Page 34 of Nothing to This (Nothing to… #8)

“How is she doing?” Brenna asked when he returned from the hallway to the vision of craziness.

In the kitchen and around the dining table, security agents and cops worked hard, some were on phones, some were on laptops.

Everyone was busy, yet he wanted to yell at them for not doing enough.

Reaching for his sister, he caught her shoulder and pulled her into a hug.

Everyone needed to draw a little comfort from each other today.

“She fell asleep,” he said, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and swinging her a few inches left to right. “Kye’s asleep too, I looked in on him… I just wanted to scoop him up and take him to his momma, you know?”

“None of us want to be alone right now,” she said. “Mom’s taking it hard.”

Keeping Brenna in his arms, he twisted to look toward the living room where his mom was being comforted by Lotta. “It’s not her fault.”

“No more hers than it is mine,” Brenna said. “Jame, I’m so sorry. Rylee trusted me and—”

“Hey,” he said, taking her shoulders to guide her back and look down at her. “There’s plenty enough blame to go around for everyone. Can we just stand together right now? For Sky’s sake.”

He managed a tight smile, so she reciprocated, and he hugged her again, using his sister as a leaning post.

“How are you staying so strong?” Brenna asked as he observed the people working to find his daughter.

“Rylee,” he answered without thinking about it.

“Rylee?”

“Her focus is on Kye right now, she needs my eyes on Sky. She’s close to breaking and when she does, God help us all.”

“You think she’ll lose it?”

That was his greatest fear. Though it was obvious losing Sky had shaken her, Rylee was strong. That same strength would get their daughter through whatever she was enduring.

One guy on a laptop gestured another closer. After a quick conversation, they called over another person, saying something about footage.

Clinging tighter to his sister, he couldn’t hope. Information was coming in from all angles, and these first hours were crucial. Hope was dangerous, yet he had to think it was possible, they would get their girl back. Every lead had to be followed, but not all would necessarily pan out.

Everyone filming or taking pictures at the party was asked to send their files to a central email account.

Technological genius Xavien Rourke, courtesy of Roxanna Kyst, had written a quick program to read the metadata of every file and arrange them into chronological order with a sub-path on geographical location.

Their allies had increased the reach of their request too.

Rather than just those at the party, everyone in the city, the country, the planet, with any hint of images or video of the park or party, were donating their material to the same program.

Anything might be relevant. To see something out of place or unusual, the same people had to see the same area from as many angles as possible.

Compiling the data would take time and time was one thing they didn’t have on their side.

Those around the table with laptops analyzed every frame.

While he wanted a set of human eyes on every nanosecond, he was also running every piece of media through facial recognition for Sky and having separate files set up for each party attendee.

Those closest to the event could be suspects.

It might seem like an invasion of privacy but tracking people at the party could be important.

As soon as they had Sky back, he’d burn it all.

He just wanted to be ready if they identified a culprit.

Letting Brenna go, he went around her to the table. “What have you got?” he asked, startling the men huddled around the machine.

“Maybe nothing. It’s something that we want to—”

“Don’t fuck with me, Stone, what is it?”

“Rourke’s building a 3D recreation with the media we’re getting. Putting it all together to show us from every angle—”

“What is it?”

He’d be wowed by the technology another time. After he got his daughter back.

The others stepped away from Stone as he pushed the shoulder of the man in the chair, making him vacate so the boss could sit in his place.

“Getting that back angle of the ride is impossible, the foliage is too thick and there’s a wall before the street, but…”

Going around the table, JD bent to look over Stone’s shoulder as he restarted the muted video of the carousel just barely peeking through branches and leaves, hidden in shadow.

It was the usual scene, horses going up and down, round and round, kids smiling and waving.

“There’s Kye,” Stone said, pointing at a particular horse as the ride rotated. “And Sky. Two behind him on the outer row.”

They were his kids, yet with such an obscured view, he wasn’t sure he’d have ID’d them on that first round.

The ride went around again and Stone pointed to each of the kids.

JD’s smile curled when Sky tried to wave but grabbed for the horse again the moment she let go.

Kye didn’t even try to wave, but he bounced like he was actually riding a horse, in his own wonderful world.

“She’s more of a swimmer than an equestrian,” JD said, spying the determination on his little girl’s partially hidden face.

The ride slowed and he steadied his breathing, wary of what he might see. Stone paused the footage and clicked it forward frame by frame. Kye went by the camera which darkened and wavered just before Sky came into view. Fuck, that could be his last chance to see his little girl.

The light returned just as the ride came to a halt. Kye was at the edge of the screen, still bouncing up and down. Doing as told, Kye waited until his aunt came up to help him, the two laughed as Lotta struggled to unfasten the strap around his little waist.

“There,” Stone said and froze the image.

What was he supposed to be looking at? People freeing the kids from the ride and the dying fall leaves caused chaos, it was difficult to discern.

“What are you…”

Stone pointed at the screen for a second, then lowered his finger to select and zoom in on a specific area.

“That’s the front of Sky’s horse,” he said.

The nose of one of the horses was just visible through a tiny crack in the melee of nature and nurture.

“Gotta be grateful Roxie’s guy is recording in the highest def. ”

Stone clicked something. The image went through a couple of scrubs, increasing the definition until…

“Fuck,” JD breathed out and wiped a hand over his mouth.

“That’s a hand, a female one I’d say,” Stone said. “Just on the nose of the horse, someone is talking to Sky. They took her off the ride… Why wouldn’t she scream bloody murder if a stranger—”

“Because that’s not a stranger,” JD said, pushing away from the table, fury coursing through him when he stalked toward the door. “Stone, bring a guy and grab a cop to make an arrest.”

“Dawes,” Stone said and whistled. Two S.I.S. men closed in, blocking JD’s access to the front door. “You’re emotional, too close to this. Who is it? Tell us, and we’ll handle—”

“You’ve got a son, right?” JD asked, grabbing his jacket from the hooks by the door and snatching one for Sky too. “How old is he?”

“Three,” Stone said. “We’ve got a daughter on the way.”

The whole room focused on him, but JD didn’t flinch.

“And you’re married?” Stone nodded. “I’ve known my daughter two years longer than you’ve known your son.

If someone was holding him, keeping him from your wife, would you leave it to someone else to retrieve him?

How would you look her in the eye if you sat on your ass and let strangers rush in on your scared, upset child?

Back me up or back down. One father to another. ”

Stone looked at him for another second then breathed out. “Rocco, you’re with us. You’ve been doing the father thing longer than both of us.”

One of the S.I.S. men blocking the door spoke up, “Sure thing, boss.”

“Shep,” Stone said, coming toward them.

Another S.I.S. man fell in at his side. “And here I thought Little Lady had given you your balls back for this mission,” Shep said. “Guess I was wrong if you’re falling for speeches like that.”

JD stepped aside, letting Rocco open the front door.

The S.I.S. leader shoved Shep out first. “Least my lady doesn’t chew mine up and spit ‘em out like yours,” Stone said, pulling a weapon from his hip to check the clip.

“You won’t need that,” JD said. After they were in the hallway, he turned to look at Brenna standing at the foot of the table. “Let Rylee sleep, don’t wake her. But if she gets up, tell her I’ll be back with our girl in less than an hour.”

Relief put a grin on Brenna’s face. “You mean it? You know where she is?” He nodded. “Oh, Jame!”

JD went into the hallway and closed the door to look at the men he had. “We need a cop to make an arrest.”

“We’ll radio from the car,” Stone said. They all started toward the elevator. “Now you want to fill me in on who we’re taking down?”

“A very desperate woman.”