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Ronan

TWELVE HOURS AND FORTY-THREE MINUTES SINCE THEY TOOK HER.

S he never even made it back to her apartment. They scooped her up right before turning on Auburn, minutes from her apartment.

I’ve spent every minute scouring security footage to track the van they took her in. When I lost them because there weren't any more cameras towards the north end of the city, I had to get creative.

THIRTEEN HOURS AND TWENTY-SIX MINUTES SINCE THEY TOOK HER.

I ended up reaching out to Kassius and Cade, who dropped everything to come over and have been sitting here with me, scouring everything to find out about these masked fuckers that took my girl.

EIGHTEEN HOURS AND THIRTY-TWO MINUTES SINCE THEY TOOK HER.

Cade’s brother, Lex, was a vital component to us being able to figure out exactly where she was. He works downtown as a data entry specialist for the registration department with an after-hours hobby of hacking anything and everything on the internet.

He stopped by our makeshift home base, I set up in the living room, screens glowing with satellite images, surveillance feeds, and digital maps.

He logged into a couple of government databases, and after a few hours, we had it all.

TWENTY-TWO HOURS AND SIXTEEN MINUTES SINCE THEY TOOK HER.

He ended up finding all the information needed by using the license plate number. We now have the owner’s name, address, and know that the car was recently re-registered in the state.

“Nathan Cross, a 36-year-old white male from Grand Lakes,” Lex says, as he continues to type away at the keyboard in front of him. “It’s an alias, though. I can’t find any public records with that name.”

“The car was registered somewhere in the outskirts of the town, about an hour away from what I can guess. I can’t find its actual location on any maps, so I think it’s been abandoned for quite some time. This place is meant to stay hidden, Ronan.”

“Pull up surveillance from the area. I want every fucking camera scrubbed.” I slam my hand on my desk, frustration rising.

“On it. We’re gonna find her, bro,” Kassius tries to calm me as he turns back to the screen in front of him.

There’s another pinch at the back of my neck. At this point, I’m so used to it that I barely even notice. I sigh as I run my hand through my tangled hair, my emotions are bleeding out of me like an open wound-on display for everyone to see .

This isn’t working.

I need to fucking find her.

TWENTY-THREE HOURS AND FIFTY-FIVE MINUTES SINCE THEY TOOK HER.

The room is silent except for the frantic clicking of keys and the low hum coming from the computers. The place smells like burnt coffee and desperation.

Lex’s chair squeaks as he turns to me.

“Got something, Rone.”

He shows me a video clip from a traffic camera on the outskirts of Grand Lakes. The image is a little grainy and skipping, but I see that van rolling past at 1:14 am.

It has no lights, but the driver’s side window is down, and there’s a silhouette inside. The same build and masked up face as the fucker that yanked her away on her walk home not even a day ago.

“Zoom in,” I say, voice cold .

He does his best, but it doesn’t help much. Sighing, he flips the screen to a different window.

“It’s not gonna get any clearer, but I did cross-reference the route with some older maps I found in the stored records with the city.

It looks like there was a compound of some kind there.

Long gone by now, but it was big enough that I’m betting there’s still enough structure to hide someone there. ”

Cade is the first to stand, his jaw set. “It’s settled then, we need to go there.”

I nod once. “Let’s move.”

Kassius is already on his feet before the words leave my mouth, reaching over to grab the duffel bag he brought. He opens it, allowing us to go through the gear. There are some flashbangs, a mini sledgehammer, some knives, a few different guns, brass knuckles, and Lex’s lucky, rusty, cut-off pipe.

I never said we were professionals, okay?

Lex rises to his feet, gathering a couple of earpieces and his laptop .

“We gotta stay focused, we don’t know what kind of numbers we’re working against here.”

“I can take at least four of them,” Cade says, swinging the leather-wrapped bat like he’s practicing killing zombies for the apocalypse.

“He’s gonna get us killed,” Kassius groans, shoving some gummies in the bag.

“Awwweeee thanks, Dad. You’re bringing me snacks,” Cade jokes, smiling like an idiot.

“Low blood sugar is no joke. You know that Cade, especially after what happened last time.”

I roll my eyes at the two of them as we head out the door to Cade’s blacked-out Chevy Tahoe.

“We don’t talk about last time, bro. That was an oopsie. Won’t happen again, sir.” He salutes Kassius like a soldier.

Lex laughs from behind us. “Come on, guys, no time for jokes. We gotta get Ronan’s girl back.”

“Oh, come on! If we’re breaking into an abandoned building to save his girl from masked psychos, at least let me cope with humor.” He bats his eyes at Lex, and I stifle a laugh as we all load into the SUV and head out.

TWENTY-FIVE HOURS AND TWO MINUTES SINCE THEY TOOK HER.

We hit a dirt turnoff onto an old gravel road that leads into the woods. The building barely shows up on satellite, hidden by nature.

“This is it,” Lex says, killing the headlights and adjusting his glasses.

Kassius hops out of the car, adjusting his bulletproof vest, and we follow behind.

Cade tightens his boots before slipping a combat knife in as I check the pistol at my side, and we all slide our comms in.

We don’t say anything. We don’t need to.

We already know what the plan is.

Bring Aisling home.