He held up a hand as a rush of protectiveness filled him. Jac’s sister had a way of doing that to people in general. She looked like she could break so easily. “About fifteen from here. With the rest of our team. We have a problem.”
“Is she hurt?” Nat hopped to her feet quickly. The dogs rose and came to her immediately. He didn’t know if she’d given them a signal or not. Not that it mattered. Sometimes he thought the animals read her mind.
He shook his head. Damn, she reminded him so much of his own baby sister, or his daughter. It was no wonder Jac had gone a bit around the bend wanting to protect her. For a moment, he hesitated, uncertain whether he was about to do the right thing.
How much of this could Nat take?
“Two agents were abducted from Smokey’s parking lot three nights ago. Jac witnessed the whole thing but couldn’t stop it. Agent Toliver, the woman taken, she’s a close friend of your sister’s. We found the van used in the abduction, and we think they were dragged off on foot. They’re in these woods somewhere near here. But we can’t be sure. We need dogs, while other teams focus on possible vehicles. And we need them faster than either PAVAD or the other locals can manage. Can Kudos and Karma work?”
She bit her bottom lip, then looked at the two dogs, who’d perked up at their names.
“Yes. They can. If someone can handle them.”
“Can you do it?”
She hesitated for another moment, then looked toward the window. “Why were they taken?”
“We don’t really know. Yet.”
“Let me grab my jacket. It’s in my bag. If Jac... Jac can work Kudos. He likes her.”
“Ok. I’ll call my boss. Let her know we’re coming.”
“And Jac. Better call Jac. She’s not going to be too happy about this.”
“Let me handle your sister. I’ve done it before.” He winced inside as he said it. Jac might be the quiet, unassuming type—much like her baby sister—but she was fierce where Nat was concerned. Extreme.
And he’d just violated her trust, big time.
It was going to take her a while to forgive him.
He just hoped it was worth it in the end.
EIGHT
CHAS ENJOYED HIS downtime immensely. He’d looked up his old friend Hollace, but the other man had had to work. They’d made plans to meet up at some cop bar near where Hollace worked the day after next. He was looking forward to it.
Hollace had cared for Amelia, too—in that big-brother kind of way. It would be nice to have someone to talk to who understood.
Chas was thinking it was time to move past what had happened. Find something more fulfilling than what he’d done recently.
Moving on.
He could find someone to settle down with. He was financially stable. He wasn’t the type to play around on the women in his life.
It had been five years since Amelia and the baby had died.
Maybe it was time.
Time to stop being so invisible—at least with just one person.
It would be nice to have someone out there who cared whether he came home or not.
Now it was time for the second stage of his new assignment.
Today was not to kill, today was to cause fear. Confusion.
He would finish here in Springfield today. Then he would make the drive back to St. Louis in time to relax for a while.
Maybe he’d even go to the mall. Find himself a new computer game. Something to make him forget just for a little while.
NINE
SHANNON DIDN’T KNOW how long she could keep doing this. They were going to figure out that she was feeding them false information soon. If she slipped up, even once...they’d kill Ezra.
Without hesitation.
She didn’t know what else to do.
A strange sense of calm descended around her. Shannon could do this.
It was their last shot.
“I’ll do it! Just...stop hurting him all the time.” She looked at Ezra, where they had him stretched out between them. Kicking him. Jim held a gun. That was all it had taken to make her comply.
Shannon bit back the nausea. There was a look in his eyes she didn't even want to think about.
Disappointment.
But if he believed she'd betray her friends at PAVAD, then maybe the idiots holding them would, too. It was her last shot.
And she knew it. She deliberately slumped forward. Defeated. This was what they’d really wanted. "You'll let us go? Both Ezra and me? I just log you into the PAVAD system and you take a look. Then Ez and I walk out of here? You'll give me your word?"
The one she'd mentally labeled Goon One smiled. Full of total BS. "Of course. You'll make it home just in time for the evening news."
"Nobody watches the evening news. At least not on the television. It's going obsolete. So you swear?"
"Want me to get out a Bible?"
"It probably wouldn't hurt." She pulled in a deep breath and stepped closer to the computer. "I'll do it. But only if they go into another room. They need showers. They stink and it's starting to become overwhelming."
He smirked and lifted a hand to her cheek. Shannon tried not to flinch. It wasn't easy. He’d struck her so many times before. "I knew we'd made the right choice with you. You learn so quickly. You have a deal."
She waited until Larry, Curly, and Moe left. Then, after one more look at Ezra, she settled in front of the computer.
"Tell me exactly where you want in."
"I want case files. From March of last year. And then you're going to get me one from August, eighteen years ago."
That didn't make any sense to her at all. "Anything else I can go on? That old case won't be in PAVAD's database."
"No. I'll give you detailed instructions when it's time." He smiled again. "But first, you're going to log me in to the Human Resources database and get me some information on the following people. I want addresses and names of their next of kin. As insurance."
TEN
MAX FOLLOWED JAC’S little sister as she worked the dogs, keeping his big mouth shut. Nat was so fragile right now. She brought up every protective urge he had, similar to how his eight-year-old daughter made him feel. It was the eyes that did it.
Nat had the same soul-stealing eyes as her sister.
No wonder Jac wasn’t too happy with him right now.
Combined with the vulnerability Nat couldn’t hide—or the scars—and no wonder people wanted to just protect.
Still, they had to use every tool they had. And whether Jac liked it or not, Nat was a tool they needed.
It was a last-ditch effort, and they all knew it.
Nat worked the larger of the two dogs. Jac held the female at her own side. She waited patiently.
Until Max got to her and said her name.
That’s when he saw the anger. The betrayal. Jac had never been one to mince words. “We’ll talk later. After we find Shannon and Ezra.”
He nodded.
“You shouldn’t have involved Nat. She’s not ready for this.”
“I think she is.” Even if she wasn’t, Max didn’t see too much of a choice. They needed a way to know if Shannon and Ezra had been dragged off the highway near the mile marker where the van had been found, or if they had been put into another vehicle. A vehicle PAVAD would know nothing about.
In the damned Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas.
And thunder cracked in the distance. Any tracks the dogs or the trackers would be able to find in the soft ground around them would be obscured in a heavy storm. That was even if the dog was a good enough tracker to keep a trail in the rain.
He refused to let his fear for his friends paralyze him. They had to keep their wits.
It was the only choice he had. “I’m sorry, Jac. I had to.”
He’d never forget the look she gave him. It was the first time she’d ever looked at him like she didn’t trust a word that he said.
ELEVEN
EZRA WOULDN’T LOOK at her. Shannon did
n’t know if that was a good thing or not. If she looked at him, how much would she betray?
They weren’t sophisticated abductors, by any means.
She’d spent a lot of time profiling them.
Jim was a pervert who got off on hurting women. She didn’t know what his connection to the other men was, but there was one.
Maybe familial to the man in charge. The one Ezra had dubbed Supreme Asshole. It would explain why the man kept Jim around even though he was obviously impatient with him more than not.
The other two men were no doubt Jim’s friends. Brothers, she thought. They shared similar speech patterns, tones, and facial structure. From what she could see. They all kept the masks on whenever they were in the room.
Thankfully, that wasn’t all that often. Just Supreme Asshole coming and going. And making his demands.
But...they were truly bizarre. Some of the things he’d wanted her to do weren’t adding up. She was half -certain he didn’t even know what he was wanting half the time.
It made it easier for her to misdirect when he could.
Information was gold in this world. She knew that. And that was why he had taken her.
To get access to the information she had. Information she could get for him. But none of what he wanted made sense to her.
How in the hell was he going to use what she was giving him?
Shannon was afraid to think of the various possibilities.
Or how much longer it would be before he realized that the information she was feeding him was as fake as his accent.
Jim leaned closer. “Shannon...you’re being a good girl, right? I really hope you’re not.”
Supreme Asshole clubbed him across the head lightly. “Quit thinking with your underwear. There are bigger things at play here. If she misbehaves, then she’s all yours. Leave her alone until then.”
Some comfort then.
Shannon had been misbehaving all along.
TWELVE
MAX WAS NEXT to where Carrie Lorcan waited with her small team of computer magicians. He didn't know what they hoped to accomplish in the Ouachita Mountains, but she had an impressive team with her. Waiting. None of it made a lick of sense to him—computers were for checking email and playing games. He appreciated those with the skills necessary to use them for investigative purposes, like Jac, but that just wasn't him.
He looked at her. Having his best friend and partner not talking to him rubbed a bit raw. When this was over, he'd be doing some groveling. No doubt about that.
Jac still had Kudos with her, and she handled the dog with some serious skill. He hadn’t known she could do that. Her sister was at least two miles deep into the woods, trying to pick up the trail they'd lost an hour earlier.
Jac had been torn between working the second dog or staying with their team. He had no doubt she wanted to be with her sister, but her job was with her team. The decision had split her in two, no doubt. Nat was the only family Jac had ever claimed to have.
Nat wasn't exactly on her own. Cam Lake and Sebastian Lorcan and more than half a dozen other agents had followed her. For someone not associated with PAVAD, she was doing a good job. He wouldn't have thought that dog she worked was capable of what she was. But both Nat and Jac were insistent that Karma was the best. Kudos was the second best. They were holding him back in reserve, until more S&R dogs could be brought in.
No one planned to get much sleep tonight.
It had been three days. Three long days.
He knew the odds. Shannon Toliver and Ezra Hahn were most likely dead.
They were looking for the bodies.
He was just about to take the small team he led deeper into the woods, to assist the others when Jac yelled out. Yelled his name.
He would always answer that woman in an instant.
Max pivoted toward her and ran.
THIRTEEN
EZRA LISTENED AS the son of a bitch listed the names of every supervisory special agent in the Complex Crimes, Cyber, and REY units. Shannon gave him exactly what he wanted. Up to a point.
Ken Chalmers did not live in the 5500 block. He lived in the 3300. There wasn’t a 5500 block on Chalmers’ street. And theirs was the last house on their road.
The Hellbrooks were a completely different neighborhood than what the computer was showing. Sin and Cody Lorcan lived in a smart house more than twenty miles from the location listed in the database.
What in the hell was Shannon pulling? If it was what he thought it was, she was walking a slim tightrope. He hoped to hell that woman knew what she was doing.
She continued to give him exactly what he wanted, playing the part beautifully. If he didn't know some of the exact addresses listed, he would have believed her.
Finally, after an exhausting hour of her pulling information from the databases for him, the asshole walked away.
Shannon hurried over to his side. Small hands helped him to his feet, even though his own hands remained bound. She’d tried to untie him once. Supreme Asshole had hit her for it. "I don't know if that'll work. But..."
"What was that?"
She grinned, though it was a tired and still frightened expression. "You think we in the geek pack haven't imagined this exact scenario playing out? Well, without the primitive décor. That deer head creeps me out."
Ezra moved closer, watching the cabin door for their captor's inevitable return. "What do you mean?"
"Simple. The entire PAVAD database has been cloned—and doctored exponentially. All I had to do was type in a specific sequence of code. It sent my location straight to Carrie Lorcan, priority one. Help will be on its way. Soon."
"He's coming back. Best get over there now."
Ezra watched as she did. But he didn't sink back to the floor. He was tired of being cowed and acting submissive. If she had just transmitted their location to PAVAD, things had just changed. Drastically.
The sonofabitch finally returned, a smirk of glee in his damned eyes. "Now, one more thing..."
Ezra tensed. This was the real test.
"I need to see the section on PAVAD's protocol for bombings. Schematics for the building, evacuation plans, everything."
Ezra's stomach sank.
He saw the horror in her eyes.
"No." She shook her head. "I won't. I won't do it."
The gun made a reappearance. Pointed right at Ezra. "No? Then you'll watch him die. Right here."
He pulled back the hammer.
Ezra stared at his eyes, refusing to even look at the gun. "Where are your buddies?"
"Outside. They don't have the stomach for this. Mass casualties upset their sensibilities."
"Ah, they're all heart."
The asshole grabbed Shannon and yanked her closer. The chair shrieked across the floor. "You'll do it. Exactly as I planned. Because I know something you don't know."
Ezra braced himself. The sight of that sonofabitch leaning over her like that burned him straight through to his gut. Her fear stabbed at him. He wanted to knock the asshole through the floor, get him as far away from Shannon as he could get, and rip the asshole to shreds.
But none of that was going to happen anytime soon.
“Shannon, babe...do what they say. They’re going to bomb PAVAD anyway. Do it exactly like you did before.”
FOURTEEN
SHANNON'S HANDS WERE shaking. He was going to kill them. She'd known that three days ago. But now...now he'd gotten PAVAD exactly where he'd wanted them. "Why did you do this? There are people there who have never hurt you. People with families and loved ones. Some in that building don't even work for the FBI. They're college kids working in a cafeteria."
"It's war. There will always be a war. Losses don't count when they have good reason." He spouted the rhetoric of fanaticism, but she and Ezra had discussed it. This asshole didn’t believe the words he said. But his lackeys did.
She and Ezra didn’t know how to use it yet, though.
"That's stupid. And ridiculous. Every life co
unts. Every single one." She bit back a sob when she thought about what he was saying.
Kyra, Leina, Mia, Dani, Jac, all of her friends. People she cared about. People she passed every day in the halls. The guy who checked her in each morning at the security points. He always had a smile and a computer related joke to tell; she’d thought he researched them for her on purpose. Just to make her smile. His son was a computer programmer four blocks from PAVAD. They had lunch together every Tuesday. He’d tried to set Shannon up with his son four times over the last year. She’d always said no.
She thought today was Tuesday.
Sometimes there were even children in the building. Leina and Ken's were brought to the PAVAD building sometimes. The Lorcans' various children were all over the place at any one point. The Brockmans’, the Hellbrooks’, the Reynolds’, and...
Panic threatened to choke her.
His hand wrapped around her shoulder, and he shoved her closer to the computer.
The barrel of the gun brushed the back of her head. "Get me what I want. Now. Or I shoot your boyfriend here—and then make the call with this little phone here. The first one will go off in the front lobby. The second is timed to go off two minutes later near the forensics department. All those chemicals in there. Pity. The people...panicking. I can imagine it now."
She clung to her training as her friends’ faces ran through her head.
Shannon closed her eyes and pulled in a deep breath.
"I..."
"Do it, Shannon. Just like you gave him the last thing he wanted. Exactly like that. If you don't, he'll kill us both. Before we can do anyone any good."
Her hands shook as she touched the keyboard.
With a few quick strokes, she had the dummy schematics on the screen. "There. That's the most current floorplans."
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