Man Law

by Adrienne Giordano

  “Does Gina know?”

  Vic shook his head again. “I’ll tell her. I wanted to get a line on Lily first, but with the cops coming in, we’ll have to tell her before they do.”

  “Good idea.” Mike’s voice finally cracked, a sound Vic had never experienced. Mike cleared his throat. “We have to get her back and kill this fucker. They’d better not touch one curl on her head.”

  “I don’t think they will. She’s the bargaining chip and Sirhan knows if they hurt her, I’ll come at him with everything I’ve got.”

  “Why now?”

  Vic shrugged. “He’s probably tired of the game. Particularly after we nabbed his guy at your house the other night. By now he knows we’ve got that laptop. He wants me to suffer and grabbing Lily is the start. Hell, I half expected a call already. I think he’ll suggest a trade. Me for her.” What a fucking life.

  “No.”

  “If it’ll get Lily home safe, I’ll do it.”

  Mike threw up his hands. “Let’s not get too far ahead of this thing. We have to tell Gina and we can’t do it here. She’s going to freak and I want her to be able to do that at home where she doesn’t have to face people.”

  Mike put his hands over his face and sat a minute. Vic knew he wanted to fall apart. They both did, but neither would. They’d work this out instead.

  “I’m here.” Gizmo stood in the doorway breathing a little heavy in his jeans and Pink Floyd T-shirt.

  “I can’t get a signal from her cell or the clip.” Vic shoved his phone at him.

  Giz took it, punched a couple of buttons and shook his head. “Mike, can I use your computer?”

  He logged into the system and, with his hands moving at light speed, got into some kind of database. “You didn’t get anything on the phone?”

  “No.”

  “She probably doesn’t have it on. If she did, you should have gotten something before she went indoors. If she doesn’t have a clear view of open sky, neither the phone nor the clip will work.”

  “And?” Mike asked, his voice harsh.

  Gizmo glanced at Mike, then at Vic. “I told you I was still working out the kinks on the clip. It’s not perfect yet. Still, we should be getting something.”

  He turned back to the computer. “The last reading I got from the clip was at the school at 1:56 p.m.”

  The muscles in Vic’s neck curled and he rolled his head side to side to loosen them. “I need some answers.”

  Giz suddenly squeezed his eyes shut.

  “What?” Mike asked.

  “It rained last night.”

  “Big fucking deal,” Vic said.

  “If the unit got wet, soaking wet, it probably won’t work. Maybe she stepped in a puddle or something.”

  The last morsel of GPS hope fizzled from his body. Vic stalked the office, willing his brain to work. “If this thing got wet, is there any hope it’ll dry and then work?”

  Giz shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t tested it after getting wet. I guess it’s possible.”

  “Fuck,” Vic shouted. “We’ll have to fucking wait. We’ll sit around with our thumbs up our asses and wait for a call. This is exactly what he wants. He wants me sweating this shit.”

  Fucking Sirhan. No way this asshole would get away with this. No way. He needed to be ripped apart an inch at a time.

  Mike held up his hands. “Settle down. You blowing a gasket won’t get Lily back. Let’s get Gina home and tell her before the cops or the school track her down.”

  Listening to Mike’s calm reasoning brought Vic back to sanity. Forget this emotional crap. It got in the way. He needed to become a machine again. He could do it. He could go back to his old way of thinking.

  He had to.

  “I’ll get Gina and drive her to the house.” Vic hauled ass toward the door.

  “I’ll meet you there. Make sure she doesn’t answer her cell if it rings. It might be the cops and I want her to hear it from us.”

  Gina dropped her purse on her kitchen table and kicked off her high heels, freeing her aching feet. She eyed Vic. “What’s going on?”

  She’d peppered him with questions on the ride home, and he’d been doing a good job of stalling, but she wanted to know why he’d hauled her out of work early. And, given his sour mood, it obviously wasn’t for a quickie.

  He swallowed a couple of times. “Let’s wait for Mike.”

  The immediate burst of panic flooded her brain and her thoughts moved at hyperspeed. Michael was coming. Something bad had to have happened. Why else would Michael be coming?

  The kids.

  She shoved away from Vic, turned and ran to the base of the stairs leading to the second floor. “Matthew, Jake, Lily!”

  No answer.

  From the corner of her eye she could see Vic approaching, his long strides eating up the floor as he got closer. A man with a purpose. Banging in her head drowned out any coherent thought.

  With one hand on the banister, she focused on his sad eyes. She slid to the steps because a mother always knows when something has happened to one of her children. After Danny, how much more could she possibly take? “Where are they?”

  He knelt in front of her, grabbed both her hands and squeezed. “The boys are fine. They’re with Roy at Mike’s. I wanted a few minutes alone with you.”

  The boys are fine. The words rolled around inside her, but instead of making her feel better, the realization hit. She pulled her hands free, put them over her eyes. A groan started deep in her throat.

  “Lily?”

  Vic blinked a couple of times.

  Oh no.

  The back door opened and she bolted from the step, pushed past Vic and headed for the kitchen. “Lily.”

  “It’s me,” Michael said and the moment of hope faded into the black hole it had come from.

  Michael stepped into the dining room, and he and Vic barely exchanged a glance. If either of them carried an ounce of joy, they were keeping it hidden. What happened to my baby?

  “Stop this,” Gina screamed. “Just tell me where she is.”

  She spun to her big brother, the one who’d always protected her. He’d tell her. Vic was afraid. She saw that clearly enough, but Michael would do it. “Please. Just tell me.”

  “We think Sirhan grabbed her from school,” Vic said from behind her.

  It took a second to sink in, and she stiffened against the onslaught. She whirled to him. “She’s not dead?”

  “No.”

  What did he expect her to think after her daughter had been kidnapped? “You know that for sure?”

  He scrubbed his hands over his face and sighed. “Do I have proof? No. But I don’t think he’d hurt her. Not yet. I’m figuring he’ll call me and tell me what he wants.”

  She’s not dead. A sliver of hope came up from the darkness. With it came a twirling sensation and she closed her eyes. Too fast. Spinning, spinning, spinning. Her knees gave way and she hit the hard wood floor. Resting on all fours, her hair hanging in front of her face, she focused on a groove in the wood. Stay calm. Hysterics won’t help. She’d learned this when Danny died. Panic could make her a lunatic.

  She tried to steady her quivering body. At some point she’d started crying and tears tumbled down her cheeks. Her baby had been taken. A familiar hand ran over her back, up and down, up and down, and she shifted her eyes to the right. Vic’s tasseled black shoes. He stood next to her, bent over, rubbing her back.

  “I’m okay,” she croaked. “I just need a minute and then I need you to tell me what happened.”

  Vic crouched next to her, shoved some hair from her face and held it. “I’m sorry. I can’t tell you how sorry, but we’ll get her back safe. I swear to you.”

  It sounded good, but could they do it? Then she remembered the cell phone and lifted her head. “What about her phone or the shoe clip? Can’t we find her that way?”

  “She doesn’t have the phone on and the clip isn’t working.”

  The phone wasn’
t on. It seemed ridiculous. Funny even, in some grotesque way.

  “G,” Michael said, “I know we’re throwing a lot at you, but the cops will probably be by anytime to talk to you. You need to act as if this was a random abduction.”

  Random abduction? She gave her head a shake. “What are you talking about?”

  “The school called the police. It’s important you tell them you don’t know anything. We need to get the guys out searching, and if the cops know we’re involved, they’re going to want to interview everyone and it’ll eat up time.”

  Vic’s phone rang and he snatched it from his belt. Shook his head. “It’s Billy. He’s out front.” He hit the button and street noises came through the speaker. “What’s up?”

  “Cops pulling up.”

  “Thanks.” He turned to Gina. “Showtime. You ready for this?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  He gave her a half-pitying smile. “Not really.”

  At seven o’clock, Vic strode into his office, dropped into his desk chair and booted up his laptop. The team would be here in a few minutes and they were scheduled to meet in the executive conference room. He had guys all over the street asking questions, but his team, Tiny, Roy, Monk, Billy, Bobby, Janet and Duck, would be coming in for a quick brainstorming meeting. Lily was gone and they needed to find her. That was all he knew.

  Things were fucked up.

  He shoved aside a stack of folders on the cluttered desk and set his cell phone down.

  Lily had been gone five hours and her picture was all over the news. Radio stations made announcements as well. Not a peep from Sirhan, though. The fucker was making him wait. He had to kill this asshole. Make him suffer. He’d do the government a favor and make it a freebie.

  And then, as if he’d willed it to happen, the phone rang. He stared at the screen.

  Lily.

  Adrenaline surged and he fumbled the phone when he tried to pick it up. Calm. Slow down. It might not be her. Maybe they took the phone from her.

  He cleared the clog in his throat. “Vic Andrews,” he said as if it were any other mundane call.

  “Where’s Mommy?” Lily asked.

  He nearly pissed himself. The stone-cold anger he’d been carrying around for the past hours evaporated. Holy hell, he’d never been so happy to hear someone speak.

  “Honey, where are you?”

  “Can you come get me please?”

  He almost laughed. She made it sound like a playdate that had gotten old.

  “The man you sent is very mean,” she said. “I told him I couldn’t go with him, but he picked me up and put his hand over my mouth so no one could hear me scream. I don’t understand.”

  When she started crying Vic’s intestines sank. He’d done this to her.

  “It’s going to be okay, baby. I’m sorry he was mean to you. I didn’t send him. Are you hurt?”

  “No,” she said, sniffling.

  He pumped his fist in the air. “Where are you? I’ll come get you, but I need to know where you are.”

  And why were they letting her call him? This had to be a trap.

  “I’m in an office in one of those buildings where they store stuff.”

  The warehouse. They took her to the fucking warehouse with all those weapons? Son of a bitch.

  “A warehouse?” Vic asked, just to be sure.

  “Mmm-hmm. He locked me in this office and told me to shut up. He’s very mean. He told me Mommy would come, but she hasn’t. I’m tired of waiting.”

  “So you’re alone in the office?”

  “Yes.”

  “Does the man know you have a phone?”

  Say no, Lily. Say no.

  “I don’t think so. I keep it in the side pocket of my shorts, like Justin does.”

  They hadn’t searched her. Score one for our side. Relief buzzed through him. None of those assholes had put their hands on her. She must be wearing cargo shorts. Gina had said Lily developed a case of hero worship and started dressing like Tiny.

  “Lily, you are such a smart girl. I love you for that. It’s good that he doesn’t know. Don’t tell him you have it.”

  “Okay, but I want to go home now. This place stinks like cigarettes. It’s not good for my lungs.”

  Vic snorted. He couldn’t help it. The kid had no idea how funny she was. “Okay, sweetheart, but I need you to do me a favor. Can you do that?”

  “I guess.”

  “Is there a small window in the office you’re in? Just above the filing cabinet?”

  Please be the same warehouse. She waited a minute. “Yes, but it’s high up.”

  Yes! “I know it is. I need you to hang up with me, but leave your phone on. Can you stand on the chair and hold the phone near the window?”

  She needed to get that phone as close to open sky as she could to enable the GPS.

  “I don’t want to hang up, though,” Lily said.

  He didn’t want to either, but the GPS wouldn’t work while she used the phone.

  “I know, but it’s very important. How about we try it and you call me right back?”

  She stayed quiet for a second. Come on, Lily. We need this.

  “Okay. I’ll try.”

  Bingo. “Good girl. You’re so brave. Just hang up, hold the phone to the window, count to fifty and call me back. Okay?”

  “Got it.”

  “Good. After that, I’ll tell you how to shut the ringer off. I want you to keep the phone on, but I don’t want the man with you to hear the phone ringing.”

  “All right.”

  And then she hung up. Oh, crap. Bile climbed into his throat. What if she didn’t call back? What if her captors heard her on the phone? What if the fucking battery went dead? What was he doing?

  Totally friggin’ losing it. Get it together. He tightened his forearms until they ached and released. He closed his eyes, let the breaths come. The machine had to take over. He imagined sweeping the emotional chaos into a pile and tucking it away. He’d deal with it later.

  Okay.

  Get to work.

  He shifted to his laptop, connected to the internet. Come on, come on. He clicked on the GPS website and—lo and behold—green blinking arrows.

  “Tiny,” he yelled. “Bring everyone in here.”

  Tiny rushed in. “What’s up?”

  “The GPS is working. Lily called me. She’s at that fucking warehouse.”

  Tiny stared at him, his mouth slightly open. “The one from last night?”

  “Yeah. Get Mike on the horn, tell him she called me and she’s fine. Gina needs to know she’s okay, but if I call her, she’ll bombard me with questions and we don’t need the distraction. Just make sure she knows Lily is okay.”

  Monk stormed in with the others behind him. “Hang on. What’s happening?”

  Vic started to speak, but his phone rang. Lily. He punched the speaker button. “Hi, honey. You did good. We know exactly where you are. Will you keep your phone on for me?”

  “Are you coming to get me?”

  “You bet. Tiny’s here. He’s going to come with me.”

  “Hi, Justin.”

  Tiny smiled. “Hey, squirt. You doing okay?”

  “I’m tired. I want to come home now. This man was mean to me.”

  Vic rolled his eyes. Cripes. All he needed was her going on and on and in walks the bad guy. The phone would get deep sixed and they’d move her. Nope. Couldn’t let her get caught with the phone. “Lil, there’s a button on the side of your phone. Press the bottom part and it’ll turn off the ringer. Keep pressing that button until the phone vibrates. Can you do that?”

  “Yes.”

  “And let’s not waste your battery. How about you call me every fifteen minutes so I know you’re okay?”

  “All right. But hurry. I want Mommy.”

  “We’ll hurry, honey.”

  She hung up.

  His finger wandered over the button before he finally pressed it. What if she didn’t call back?
>
  Vic bolted from his chair. “Let’s go get her.”

  Monk threw his hands up. “Hold up here, boys. What are you thinking?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Did someone hit you with a two-by-four?”

  “Hey,” Vic hollered.

  “First of all—” Monk held up a finger, “—you and Tiny are too close to this situation, and you’re not thinking straight. You don’t know shit about that setup. Lily said there was one man. How does she know there aren’t ten guys in that warehouse?”

  Vic nodded. Monk had a point. Nothing like letting emotions dictate. That had been happening way too much lately. Freakin’ Gina.

  “Second.” He held up another finger. “Tiny has never even seen this warehouse. He doesn’t know how many entry doors or windows there are, whether it’s one floor or two. And third—” another finger went up, “—it’s broad daylight. Are you just going to drive up and bust in there? Come on, man. We all want her out of there, but let’s do this right. Map it out. Plan for the unexpected and nobody gets hurt.”

  Dammit. The little bastard was right.

  “Okay. But let’s get someone over there to keep an eye on the place. If they move her and the GPS goes bat-shit, we’ll lose her again.”

  He pointed at Billy leaning against the door frame. “Run over there and hang out in that clump of trees by the back door. You’ll be able to see the garage doors and the door by the office.”

  “Got it.”

  “Let’s go into the conference room,” Vic said, hustling toward the door. “We’ll call Mike and work out a plan. Lily should be calling again in a few minutes.”

  He checked his watch. What if she didn’t call back?

  He had to get her out of there.

  Fast.

  Gina sat at her kitchen table watching Michael, in a rumpled dress shirt, analyze his dish of cold pasta. She couldn’t eat either. She’d already vomited twice. She rubbed her hand across her T-shirt and her aching stomach. Fatigue saturated her and all she wanted was sleep. She’d probably never sleep again. Not after this. Could there be anything worse than not knowing where her child was? Not even wondering if her husband was alive had topped this.

  Michael’s phone rang and she straightened. “It’s Tiny,” he said.