Page 34

Maddox

Where is she?

A woman doesn’t just disappear off the face of the earth.

Marlie seemingly did.

Mindy is alive.

At least, I think she is. Both Fea and Pit said her voice sounded horrible. Could it be someone else pretending to be her?

I pick up my phone and call Canyon.

He answers immediately. “What’s up? You need me to bring you two a meal.”

“Mindy isn’t here.” The fist clenches around my heart.

“What? But they said her phone was there. I dropped her off there on Sunday.”

“Her phone is here. She’s not.”

“What woman walks around without her phone?”

Not one that I know. “I need you to do a full forensic sweep of this place.”

“You think she’s—”

“I don’t think anything. But I’m not assuming anything. Do what you need to do. But I want every inch of this place covered before our new friend gets home from work.” Hopefully, I find her before then, or I’m going to take Adonis apart piece by piece until he tells me where she is.

If she’s in a hole somewhere—

Don’t assume anything. “I’m bringing the phone in for Enzo to go over.”

On the way back, I’m going to plan how I’m going to take Adonis apart. Fea and Pit need to bring their phones in as well.

***

Fea stalks into my office half an hour later. “What do you mean Mindy is missing?”

“She’s gone, but all her stuff is at the pretty boy’s place.” There are so many ways to kill him if—

“What do you need?” Fea walks over to me. She looks like she wants to hug me, but she just stops.

“Give your phone to Enzo so he can track her calls. Then I need the names and numbers of her friends. They might know where she is.” Please let this simply be the case of her going to a friend’s to rest and recover.

“What about family?” Fea whispers.

That’s right, unlike us, Mindy might have blood relatives to fall back on. “Enzo, check out her family. And that Waylon guy.”

Could she have run away with him?

I should have protected her. I should have dived deeper into her past. Maybe something from there.

“She only has one living relative. Her father died when she was five. Her mother’s been married a lot.” Enzo whistles.

This was all on the original research we did.

“None of them set off any flags. The mother is currently in the Caribbean at an all-inclusive resort with her latest boyfriend. So that’s a dead end. Waylon is her step-brother from husband number two. Mindy hasn’t kept up with any other relatives.”

A loan to a family member makes way more sense. His business was running cash-poor. He might have borrowed some from her.

Though it’s pretty low to borrow from your sister and cause her to work two jobs.

That’s if he knew. Mindy doesn’t share much. It’s possible that she didn’t share that information with him.

“There’s no sign of her being with the step-brother, but we could send someone out to verify in person.” Enzo taps away on the keys.

Pit walks in. “Any sign of her?”

“No. Hand Enzo your phone. He’s going to try to track her from the phone she called you on.” That has to work.

“I might not need his phone.” Enzo starts typing furiously. “The phone she called Fea with is blocked.”

“Can’t you get past it?” That’s what hackers do, isn’t it?

“This is way out of my league. It’s blocked even in the phone provider’s system. It doesn’t exist.”

“Maybe your girlfriend is a spy.” Pit sets his phone down next to Enzo and walks over to the bar.

“Not funny.” So not funny.

“But he might not be far off. You need someone with more skills than I have.”

Rage? I dial his number, and a message pops up: I’m flying somewhere with Hope. Leave me a message and I’ll get back to you when I land.

So not helpful. “Rage isn’t an option.”

“There is one person…” Enzo lets his voice trail off.

I told him I wouldn’t ask him to help me.

No, you said work for you.

Does any of that matter? Mindy is missing.

Ask him. The worst he can say is no. “Find him.”

Would I be able to accept that answer? Let’s hope we don’t find out.

Fea is suddenly next to me. “When was the last time you ate?”

Ate? Who cares about food when Mindy is sick or in danger? I shrug.

“I’ll go get you something.” She leaves my office.

“Hope she gets you something good. Cause she’s going to make you eat it.” Pit laughs as he grabs a handful of nuts out of a bag.

Why are we talking about asinine nonsense when Mindy needs to be found?

Jacko walks in. “Canyon found blood.”

NO!!!!!!!

“Just a few drops. But it looks to be only a few days old.” He lifts two samples out of his pocket. “We took some hair off her brush.”

It’s hers. I know it. “Does Barb know someone who can get us the results quickly?”

“Ethan will know someone.”

Why didn’t I think of him? Because I’m not thinking straight. “Jacko.”

He stops and turns back to me. “Yeah?”

“If it comes to—”

“I’ve got your back, brother.” He nods and walks away.

It better not come to that. She has to be alive.

There has to be something more I can do.

Anything.

Enzo rushes in, followed by Everett.

“What’s going on? Enzo said you needed my help, and that it was important.”

It is. “Mindy is missing.”

Everett blinks. “The woman you aren’t dating who works with the snakes?”

“Yeah, her.”

“And you look like you lost your mind because she’s missing?”

I shrug.

“You’re in love with her?”

“I am.” It feels odd to say that when I haven’t even told her yet.

“What do you need me to do?”

“Find her. She’s called every day for the last three days, but Enzo can’t track the calls because the number’s been blocked.”

“That should be easy enough. I’ll need access to your toys over there.” Everett nods to the security station.

“Give him what he needs.” In a few minutes, I might know exactly where she is.

Enzo types something in and steps away from the computer.

Everett flexes his fingers and sits down. “The thing about hacking blocked numbers is you need to go all the way back to the person that pays the bills.” He starts typing faster than he can talk. “Find the company and you find the—That’s odd.” Everett leans forward as his fingers fly. “It’s blocked.”

We all know that. I step over to his side, looking even though I have not a single clue what he’s doing.

“No. It’s blocked like it doesn’t exist anywhere. No company owns this number.”

“So, are you saying she’s at a military base somewhere?” The spy joke might not be one. Mindy, a spy? Impossible.

Everett laughs. “No. This isn’t military. They have a certain flair to how they encode their stuff. It’s blunt and efficient. If you try to force your way through, they attack you and send a hit squad to finish you off.”

What does this boy know about military encoding and hit squads? Who did I let into my neighborhood?

“This coding makes it like a ghost. A whisper that disappears every time you try to look for it.” He smiles, and his forehead wrinkles. “It’s a thing of beauty.”

Screens flash and disappear.

“It’s like a game with no rules and no way to win. As soon as I think I find it, the rules change. Whoever coded this is a genius. The genius. Your system is good, but nowhere close to what I’d need to even start thinking about finding out where that number came from.”

“What do you need? I’ll get it for you.”

Everett laughs again. “You can’t. Not unless you stole it. Or broke me into one of the world’s best security companies. The computer I’d need doesn’t exist for the general public. Even the top research schools don’t have one strong enough. The person who created this could have created the internet. It’s just that sophisticated. I’d love to pick his brain.”

“That means—”

“It’s a dead end. I can’t help you.” Everett doesn’t stop typing on the computer. “At least not with that. But I can track her movements.”

“What?”

“The last phone call made on Mindy’s phone was to a Dahlia Steel.” He clicks a few buttons, and an image is pulled up on the screen. “That’s Dahlia arriving at the location just an hour later. The car that brought her doesn’t leave. It stays waiting for her.”

Enzo moves in closer. “How did you get that? There were no security cameras facing her apartment. I checked.”

“These aren’t from security cameras. They’re images from dash cameras in people's cars. So many cars record non-stop now. You mash them together and you can make a video recording.”

“How did you do that so fast?” Enzo’s practically drooling at this point.

“Oh, I’m not doing that. I hacked into a government program that does it all the time.” Everett’s grin goes wicked. “They’re doing it for me. Spy stuff. All I need to do is press here to fast forward.”

Everett hacked into government spy software in less than five minutes. I don’t know whether to be scared or impressed. But I do know when all this is over, we’re going to have a conversation.

“There, Dahlia leaves. Fast forward again and there. That could be Mindy. Her face isn’t visible, so I can’t be sure. Let me check to see how many women in the building are the same height and build as her.”

I lean closer, studying the image. “That’s her. She was wearing that shirt Sunday.” When she got in my face. “What time was this picture taken?”

He clicks a few buttons. “Time stamp for this is four fourteen Monday morning.”

She’s alive. He didn’t kill her.

But she walked out of his apartment wearing the same clothing as she did the night before, with her hair looking like—Rage and relief war inside of me.

She’s alive.

Mindy’s alive.

Did he rape her? Is that why she ran away?

Death by a thousand cuts sounds too kind.

Wait. “Where is she? Where did she go?”

He fast forwards again. “She got in a cab.” He zooms in. “The medallion is dirty.” He zooms in.

It’s more than dirty. It’s completely covered. “You can’t fix that, can you?”

Everett shakes his head. “No. But we might be able to follow it with traffic cameras.”

Fea walks in carrying a tray.

“Hey, Fea.”

“Hey, Everett. They let you play with their toys.”

He grins. “Sure did. And I didn’t even have to hack in this time.”

Pit walks over and whaps him on the head. “You don’t tell us stuff like that, kid.”

Fea laughs and moves over to me. “Any news?”

“She’s alive,” I whisper the words I wanted to hear all day.

“Of course, she is. Now you’re going to sit and eat this while Everett finds out more.” She sets the food on the table and gives me the look.

“I’m not hungry.”

“But you’re going to eat anyway.” She crosses her arms over her chest.

Pit laughs in the corner.

I guess I’m going to eat. Then punch Pit.

***

It turns out that following a car isn’t as fast and easy as they show on television. It’s been over an hour, and they’re still driving through the city.

The urge to demand that Everett move faster is curbed by the speed his fingers are moving. He can’t go any faster. We just have to wait.

Canyon walks in. “Everything is done there. I found nothing else. Except this.” He lifts up a suitcase. “It’s filled with cash. All small bills. Completely untraceable.”

Based on the size of the bag. “About 100k?”

Canyon nods.

A bag with cash? They can’t be the same.

They can’t be.

“Do we still have our last guest's fingerprints?”

Canyon startles. “Yeah. You don’t think—” He stares down at the bag.

“I just want to rule it out.” My gut twists.

“On it.” Canyon walks out of the room.

“What time does Adonis get out of work?”

Enzo answers, “He gets out at five and heads home to have pizza delivered every Wednesday like clockwork.”

“Someone call on the secure line to cancel his pizza.” I turn to Jacko. “With me?”

He nods. “Always.”

When we get into the elevator, I turn to Jacko. “Don’t let me kill him. She walked out of his apartment alive. That’s all we know for sure right now.”

“But you suspect—”

I nod.

“I won’t let you kill him until we confirm.”

My stomach twists in knots that he might have—

Don’t think of that, or even Jacko won’t be able to stop you.

***

We jam all the tech around us as we head into Adonis’ apartment with a handy little device that Rage gave us once. There doesn’t need to be a record of our visit.

And we wait to have a nice little chat.

It isn’t long before the door opens.

“Welcome home, Adonis.” I don’t stand up, but Jacko pushes the door closed and locks it.

“What are—Why are—Did Mindy tell you?”

My body moves like lightning until I have him shoved up against the wall with my gun shoved in his gut. Not that I plan to use it, but he doesn’t need to know that. “Tell me what? What did Mindy tell me?”

“That she decided to move out.”

He can’t even lie well. “Try again. This time the truth.”

“That I kissed Dahlia.”

That one rings true, because only an insane man would lie about kissing Vex’s woman. “That was an incredibly stupid thing to do. But not why I’m here.” You can expect a visit from her husband soon. And it’s not going to be as pleasant as this one. “Why did Mindy leave your apartment at four in the morning wearing the same clothes as she did the day before?”

“How should I know what that woman did? I was asleep. Don’t believe me. Check my fitness tracker.” He lifts his wrist up.

“Jacko.”

“On it.”

“Where did she go?” I shove the gun in a little farther.

“Are you as stupid as her? I told you I was asleep. I have no idea where that woman went.”

Jacko holds the phone up to his face to unlock it.

That feels like the truth. “Did you rape her?”

“WHAT? No. I would never even touch that ugly little thing.”

The gun disappears into its holster, and I slam my fist into his gut. “Try again.”

“You’re crazy if you think—” He pauses to choose his words. “—if you think I would have sex with her. She’s the last person in the world that I would ever touch.”

“He’s not lying.” Jacko holds out the phone. “He was asleep at four in the morning. He fell asleep around eleven and slept all night. It was a terrible quality sleep, but he was asleep until well after seven.”

Just because the pretty boy was asleep doesn’t mean he didn’t hurt her before. “Was there a spike in his heart rate before he went to bed?

“It started around ten and lasted for twenty-five minutes,” Jacko reads the information off the screen.

“I told you I kissed Dahlia. It was a very long kiss. She never wanted it to end.”

This pretty boy has a death wish. He’s lying. I know it. Dahlia and Vex just got married. There’s no way she cheated on him.

Jacko places a hand on my arm. “He doesn’t know where she is. We should go.”

I don’t want to go. I want to pummel his face.

“We’re wasting time that could be spent finding her.”

That gets me. I lower my hands and step away. “It was nice chatting with you. Have a nice evening.”

“You’re nuts. I’m going to call the cops on you.”

Stupid, stupid pretty boy. “Go ahead. We were never here. And our alibi is rock solid.” I turn to Jacko. “Is it clear?”

He smiles. “Yup.”

“You have a good day now. Be sure to give Maverick my regards when you see him.”

“That was just cruel,” Jacko whispers when we’re heading down the stairs.

He deserves everything Maverick is going to do to him.