Page 46

“She’s being a trooper. She called her lawyer to see if they can speed up the date of the hearing. Suffice to say, her trust in CPS has taken a dent. Just get her back, Hector.”
“I’m not coming back without Zoe.” He ended the call.
They were almost at the compound when another call came in. It was from an unknown caller.
“Diaz.”
“Well, hello there, Wolfman,” a cheery female voice boomed in the car. “I come bearing gifts.”
“Tess?” he guessed.
“The one and only. Now, before I give you info on the gorilla who kidnapped the princess, do you solemnly swear that you will not ask me any questions I don’t want to answer and won’t mention my name to anyone relating my services?”
Achilles shrugged when Hector gave him a look.
“Clock’s ticking, guys,” she said. “I get that you have a missing child to find, but I have a family of my own to protect and can’t take any risks.”
“And you’d take my word for it?”
“You’re a Marine! Of course I’ll take your word for it. Also, Mary wouldn’t marry a lying scumbag.”
He’d heard worse deductions. “I promise.”
“What about you, Achilles?”
“Same from me.”
“Does the name Ivan Yankovic ring a bell? He’s a low-life drug dealer slash junkie slash pimp.”
Who in the hell was—then it dawned on him. “Shit.”
“I take that as a yes,” Tess said. “It took some digging and following a lot of traffic cams before I found him, but that’s the guy you should be looking for.” She gave them the address and Hector made a sharp turn, ignoring the honks after them.
“Shit, slow down,” Achilles muttered. “And watch that red light. You’re gonna get us pulled over.”
“No, he won’t,” Tess reassured them. “There’s a protest thing at Union Square and most of the police are over there. There are only two units in your area, none of which close to you. I took care of the traffic lights. They should blink in your favor.”
“Who again did you say you were?” Hector asked.
“No, no. You just made a promise not to ask any questions I don’t want to answer. Now, when it comes to this Ivan dude, I think he took Zoe out of desperation. His bank account is empty, and he was admitted to the hospital twice in the last month with multiple fractures. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he probably owes some money to some bad guys.”
“Actually, I was one of those people who hospitalized him,” Hector admitted.
“Ah.” Tess didn’t sound fazed in the least bit. “Anyways, I did some more digging, because with slimy people there’s always more. Ivan was once arrested for human trafficking, but they couldn’t pin anything on him. And when I say human trafficking, I don’t mean the rounding up of girls to sell them to a brothel kind, which is sick in itself, but I mean the harvesting little humans for their organs kind. Good luck.” Then she was gone.
“Shit. Shit. Shit!”
“Cool it, man.” Achilles glanced his way, looking just as pissed. “We’re going to find the kid.”
“I should’ve ended the son of a bitch when I had the chance. Gio is right, the second you see a threat to your family, you should eradicate it, root and all. Hell, we didn’t even get the chance to plead our case with the judge. I haven’t been married for all of a day, and I’ve already failed her. If anything happens to Zoe, it will devastate Mary.”
“Not going to happen. We are going to find her. Ivan took her because he needs money. He’s going to sell her. It takes time to find a buyer. We should have a window of at least twenty-four hours.”
Which was basically no window at all. Once the kid left the state, she would disappear. It happened all the time. Men like Ivan targeted street kids, or kids like Zoe, they believed no one would go looking for. Well, the fucker had chosen the wrong mark.
He hit the gas until they parked in the alley Tess had mentioned. It was in a drug-infested neighborhood, filled with houses that looked ready to be torn down.
“Jesus, what a shithole. So, we got a plan?” Achilles checked his gun.