Page 115 of Jase

“Did you tell him? Are they coming?”

I looked down at the home screen, seeing how the call was lost.

“I left a message,” I whispered. “They’re not answering.”

“Shit. Okay. We’ll be fine. They won’t find us. They may not even be in. They were at the door and then the feed went out.” She wiped her tears, reaching over to hand me my gun. “We’ll get in the back of the room. We’ll sit and wait. They’ll hear our message, and they’ll come or send someone to help us.”

But I wasn’t so sure. Jase and Rush were busy trying to help Rian. The last thing they were probably doing was checking their phones.

Following Tiffany, I lowered to the ground, leaning against the bottom of the gun shelf. The fire alarm was still going. Still filling the space with the loud tone. Was the building in a blaze? How long would it take for the smoke to suffocate us?

“I should have called the FBI. I…I should call them, Tiff.”

“You can’t go back out there. What if they’re inside?”

“What if they’re not. Do you hear that? They set a fire.”

“We can’t go out there. They’ll find us if they’re inside.”

My head lowered as I closed my eyes. Thoughts came and faded with the panic the alarm triggered in me. I had to think. If we didn’t come up with a plan, guns or not, we were sitting ducks. One way or another, we wouldn’t make it out of here alive.

Chapter 39

Jase

“Mr. Colter. Mr. Lockhart.” Agent Warez excused himself from a group of people, half surprised as Gaige led us into the main room holding the cybercrime division. “I’ve been trying to call you. I see you met Sullivan. Are we doing this here?”

“Actually.” Gaige gestured to an opened conference room off to the side, leading us through. “We’ve found Rian Lockhart. It was as I suspected. We’re going to have to catch you up to speed Steve, and we’re going to have to move fast.”

“Sure. I mean, I don’t understand. Catch me up on what?”

Gaige shut the door, turning to the other agent.

“You’ve been looking into Victus Antonov.”

“A little, maybe, but—It’s a name. We’ve had no luck tracking it to an actual person.”

Gaige crossed his arms over his chest. “I did, months ago. How hard did you look?”

Warez glanced between us, turning back to Agent Sullivan.

“Can we talk alone?”

“I’m not going anywhere.” I stepped forward. “I gave you that name. It’s the whole basis for our investigation. Did you forget he threatened me and my friends? That he called fromyournumber?”

Gaige’s eyebrows rose as he turned back to Warez.

“He didn’t call from my phone. Maybe my number, but not my phone. How he even managed that—”

“Goes to show who we’re dealing with.” Gaige got quiet as he took in Warez’s shifting. “Steve, what’s going on? Victus, Vitor, his men are behind the kidnapping of Rian Lockhart. I have the location of the warehouse they’re keeping him in. I already have a team assembling to go over there to take them down. What are you not telling me?”

His face turned hard as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

“The Director wants us focused on what we can prove, not what we suspect. You may have a location, but unless VitorVoznesenskyis on scene, do not bring up him or his alias. We’re not to mention either one. My hands are tied. I’ve done everything I can, but this is over my head.”

“Over your head? That son of a bitch has my brother. I don’t give a shit if he’s there or not. He had him taken. It’shismen who are responsible for this. For all of it.”

“Mr. Lockhart—”