Page 56

Maddox

“The men. They said to tell you they want your money. And if they don’t get it, they’ll kill me.”

A knife plunges down, and Mindy screams.

The call disconnects.

I pull up the tracker on her phone. It moves for a second. Then blinks away.

My world tilts and crushes in, but I don’t have time to be afraid. “Lock down the town. I need every brother on security. Set up a team to pick up the kids from work and school.”

The room explodes with action.

Vex is on his feet and out the door before I can blink.

Ethan is right behind him.

Jacko comes to stand next to me. “We’ll find her.”

Will we? The tears on her face just about broke me. “Enzo, take my phone. It has her last known location. See if you can find anything.”

Jacko moves in front of me. “You’re the clue. Take a minute and figure out who could think you owe them money.”

Money.

Money.

I don’t owe anyone. “The bag. The one from Adonis’ place. But he’s dead.”

“It’s a start. Who else, who else could you owe money?” Jacko puts his hand on my shoulders, holding me in place, forcing me to focus.

“He owes the drug dealer,” Everett answers from the door. “What’s going on? Why does everyone have to stay inside?”

That’s why we lock our doors. Though I doubt any lock would keep that kid out. “Mindy has been kidnapped.”

“That woman is always in trouble.” Everett moves towards the computers where Enzo is plugging away.

“It wasn’t her. They kidnapped her because of me.” How would they know I cared about her? “We only started dating. How would they know to take Mindy? It’s got to be someone at the party.”

Vex walks in with Dahlia over his shoulder, dragging Fea and Daria along.

Fea is barely holding back a laugh, and Daria isn’t bothering to hide her smile.

“There better be a good reason for this neanderthal behavior of yours, or I’m going to be irritated.” Dahlia glares at Vex as he sets her on her feet.

“I need to know that you’re safe. You need to be where I can see you so that I can help Maddox find Mindy.” Vex holds her close.

“Mindy is missing?” Dahlia’s eyes go wide.

“No. She was kidnapped.” He leans down and gives her a quick peck on the lips. “But we’re going to find her.”

We have to find her.

Vex walks over to us. “What have you got?”

“Three possibilities,” Jacko answers for me. “, a low-level drug dealer. Whoever killed Adonis. Maddox’s new relatives, the Linckesters.”

“The Linckesters wouldn’t do that.” Ethan walks in with Emilia by his side.

But they make the most sense. “They’re the only ones that know I’m dating Mindy.”

Emilia snorts. “The world knows you two are in love.”

“The Linckesters wouldn’t kidnap her to threaten you. If they took her, they’d kill her.” Ethan kisses his wife and walks over. “Plus, kidnapping and wooing don’t go hand in hand. He wants your mind. Harming the woman you love would have the opposite effect, and he knows that. My men are on the way to help with security.”

Emilia walks over to Dahlia and gives her a reassuring hug.

“Is there anyone else?” Vex asks the question I’ve been asking myself.

There has to be someone else.

“Other than the child prostitution ring, we haven’t had much happen in a while.” If we go back a while, the list would be endless.

“There’s a helicopter asking for permission to land on the roof.” Canyon joins the group. “Kamenev is in it.”

Is there even a question? You don’t say no to Kamenev. You don’t even think of the word in his presence. “Let him land.”

Canyon nods.

“We found her and the car,” Everett shouts.

Everyone rushes over.

He shoved a gun into her bruised ribs. Whoever this guy is, he’s dead. He might be walking around now, but he’s as good as dead. Can I kill him twice once for that and once for stabbing her.

Don’t think about that. Focus on finding her alive.

“The license plate is blocked.” Everett scrolls backwards and forwards.

The guy with the gun holds his face just right so the camera can’t pull a clean image of him. “This was planned. They knew where the cameras were.”

“That’s what I see.” Ethan nods.

“Was the vehicle following her?” Vex asks.

Huh? Of course, it was. They had to be. No one else knew where she was going.

“Go back to when she arrived at the park. The time stamp should be on my phone.” They had to be following her. She only decided to go to the park a few minutes before she left.

Colton walks in. “Everything is secure and everyone is accounted for.”

“Thank you.”

“What would you like me to do now?” Colton waits by the door.

Find Mindy. “Just hang out until something comes up.”

Colton walks over to the bar.

Sasha Kamenev steps into my office, and the room gets silent. “My father was unable to attend. He’s working some angles looking for Mindy. What information do you have? All I got was that she was kidnapped.”

I don’t even want to know who told you that. “So far, we have three leads, a drug dealer named , the person who killed Adonis, and the Linckesters.”

“ didn’t do it.” Sasha steps into the room.

“How do you know that? I took one of his dealers.” It would be easy to see how the dealer would transfer Levi’s debt onto me.

“Because is dead. I killed him when you were looking for that kid.”

And that is why you never underestimate a Kamenev, even the young ones. “That leaves us with two.”

Sasha shakes his head. “The Linckesters don’t work that way. They don’t take hostages. She would be dead in your bed or killed in front of you. They don’t play trifling games with hostages. Plus, isn’t Mindy related to them? There’s nothing more important to them than family.”

That leaves one. “We have no leads on Adonis other than Plant. And I can’t see Plant killing his cousin.”

“What did you say?” Sasha’s eyes narrow.

“Plant and Adonis are related. The two of them have been working together to traffic women and children. That’s what we’re thinking happened to Marlie. Plant abducted her like he did the other women and then sold her to traffickers.” The idea of Mindy being in the hands of human traffickers makes my blood boil, but now isn’t the time to let anger rule. “Do we have confirmation that Adonis was murdered?”

“Sure, looks like it to me.” Enzo pulls up the video. “A stolen car plowed right into him. Unless they were completely blind, they had plenty of time to stop.”

“That was a hit.” Sasha turns away.

“The sedan didn’t follow her to the park.” Everett pulls up an image of Mindy striding in.

“That leaves us with zero leads.” Nothing. We have several of the greatest strategists in the world standing right here, and we’ve got nothing.

“You have leads! You’re just looking at this from the wrong perspective” Fea steps away from Daria. “You think this is about you.”

“Mindy said it was. She told me they wanted my money.”

“What if they were confused? Mindy’s been afraid of something for months now. That’s why you hired her. What if the something finally caught up to her? Look at how she’s walking into the park. She’s stressed about something. Why was she there in the first place?” Fea points to Mindy’s image.

“To meet with her brother, Waylon. But we checked him out. He’s clean.”

“Maybe not so clean. Mindy gave him a second check last month. She wiped out her entire savings.” Enzo puts Mindy’s bank account history on the screen.

There they are, two checks of increasing amounts. “Where’s the brother?”

“On it.” Enzo’s fingers start flying.

“Everett, can you find out when the brother arrived at the park?” Maybe they followed him in.

“Looking for him now.”

Sasha steps over to Everett. There’s way too much interest in his eyes, but I can’t think about Kamenev trying to turn my computer genius into an asset now.

Later, I’ll worry about that. Why didn’t I address this sooner? As a friend, ask her why she was afraid. I could have prevented this.

“Found him. Waylon entered through an entrance on the other side.” Everett pulls it up on the main screen. “And there’s our black sedan with blocked plates.”

Waylon was the problem. “Stay with the car.”

“On it.” Everett fast forwards slowly as the car door opens, and a man steps out. “That looks like the guy who shoved the gun into Mindy.”

“Same height and weight. I’ll see if I can get an ID on him.”

“There’s no need,” Sasha says. “He’s the muscle for a low-level loan shark. Goes by Knuckles, and his boss is Rudy Weikier. He’s been making moves to expand into Urbium for some time now. They operate out of an empty storefront.”

“Do you have the address?”

“Sure. I’m sending it to you now. I’d ask to come, but you’re not going to share the kill.” Sasha stays right by Everett’s side.

No. I’m not. “Let’s move out.” We’ll grab weapons on the way.

“So, do you play mmorpgs?” Sasha asks Everett as we walk out.

Mindy better be alive when I find her.

“You don’t need to keep me in check,” I whisper to Jacko.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, brother. We’re going to find her.”

I know we are. Then I’m going to kill the man who hurt her.