense. “I get calls like that all the time, you know? Every day, in fact. People claiming to be one thing, whenreally they’re just trying to scam me out of my money. Please,” she begged, her lip starting to swell. “Please, just try the number again.”
“It is a waste of my time.”
“No!” She started to shake her head, but the fire in her scalp forced her to stop. “Please. Just…let me talk to him. If he hears my voice, he’ll know this is for real, and you’ll get your money.”
Considering this, her captor released her hair with a rough shove before grabbing Evie’s upper arm and forcing her back to her feet as he stood. Without a word, he reached behind his back, and for a brief but terrifying moment, she was sure he was about to shoot her.
Instead, the coldhearted terrorist revealed a satellite phone he’d apparently had clipped to his belt. The jerk shoved it toward her.
“Call your father,” he ordered brusquely. “The cost of your freedom is ten million U.S. dollars. Two million for each.”
For a man like her father, that amount was a drop in the bucket.
“Ten million.” Evie took the phone with a jerky nod. “Got it.”
Ignoring the trembling in her hands, she studied the keypad. “Do I just dial like normal, or…”
The man nodded but said nothing.
Okay, then.
She swallowed against the dryness in her throat as she began to dial. Very few people were privy to her father’s personal cell number. Evie, her father’s business partner, and the family attorney.
Given her father’s social status and the numerous business-related calls he received throughout the day, she couldn’t blame the man for needing control over at least one aspect of his personal life.
Evie prayed with all she had that her father would answer the call. Then, she started to put the device to her ear.
“Window.” The man gestured to the opening in the room’s outer wall before pulling her in that direction. “No signal. Must talk near window.” Positioned next to the open hole in the wall, he gave her another order.
“Speaker.”
The simple demand was understood, and after pressing the button to do as he’d asked, she held the phone between them so he could hear. Evie’s nerve endings fired on all cylinders as she waited for the ringing to begin. When it did, she held her breath and prayed.
Please let him pick up.
Several rings passed before the call was answered. The voice on the other line was the very one she’d been so desperate to hear.
“I don’t know who this is or how you got this number, but?—”
“Dad, it’s me,” she cut him off, reverting back to what she’d called him as a young child. “I-It’s Evie.” When she was met with nothing but silence, she feared the phone’s signal was still too weak. Tilting the thick antenna to face the night sky, she added, “I-I’ve been k-kidnapped.”
The stark silence that followed did little to ease her nerves. Knowing this was most likely her only shot at survival, Evie continued speaking.
“These men are holding me and my students hostage,” she explained. “Four innocent, precious little girls who desperately want to get home to their families. These men…they’re demanding you pay two million dollars for each of us. They said they’ll release us as soon as they have the money.”
The man presented her with another scrap of paper. This one with more digits.