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“Nope. Thanks anyway. We don’t need another round,” the woman replied.
“Good. Because I need some information.” Wendel wasted no time. “I need to call your ex-husband and I don’t have his number.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Why would you want to call Mike?”
Wendel wasn’t stupid. He’d seen her reaction to Elle. If he told her it was because the woman was in trouble, he doubted he’d get the information from her.
Instead, he crooked his head to the table where his buddies were surrounding the fourth suspect. “You see that man?” He pointed to the one in question. “He’s wanted by the police; and your husband will be interested he’s been caught. Very interested.” That was no lie.
The lady’s eyes got wide. “Is there a reward?”
“I wouldn’t know that,” Wendel huffed, incredulous.
Dammit. He understood that his grasp of human decency was sometimes skewed, but this bitch was an outright opportunist. Still, he kept his demeanor calm. “You’ll have to ask your ex. When he gets here.”
The woman didn’t hesitate after that, but rattled off the pertinent digits.
Thank fuck. Wendel walked away and dialed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Mike yawned for the hundredth time as Mason droned on and on about budget items. Luckily, he wasn’t the only one losing focus. Cisco also looked like he might have had a late outing the night before because the man’s lids kept slipping to near-closed before he’d catch himself and jerk back to awareness.
Mason had rolled his eyes a few times in their direction, looking slightly displeased that they weren’t paying close attention, but he hadn’t yet said a word.
The phone in Mike’s pocket rang, and that all changed.
“Seriously, Mike?” Mase groused. “You didn’t mute your phone? You can’t give me two uninterrupted hours of your time?”
“Sorry, Chief.” Mike already had his hand on his device, ready to pull it out and have a gander. “But it might be the kids, so I…”
Mason immediately backed down with a sigh. “Right. I understand. Family is the most important thing. It’s just that I hate this paperwork shit, and I’d like to get it over with so we can all go home.”
Taking that as permission to peek at his device, Mike extracted his phone and looked at the screen.
Unknown caller.
Well. That was easy.
“Nobody I know,” Mike told the boss happily, tossing his phone on the table. “Must be a spam call. Go on,” he encouraged Mason.
“Okay. We’re down to line item twelve. If we?—”
Mike’s phone rang again.
Mason growled.
“Shit,” Mike commiserated. But he glanced at the screen again and scowled. “Same number.”
Mason gave a huge sigh. “Take it, then block the caller if it turns out to be bullshit.”
Mike was all over that. Fucking telemarketers. Especially at this time of night. He picked up his phone and connected. “Yeah?” he barked.
“Is this Mike Carlese?” a male voice asked, sounding angsty as hell.
“Listen,” Mike huffed. “I’m not buying anything, so you can lose this number.” He was just about to disconnect when the voice became frantic.
“Don’t hang up. They took her! They took Elle.”