Rescued by the Billionaire CEO Teaser!
Jason pulled up in front of the DeWinters’ gate almost a half hour early and buzzed for entry. He could have used his key card, but figured this way, at least the household would know he was here before ringing the doorbell so early.
He’d been awake since six and ready by six-fifteen, then had forced himself to sit in his office and do some work while he waited, chafing at the delay. Finally he’d had enough, and had taken off.
“Yes?” His sister’s voice sounded through the intercom.
“It’s Jason.”
Her “Jason, oh, thank God!” response warned him something wasn’t right, and he drove the distance from the gate to the main house at a speed the long, curving driveway wasn’t intended for.
Mei-li opened the front door before Jason could ring the bell. “She’s not here,” she said, her face set in lines of worry.
Dirk was right behind his wife, and his expression matched hers. “Hannah says she saw Alana from her bedroom window this morning, heading off the grounds dressed in jogging clothes. But that was almost ninety minutes ago, and she’s not back yet.”
Jason knew a half-dozen things could have prevented Alana from returning by now, from leg cramps to a hit and run. But those reasons flashed into his mind and were almost immediately discarded. “The beacon,” he asked urgently. Did you activate it?”
“No, not yet. I—”
An alarm suddenly sounded and Jason cursed under his breath, pushing past his sister and her husband, heading for the security room he’d designed when the DeWinters had built this house. “That’s the beacon,” he threw over his shoulder. “Alana must have set off the transmitter herself.”
Three minutes later Jason was in his Jaguar racing down Mount Austin Road, listening to the electronic blips of Alana’s portable GPS tracking device getting louder and louder as he gained on whatever vehicle was carrying her. He couldn’t see it yet; he just knew it was somewhere ahead of him, but close. He hit the Bluetooth button on the Jag’s steering wheel.
When the disembodied electronic female voice asked him, “By number or by name?” he barked, “By number.”
“Number please.”
“Five.” One was his father’s cell phone. Two was his mother’s. Three was Mei-li. He’d skipped four when programming his speed dial because four was an unlucky number and no one wanted to be “four.” Five was his second-in-command of RMM, Cam Mackenzie.
When Cam answered, he stated, “Someone has Alana. And if my theory is correct, it’s the same triad that abducted her before—the Eight Tigers. Only this time I think she was deliberately targeted.”
He rounded a bend at a speed that in a regular car would have caused the tires to squeal, but the Jag held the road steady. The electronic beeping was louder now, and in the distance Jason saw a white van. He accelerated until he was almost on the van’s tail.
“What makes you think—”
He cut in. “I’m in pursuit now. White van, not new, not too clean.” He rattled off the make, model and license plate number. “Probably stolen plates like all the others, but run it just the same.”
“Will do. What else?”
“My sister was going to call the police, but she doesn’t know about the van. Call Detective Inspector Lam of the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau. Tell him everything.”
“Everything?”
Jason smiled to himself at the doubtful note in Cam’s voice. “Everything.”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a dark car pulling up alongside him on the right, as if to pass. But they weren’t passing. The passenger side window of the Mercedes was rolled down and the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle was protruding from it.
He cursed and stomped on the brakes, shifting into neutral at the same time so the Jag wouldn’t stall out, as a hail of bullets shattered his right and left side windows almost simultaneously.
“Jason! That was gunfire! Are you under attack?” Cam demanded.
But Jason didn’t have time to answer. And he didn’t have time to thank God he’d slowed just enough so the bullets hadn’t passed through him, too, because the Mercedes was swerving into his lane, trying to force him off the road. He cursed again and fought to keep the Jag under control as the larger car made contact with a thump and a sickening shriek of metal on metal.
And as he was pushed farther and farther toward the edge of the cliff, Jason knew with awful certainty this wasn’t a fight the Jag was going to win.
RESCUED BY THE BILLIONAIRE CEO, Copyright © 2017 by Amelia Autin Lam
August 2017
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