Page 3

“So, that can mean a few things.” Kaos leaned back in his chair. “Wherever she went, she went voluntarily.”
“That’s one, P.” I agreed.
“Wherever she went, she expected danger—hence the missing gun.” Zoom added.
I nodded.
“Which means she could be in danger and I’m so damn useless, I can’t even figure out where she is.”
“Okay, the first thing you’re going to do is calm down.” Zoom cooed. “Because you’ll only get more muddled if you’re upset. That’s when mistakes happen.”
As a cop, I was steady.
As the man who anted her, I couldn’t help freaking out.
I always wanted to have her back, even if she didn’t want me.
I wanted to protect her, even if she was to be with someone else.
“I feel helpless, P’Zoom.” I told her. “I feel like something heavy is on my chest and every time I breathe, it crushes down more and more.”
“And we get that. But we can freak out later. Right now, our main concern is finding Taz.” Kaos glanced off screen. “Tex is trying to get on this call. Hold on.”
“Hello, party people.” Tex greeted us. “I come with news.”
“Have you found her, P?” I asked John Keegan.
I didn’t know him as well as the others did. But Zoom and Kaos said he was good people—I trusted their judgement.
“Kind of.” Tex replied. “I ran facial recognition, and the software picked her up at the airport in Bangkok.”
“The airport?” I asked.
A picture of her, a hood over her head popped up on my screen.
I recognized the hoodie.
“Where is she going?” I demanded.
“Not sure.” Tex replied. “I lost her going through customs and no Jo West or any variations of her name or call-sign boarded a plane out of that airport.”
“She had to have gotten on a plane.” Zoom mused.
“She’s ex-special forces.” Kaos pointed out. “She could be using an alias—nothing to do with her name to hide.”
“I thought of that.” Tex spoke up. “But the software can’t pick her up after it lost her. It’s almost like she fell off the face of the planet.”
“Maybe she went to New Zealand or Australia—Fiji, Tasmania.” I rattled off. “Have you tried incoming at any of those airports?”
“Yes.” Tex sighed. “Like I said, it’s almost like she entered customs and didn’t exit.”
Exhausted from what I’d just heard, I flopped back in my seat.
“I tried dumping her phone.” Tex continued. “It’s off and the chip’s out.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think she didn’t want us to find her.” Zoom muttered.
“She doesn’t trust me.” I exhaled. “And that’s not even the part that hurts the most. What hurts the most is that she believed she’d go MIA and I wouldn’t try finding her. All this time I’ve known her, I haven’t given her a reason to mistrust me, or to think I wouldn’t have her back.”