“No. No one. We don’t use local law enforcement. It’s out of their league. This is a federal investigation. Your father was part of a robbery recently and two men were killed. We know it was him and his team, and we need more concrete evidence to take them in. Help us. Meet me in Benter.”
“When?”
“As soon as you can.”
“I’ll try, but I’m heading into work shortly.”
“We don’t have a lot of time, York.”
“I’ll get there when I can.” She ended the call and then tapped her cell phone against her lip. She thought about what to do. How to end this, when her cell phone buzzed. She didn’t recognize the number and since the agent just called from an unknown number, she answered it. “Hello?”
“Your boyfriend is next if you don’t head to your mother’s place now.”
“Mo? What are you talking about?” she asked, and then heard the screaming. “Don’t, York. Don’t go there.”
“Isla?” She recognized Isla’s voice immediately. “What did you do, Mo? Why?” she screamed into the cell phone as tears filled her eyes.
“Get here or she’s dead.”
Mo ended the call and York banged her hand on the steering wheel. Her father was a monster. What did he want? How was she going to help Isla? She looked at her phone and called the agent. “Mo took my friend Isla. He has her somewhere. He told me to come to get to my mom’s or Isla is dead.”
“Go. We have ears and eyes on the house. Get there, and know we’re nearby. Do as he says, York, and everything will work out as planned.”
“Fine. I’m on my way.”
Isla screamed and kicked at Mo as he tied her to the chair in the barn. She wasn’t at his house, but right in Cherry Hill in some old barn. He struck her. He smacked her across the mouth as she spat at him. “You’re an evil asshole. The police will find you. They’ll hunt you down and kill you.” He struck her across the cheek, and she fell to the ground.
“No one is going to find shit. York will help me now because she thinks I can kill you, but I’m not getting my hands dirty and no one will find you here. At least not for a while.” He tied her to the chair, her hands behind her back and her top buttons on her shirt opened more. “Damn, I wish I had more time.” He cupped her breast and she growled at him and tried wiggling free. He chuckled. “A feisty one.”
He pulled out his cell phone and took a picture of her. He grabbed her jaw tight and she knew it would leave bruises. “You’re filled with energy. Can’t exactly have you getting loose too quick. Sorry, doll, but this is going to hurt.” He pulled back and struck her in the head with his gun. She fell over, chair and all, and could hardly see as her vision blurred and her ears hummed. She saw the flash of a camera, his phone again. “Yeah, I think that will do it. You’ve been a great help, Isla. Wish I had more time to get close and personal, but my daughter and I have a job to do, and you will be exactly the leverage I need to make her do it,” he said, and started to walk away. He was whistling and singing something about Vegas.
The light from the open door closed and darkness encased the barn. She moaned from the pain in her head and her last thought was York being tricked by her father, and the worry that she could get hurt or even killed. Isla struggled to stay awake. She felt her eyes closing, the pain in her head get worse and worse as she moaned and tried to free her hands. She just couldn’t get free before darkness overtook her vision.
York got to her parents’ house. She slammed her door closed, looked around the streets as darkness was beginning to set in. It was after six. She was over an hour and a half late to work, and by now her men would be informed and people would find out about Isla. That she didn’t come to work either. She was supposed to be at Harper’s before York got there. She could only imagine her men’s fears, never mind Isla’s. She had to save her. Before she even got to the front walkway, an SUV pulled up and there was Grange. “Get in, York, hurry up,” he said, and opened the door. She glanced toward the house.
“Your dad will meet us. Now move it.”
She didn’t want to go. The agent said the house was bugged. How would Agent Felt find her and protect her if she got into the SUV? She looked around the block, hoping to see a car, something that indicated there were agents around.
“Move it or he’ll hurt your friend worse. Hurry up,” Grange yelled at her.
She hurried toward the SUV, but as she got into it, Grange took her purse and tossed it onto the driveway of her parents’ house. Her phone was in there. Her only way of getting help. The door closed. He shoved her onto the seat. Grange looked at her. “God damn you’re all grown up.”’ He inhaled. “Smell good, too,” he said, and smiled.
“Where are you taking me?”
“A safe place.”
“Where is Isla? My father said he would let her go if I came. Where is she? When will he let her go?” she asked.
“When the job is done,” the driver called back to her.
She swallowed hard. “What job?”
Grange smirked. “We’re going to Vegas, baby.”
Oh God no. What the hell is happening here? Oh please let Isla be okay. Please.
“What do you mean she was in the parking lot and then took off?” Marco asked Finn and Lotus.
Cab and Marco got to Harper’s as soon as word came in that she never arrived for work. There were already some concerns over Isla, who was supposed to get to work an hour before York and never showed up. Montana and the sheriff, plus other deputies found her car with her purse and keys in it, and one of her heels. Foul play was suspected.
“From the surveillance tapes, it looks like she pulled in, got a phone call, and then left in a hurry,” Kane said to them.
“Her father. This has something to do with her father,” Marco stated.
“Definitely had to. She was shaken up by his appearance yesterday, and he did threaten to hurt her. He might have threatened to hurt Isla because he knew she was York’s friend,” Cab said to them.
“Or used Isla to bait York. York would never let anything happen to Isla. They became best friends quickly. This is a fucking mess. They could be anywhere,” Montana said, and ran his fingers through his hair.
“You got the make of her father’s vehicle and license plate like I did. Let’s get his address and send some people there,” Finn stated.
“We need to break up into two groups and then of course leave some deputies and assistance here in case something more pops up. Montana, you, Prime, and Seren try to get some surveillance cameras onto Isla’s car. Anything on her way to that spot from her house to the bank and ATM machine that may have picked up on her and anyone following. We can get the public’s help, too. The rest of us head to York’s father’s place, and bring backup. Nash, call your brother, Alex. We may need his connections, too, with the Texas Rangers.”
“Got it, Kane. They worked on the license plate and getting a location of Mo’s house. Two hours later, they arrived.
“Nothing. No one is here and her purse is in the driveway, her cell phone in it,” Finn stated as he held York’s purse. Her car is here. She got out, and maybe was taken right from the driveway. We canvas the neighborhood, talk to the neighbors to see if they saw anything,” Lotus said to them.
“I can take her phone and see who she talked to,” Nash said to Finn and Lotus.
“Some private numbers are on here,” Lotus told him.
“Could be something there. Maybe who called her last. I’ll get people working on this,” Nash said, and they a few of them, along with local police, start canvassing the neighborhood and speaking to neighbors. It didn’t take long for the police to get information. Two neighbors saw a navy blue SUV and watched York get into it and they left. That was three hours ago.
“They took her somewhere else. Where the fuck could they have gone? Where?” Marco asked.
“It’s dark, they have a plan and want York for something, but what?” Finn said, and time continued to pass, with no addition
al clues and no closer to finding York or Isla.
“Montana rubbed his eyes and his face. He had gotten no sleep at all. It was now seven a.m., and still no sign of Isla. Word was spreading about her disappearance and York’s. He called his brothers late last night to get their help, too. Of course, Curran and Presley offered any help with airplanes, helicopters, men to search as they were very wealthy and in the oil business.
His radio went off again and Ortley looked at him. “One of these tips has to pay off,” he said, and then came the call from dispatch.
“Go ahead, Titus,” he said to Sheriff Titus Mullen from Central Valley.
“We got a tip in from one of the local farmers out your way in Redburn Farms. Said when he was leaving to go out of town for the night, he caught sight of a blue car pulling along the old Taverse place and the abandoned red barn. He didn’t think anything of it because people go there to take pictures or whatever, and teenagers go to park, but the vehicle matches the description of the vehicle owned by York’s father.”
“We’re not far from there now. We’ll head on over and check it out. Thanks, Titus.”
“No problem. I sent men to join you.” He ended the call, and he and Ortley got into the police cruiser and the other men joined them in their vehicles as they headed to Taverse Place.
He sped into the dirt road leading up to the old barn and prayed that Isla was there and that she was alive. As they got out and checked the barn door, they saw the lock. It took them a few minutes to find something to open it, but as they opened it up and drew their guns and checked the inside, both Montana and Ortley saw Isla tied to the chair on her side on the ground, head bleeding, face bruised and looking very white.
“Isla!” Ortley said her name and hurried to her with his brother. The others began to call for an ambulance and took out knives to untie her arms. Ortley caressed her hair and Montana caressed her cheek.
“Isla, come on, baby, be okay. Come on now,” he said, and when she moaned, he felt like his heart skip a beat. “She’s alive. Jesus.” She tried to open her eyes and moaned as her arms were untied and gently moved forward by the other deputies assisting.
Montana could hear the sirens in the distance, and they were careful not to move her as her eyes began to blink open. “You’re safe, Isla. We found you, an ambulance is on its way,” he said to her, and held her gaze.
“York?”
“We don’t know, honey,” Ortley said in that deep, hard tone.
She glanced at him and cringed. “Her father tricked her. Used me to get her to meet him at his house. You have to help her.”
“Shhh baby, don’t worry. Her men and others are doing their best to find her. She wasn’t at the father’s house.”
“Oh God, he’s going to kill her. Make her help him commit a crime. Tell her men. Tell the sheriff her father took pictures of me tied up. He’s going to use me to get her to help him. Her father sang as he left. Talked about Vegas maybe. I think. Oh God. Tell them, Montana,” she said, and cried.
“Easy baby, easy now. I’ll call them right now.” Montana looked at Ortley as Ortley lowered down and pulled her up into his arms.
She moaned and cried. “It hurts so bad. My head. He struck me with the butt of his gun.”
“We’ll get you to the hospital, sweetie. I’m not leaving your side,” he told her, and she clung to him, her head on his shoulder as Montana called Finn.
“Vegas is right, and the person that called her called from Vegas. That agent who contacted her when she met her mother, gave his two weeks notice at the bureau three weeks ago. Right after that, he hit in Vegas on the small venue. I’ve got friends looking deeper into him and it seems like he could be a corrupt agent,” Nash said to them. Everyone was gathered around the command center they established in the town hall in Cherry Hill.
“Three days. She’s been gone for three days. What the hell was the job they wanted her to do if that’s why Mo took her?” Finn asked and paced.
“What about this agent? Any indication of where he is? There has to be a way to track him down. The agency could be of assistance,” Lotus said to them.
“I can assist with that,” Ferrion said, and walked over to Nash to get some information from him.
Lotus looked at Cab. “The longer she is gone, the more difficult it will be to find her. You understand that, right?”
“Fuck yeah, I do, and I’m thinking she could be hurt, or be forced to do something criminal,” Cab said.
“What exactly is your woman capable of?” Broaden asked.
Everyone in the room was friends of theirs, and men they trusted to help them, just as the McCuen men would help any of them, and some they did help already.
“It’s a long story, but the gist of it is York has a set of extra talents we weren’t aware of until recently,” Lotus told them.
“What kind of talents?” Snipe asked.
“Well, she can hotwire a car,” Cab said, and the whistles and some chuckles went through the room.
“She has a way with numbers, betting, gambling, other street activities,” Finn said. More chuckles scattered through the room.
“But her most unique talent of all those would be her hacking skills, and even we don’t know how intricate her abilities are,” Marco told them.
“Holy shit, sweet little York, who would have guessed,” Farris said, and the others added similar comments.
“Actually, this is good information to have. It explains her juvie record I found, too,” Lextin added as he typed away on the laptop.
“What the hell are you doing over there?” Cab snapped at him.
“I have some computer capabilities of my own and just got into the security and emergency services platform in Vegas. This system will alert us to any kind of activity or emergency response events at every location, casino, hotel, club, bar, you name it, throughout Vegas.”
“Holy shit, Lextin,” Cab replied.
“We’ve got company in the investigation. Looks like the feds are onto their guy Felt being corrupt. There’s evidence pointing to him using his security clearance to get information about a specific hotel, their security systems, and guard information. Turns out it was the place that was hit a few weeks ago. And, two security guards were killed,” Farris told them as Broaden held a phone to his ear.
He covered the mouthpiece. “Her father, the job he got busted for involved armed robbery, and it was believed that the security system was taken down for fifteen minutes by some outside source. I don’t know if you guys are aware of it, but York had been held hostage, beaten by some men, unknown at this time, and her mom nearly killed.”
“That was when she was forced to help him or something. He threatened to kill her mother,” Finn said and then rubbed his jaw.
Just then, some kind of beeping sound came from Lextin’s computer. He sat forward. “Got a hit and a location. Nash, pull up this address and get Vegas PD on the line. This could be it,” he said, and they waited to see what the alert was, and hoped that it pointed toward a location they could head to and save York.
“Ouch!” York screamed as Mo struck her across the cheek, sending her to the rug.
“What did you do? What the fuck did you do?” he yelled at her as he loomed above her.
She held her cheek and couldn’t help the tears that flowed. His strike shocked her, and it hurt badly. Even as she spoke, her jaw ached. “I did what you asked. Why did you hit me?”
He looked down at the phone and then at the computer screen. He stared at it. “Come on. Come on,” he repeated, and looked around the room at the other men. She glanced at her mom who glared at her.
Love Will Find You Page 12
