by Sadie Jacks
“Who is this?” his rough voice came over the line.
“Turo, it’s me.”
“Willow? What’s wrong?”
I gave him a rapid fire rundown of the problem.
He snarled. “Shit! The police have the last guy from the bunker. We don’t even know her HQ. No way to contact her.”
Something niggled at the back of my mind. I jumped up from Ryker’s chair, raced back into the living room. Daphne was sitting on a bar stool, her shoulders slumped as she listened to her phone call.
“Ryker, do you still have the phone that came with the package?” I asked, the phone still up to my ear so Turo could hear as well.
Ryker turned to me. He nodded. “Yeah, it’s with my security team. Downstairs.” He held out his hand to me. I rushed forward, grabbed it. “Turo, we’re heading to Ryker’s –”
“I heard. Get Cricket started on tracing it. If we can get any usable information on it, call me. I’ll round up some associates, have them standing by.” He disconnected the call before I could say anything else.
“Mom. Come on. You need to stay with us,” Ryker called as he hit the button to call his personal elevator.
She rushed over. She tripped once on her heels. She kicked them off and raced the rest of the way her in trouser socks. “What’s going on?”
He ushered us all into the elevator, slapped at the button of the floor he needed. Ryker told her. “It’s not a promise or even an assurance right now. But it’s the only lead we’ve got. I had Nik doing some digging earlier, when we first got the box. I’ll call her in, have her give me the files.”
So saying, he used his phone and called his IT expert. “I need everything you got on de Silva and her operation. She’s still got Corrie. Or at least I hope her men do.”
I could hear Nik’s screeching voice over the line even though I couldn’t discern any actual words. I winced when Ryker just snarled down the line. “You think I don’t know that? Give me the fucking files, Nik. Now.”
His phone beeped.
“I’m putting you on speaker. Mom and Willow are here.” He lowered the phone, tapped the speaker button.
“That call came in four days ago, Ryker. How the fucking fuck did we forget about it?” Nik snarled down the line.
“Probably being shot at,” I said softly. “No one’s at fault, Nik. But we’d like to get her back.” I left off ‘if possible.’ We all needed to stay focused on the positives.
The silence over the phone was full of tension and rapid breathing. As we listened, she got her breathing under control. “Tell me what the plan is. I’ll nudge the collective.”
Ryker’s shoulders eased the slightest degree. He nodded. “We’re heading downstairs to check the security offices. See if they found anything on the phone in the box they sent.”
“I’ll head that way. Give me ten minutes, I’ll be walking in the doors.” She hung up.
Ryker tapped his phone’s screen. Pulled up his email app. I backed up, gave him his privacy. Looking over at Daphne, she didn’t seem nearly as threatening and intimidating without her heels on. Maybe only one or two inches taller than me in my bare feet.
Her fingers were clenched together so tightly her knuckles had bleached of all color. The tips of her fingers were an odd purplish red tone that didn’t bode well for her extremities. I reached out, grabbed her hand. “You still here?” I asked her softly.
The door to the elevator finally dinged. I turned and read the panel. Seventh floor. Ryker grabbed my hand again, pulled me through the door. With my other hand still grabbing Daphne’s we made an odd little train of anxiety and fear.
“Mr. Penn! I wasn’t expecti—” a man jumped up from the reception desk.
Ryker waved him back down. “This is an emergency. Where is Hughes?”
The man’s face slid into professional lines. “Of course, sir. Right this way.” He rose from his seat again, darted around from the desk. Took off at a brisk pace down the right hallway. “He’s in his office. What can I do to assist you, sir?”
“Get my girlfriend a new phone. Secured. On our network. Samsung, newest model,” Ryker said. “I want it programmed with all essential numbers and in her hands within thirty minutes.”
The man nodded and raced off back the way we’d come.
I grimaced. The man could have been put to better use than fetching me another phone. Ryker’s sister’s life was literally hanging in the balance. Me getting a phone was not a priority.
Daphne snickered. “My son likes to be able to get in touch with the people he loves. Give him this, please,” she said softly as we turned into an office with more computer equipment than I knew even existed. The command center at the bunker hadn’t even been this decked out.
I nodded, at a loss for words. Ryker pulled me into his side, wrapped his arm around my waist. “Hughes. I need all the information you got from the burner phone in the box.”
Pretty sure Ryker’s voice could simultaneously freeze steam and burn up hell. I was just glad I wasn’t the one trying to bear up under that icy gaze. I shivered.
He tightened his arm around me.
The man nodded, spun in his chair. His shaved head was glossy under the low lights in his office. With no windows to speak of, it was a little hard to discern the rest of him. His rimless glasses reflected the light of the screens in front of him.
“Okay, Penn, I’ve got a burner phone. Local buy. By the serial number, the manufacturer lists it as being bought and sold to a convenience store at the corner of Wabash and Tenth. I dug through the store’s security feed. Narrowed it down to three possibles for purchase. Two men, one woman.”
“Ages?” Ryker demanded.
Hughes nodded, clicked some more buttons on his mouse. “Man One, roughly six foot even, a solid one-eighty, brown and brown. Best guess puts him in his late fifties.”
“Next.”
“Man Two, six-four, two hundred, hat and shades. Best guess is mid-twenties.”
“Any identifying marks?” Ryker asked.
Hughes shook his head. “None on camera.”
“Dammit. Woman?”
Hughes called up a different file. “She’s got a record. One Tilly Sherman, wanted for hooking and drug possession. Just got released on…” he leaned forward, nodded, “Tuesday. So the day before she bought the phone.”
“She associated with anyone?” I could hear the hope in Ryker’s voice.
“Her stable is under the protection of de Silva,” Hughes said.
Ryker’s entire body vibrated for one brief moment before he got himself back under control. “I want everything you’ve got on her. All movements since Tuesday. Give me her parole officer first.”
Hughes nodded, his fingers already dancing over the keys. “Give me two minutes.” He hummed a tune that was oddly familiar under his breath as screen after screen flashed up just to be darted through before I could even figure out what the page was for.
“One Court Services Officer II, a Ms. Ketya Nonovich.”
“She dirty or clean?”
Hughes hummed again. “By all accounts clean. She’s still on her first year. Probably all sparkly and full of morals and shit.”
Ryker’s chuckle was dry. “Hook up with Nik. She’ll have more. I want Sherman’s movements tracked from that store. I need to know where she landed.”
“I’ll get right on it.”
Nik dashing in. “I’ve heard back.” She looked at Daphne, nodded. She completely ignored Hughes. “Don’t ask questions.”
Daphne shook her head. “I don’t care. Just tell me where my baby girl is.”
Nik’s shoulders settled. “Best guess for de Silva’s HQ is across the street.” She stabbed her finger at the wall. Where windows probably should be. Or were, but Hughes had them covered up.
“Reasoning?” Ryker asked.
“If she’s running a legitimate business as a front, then she needs to have at least the server capabilities we do. There aren’t a whole
lot of buildings around New Trenadie that can handle the extra electrical output or input that she would need. And why reinvent the wheel, when she can set up and piggyback your hard work? Another way to drive the knife.”
“Assuming her legit business is a front, why do you think her crew is set up from there as well?”
“Because her business, while profitable, is still small. She would have more than enough space with renting only five or six offices.” Nik smiled. It was all teeth and attitude. “She’s got seven floors.”
I felt my mouth drop open. “And she could set it up so her soldiers and associates look like business guys. The comings and goings in a tech company is the perfect cover. Someone is always in the office. People come and go in random shifts,” I said.
Everyone turned to look at me. I shrugged. I wasn’t stupid, even if I wasn’t part of the back of the house with the Amatuccis. “Do they have a private access garage?”
Nik smiled at me, made me feel like a teacher’s prize student. “Indeed they do, Willow. Gold star.”
I snickered. “Then access is completely controlled. They could be running both businesses from there with very little indication to…other activities.”
“Are you saying my daughter could be across the street? Right now? When she should be in a hospital with a HEPA filter and rigidly controlled contaminant protocols?” Daphne’s voice rose to a level I was pretty sure dogs could hear from miles away.
Ryker grabbed his mother’s hand. “If that’s the case, I’ll bring her home tonight. But we need to get eyes on it. In it.”
“Mr. Penn, here’s your phone.” The front desk guy came in, slid a phone and box into Ryker’s hands. “All essential numbers have been programmed. I’ve left all but three of the speed dial options open.” Front Desk guy smiled at me. Winked.
Ryker snarled. “Thank you.” He stepped in front of me.
I rolled my eyes from behind Ryker’s back. He really had other things to focus on instead of my being smiled at by some random dude who worked for him.
“I’ve got footage of Sherman, Penn,” Hughes announced. He thankfully pulled Ryker’s attention back to more important things. “And I think Nik is right. Look at this.”
“That fast?” Ryker asked.
“Literally less than three miles to track. Street cams and other footage made it easy.” Hughes pointed at a highlighted person on the screens. He’d looped the tracks together so we got to watch a single stream of choppy footage. He waited until the woman stopped and looked up at a tall building. “That’s OmniFirst’s front door.”
Ryker cursed under his breath. “Save a copy of that. Send it to me, to Nik. Encrypted.” With his arm around my waist, we were walking out the office and back towards the elevators. “I’m calling Turo.”
He pushed the three of us women into the elevator car and then stepped in with us. He lifted the phone to his ear. “If Nico is there, put him on as well.”
Ryker lowered the phone, hit his speaker button. “I’ve got Willow, Nik, and my mother here.”
“Then I suggest you remove us from speaker phone, Mr. Penn,” Nico said in a voice sharp enough to cut flesh.
“If you think I’m going to stand in the way of saving my daughter, you’re either stupid or willfully ignorant. I will be part of whatever plan is made and I will take those plans to my grave,” Daphne said in a voice as equally icy.
I rolled my lips in to keep from laughing out loud. Pretty sure that was the first time either of the Amatucci boys heard those words from a woman. I was glad I was there to witness it.
If it had been almost any other situation, I would have hooted and hollered like I was a dude watching sports and my team just scored a field basket. Goal? Home run? I shook my head. Sports were dumb anyways.
“We’ve pinpointed the person who bought the phone that was on the other end of the call in the hospital. It’s at the OF building across the street. We’re heading that direction now,” Ryker said.
My eyes widened. I wasn’t really ready to go bashing through some door on the off-chance his half sister was in the building. I shook my head. Opened my mouth.
Thankfully Turo spoke up. “You’ll go to the lobby and wait there. We’ll meet you in the parking garage on Penn Towers. You don’t want to just start slamming through doors. That’s a good way to get your sister killed.”
Nik sucked in a breath. “Shut your fucking mouth, Turo! She’s not dead. Do you hear me?” she screeched the words.
“Cricket, I didn’t say she was dead. I said that was a good way to get her killed. Push the emotion away or you can stay in the Towers while we handle this.” His tone was harder than granite.
I knew from personal experience nothing, and certainly no one, was going to sway him from his position. And begging and pleading just made it worse. I reached out, grabbed Nik’s arm.
She whipped her head around, the muscles of her arm tensing under my light grip. “Don’t touch me.”
I raised my hand. “Sorry, you’re right. I shouldn’t have done that. But you don’t want to argue with him. He has ways to make sure you stay in this building. And he’s legitimately trying to help Corrie right now.”
She shuttered her expression, turned to the wall. Nodded.
“Go on, Turo,” Daphne said in the heavy silence.
“Mrs. Sheridan, lovely to meet you. If you can’t remain calm, you, too, will be remaining in the Towers building. This is a rescue mission. And one we are purposely not involving the police in. Are there any other matters to which we need to pay attention?” he asked. His voice was as calm and even as if he were discussing the daily stock reports instead of someone’s daughter, sister, or friend.
I winced. He was digging himself a hole. I just hoped I didn’t get tossed down into with him.
The elevator slid to a gentle stop. With the amount of emotion in the car, it was oddly discombobulating. It felt like we should have rocketed down and then jerked to a fast halt hard enough to crash us into the floor.
I shook my head, tried to reconcile the differences. We pushed out of the elevator. Ryker grabbed my hand in his as he took the call off speaker. “We’ll meet you in the garage. You’ve got five minutes.”
Ryker’s grip on my hand tightened as he listened to whatever Turo was saying. “I don’t fucking care, and I’ll kill any of your men who try to stop me. Either get here and be part of the solution or be happy with whatever is left.”
Ryker held the door to the parking garage for us. His features were tight, his breathing fast. I squeezed his hand. He looked down at me.
“We’ll get her back, Ryker. I know we will,” I said softly.
He nodded. “I just need her to be alive when we do.”
Chapter 11 – Ryker
I looked away from Willow’s compassionate gaze. The forgiveness sitting in her eyes shamed me. Mocked me.
I gritted my teeth. I’d left my sister in the hands of a kidnapper, forgotten all about her, and then stood by while the woman who had taken her was killed. What kind of brother was I?
Shitty. A fucking shitty brother. Someone who didn’t deserve the kind and generous heart of Corrie. Of Willow.
Hell. I shouldn’t be with anyone. Since she’d met me, Willow had been kidnapped, tortured, run off the road, hospitalized, gone into hiding, and now we were lurking in the parking garage of my building and home so we could go and save my half sister that she’d never met.
Some fucking boyfriend.
“Excuse me, Daphne. Nik. I’m going to talk to Ryker in private. We’ll be right back,” Willow said as she pushed me around an upright barrier. Once we were a couple spots away from the stairwell, she looked up into my face. “What kind of pain?”
I blinked, tried to process her words. “Pain?”
She nodded. “You’re spiraling. I know the signs. What kind of pain do you need?”
A pressure that felt like a herd of elephants was trampling my chest took over my mind. I shook my head. I didn�
�t know how to answer her.
Her smile was sad as she nodded. “I’m going to unbutton your shirt and rake my nails down your chest. I need you back here. Corrie needs you back here. Your mom and Nik need you back here.” She started unbuttoning my shirt.
I stood there like a vacant child, arms by my side. Simply waiting for something to happen. The next wave of emotion to slice through me.
She looked up at me with those sage green eyes for a long moment. Then she nodded, pressed a kiss to my chest, and set her nails to my flesh.
With a deep pressure that I swore broke the skin, she sank her nails into my skin and yanked them from pec to waistband.
I inhaled as the pain washed the emotion away. Like a heavy rainstorm clears the air, her love and compassion cleansed me. My body shuddered.
She looked back up at me. A question in her eyes.
I nodded. “Again.”
She moved her nails slightly, careful not to rake them down the previous grooves. “I nicked you just a little,” she said just before another eight lines of heated relief slid through me.
I shook my head. “I don’t care.” I yanked her into my arms as I felt the herd of elephants and the giant rubber band around my chest disappear.
She’d saved me. Once again. She’d seen my struggle and rescued me.
We saved each other. For now. For always. She was going to be mine.
“Mar—”
A horn honked as a line of cars slid into the murky depths of the underground garage of Penn Towers.
She looked up at me after checking the cars out. “You were going to say something?”
I shook my head. Pressed my lips to hers. “It can wait.” And it fucking would wait! What the hell were you thinking, asking her to marry you in the middle of a kidnapping rescue? My inner asshole snarled at me.
I waved him off. I’d been caught up in the moment. The burning need to claim her. To keep her beside me always had overwhelmed my better judgment.
She helped me do up my buttons, a peculiar scrunch to her brow. “You sure?” She voiced the question without looking up at me.
