Page 116 of Fractured Future

“Not sure Eli’s figured out solo parenting yet.”

“Clearly,” I snicker.

“He’s an incredible dad, but he gets anxious about messing up. I told Phoenix to leave him to it. He’s got to get over this fear sometime.”

The elevator deposits us on the top floor, and Kade smacks my shoulder before heading for his office. Letting him stomp off to track down his less-friendly brother, I head for Warner’s office.

Barging in without knocking, my heavy pack slides off my shoulder to hit the blue office carpet. Warner sits behind his monitor, a work phone pressed to his ear. He gestures for me to sit down while still listening to whoever is on the line.

“Yes. Understood.”

Taking a seat in the comfortable leather chair opposite his desk, I drop my motorcycle helmet onto the seat next to me then work on pulling off my leather jacket.

“Send an information request to the Mexican feds. If they have permits or land records, I want them. Thank you.”

Ending his phone call, Warner slumps back in his chair. I ease my leather jacket off my shoulders while watching him deflate.

“Good news?”

“That was Fox down in intelligence. He and Rayna have narrowed down approximately seven estates in the vicinity where Ember thought she was held by Gael.”

My spine stiffens ramrod straight. “What do we know?”

“Right now? Nothing. Not until that information request comes back. Could be a while until we hear.”

My jacket’s well-worn leather twists in my hands. The idea that we could track down Gael’s base of operations and commence surveillance has felt impossible. This is much-needed progress.

If we can locate his headquarters, we’ll be one step closer to apprehending him. Gael is the head of the snake. With him gone, his ring of fellow monsters will soon collapse.

“What did you find?” Warner prompts.

“Right.” I shake myself back into the present. “The meeting unfolded exactly as Stillwell said it would. You need to get him a new cell.”

He impatiently waves his hand for me to continue.

“Nobody I recognised from our past investigations, but it won’t be hard to get IDs. I took photographs of the attendees. Including one very familiar face.”

Warner patiently waits while I bring up the shots on my surveillance camera. Handing it over so he can look at the built-in screen, I watch his expression flit between surprise and fury.

“What the fuck?” he exclaims.

“My thought precisely.”

“Blaine Madden. Again!”

“Yep. Who saves someone from trafficking if they’re part of the goddamn ring?”

“This makes no sense.” Warner clicks through the different shots. “Madden was always adamant that he wanted nothing to do with the skin trade.”

“What about his father?’”

Jaw clenching, he places the camera down. “They had different points of view on it. But we haven’t had eyes on Nolan Madden since we convicted his son, and he vanished into thin air.”

Deep in thought, I look up at the wall-sized board behind Warner’s desk. We’ve collated years’ worth of investigating across the huge panel, pinning countless news articles, surveillance reports and possible players with red tacks.

Until Ember’s call came in, the pieces were all fragmented. Cartels. Shipments. Missing persons reports. Those pieces still lay scattered, but at the heart of the puzzle, Ember unwittingly resides.

“There’s a connection here.”