Page 52 of Paradise & Vodka

"I have his location, but do you think he's being held for ransom?"

I blew out a long breath. "Honestly, yes. This isn't like Nick. He's in Fiji with a client."

"Right, but what if it has something to do with the client?"

"Either way, he needs saving. Something is off."

"What will happen after twenty hours?"

I shrugged. "I don't even want to think about that."

"Me either."

I opened up the internet on my phone. "Let me look into flights for Fiji."

"Hey"—she held her hand over the screen—"we can't just go to Fiji."

"We have his location. I'm going to save my friend."

"Think about this, PJ."

"I am."

She turned her phone so I could see what she had on it. "Therewasa tsunami, so there won't be any flights in or out."

"Then what do we do? You know just as well as I do, they won't let him go once the money is transferred."

"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do."

"Bullshit. We're fucking FBI, gorgeous. We have resources."

"Resources we won't get authorization to use. Usually, during a hostage situation overseas, the family has to hire private security because our government doesn't want to deal with it."

"Then I'm putting my own team together, and we'll go to get my friend."

"Ourfriend," Joss stressed as she grabbed my arm, stopping me from leaving the bathroom. "Nick is our friend, but we have to do this smartly."

"So, you agree we need to go get him?"

She sighed and nodded. "Of course. After everything our group of friends has been through, I know you would beat yourself up if we let someone die when we could have saved him."

"Good. I'm going to call the guys and see if they'll help. Can you work on the transport?"

"Yeah. I know a few people with private security teams. Let me make some calls. Maybe they can come with us. I’m not sure our friends will want to go since they have families."

That was true. Gabe was hesitant even to be a driver when we were working undercover. Seth had a baby on the way, and Brad had just gotten married.

But I was going.

I hated to think that this was the reason Joss wasn't pregnant yet, but I knew things happened for a reason.

Twenty hours was cuttingit close.

That, of course, was if Paul understood what was going on.

I knew that as soon as the money was in this guy's account, Ashleigh and I were going to get bullets between our eyes. Thank God for the time difference between Vegas and Fiji. The banks were closed there when I called, which gave Paul more time to find us, but not much. Even if he and Joss—or whoever he could find on short notice to come rescue us—had twenty hours to find us, it wasn't a lot of time because of the fourteen plus flight time. I didn't know how the FBI worked, and if they would get their own plane, but I had to have faith that everything would work out. That my best friend would come through as he had in the past for our other friends.

The entire time Ashleigh and I sat in the cellar waiting, I kept hoping that Paul had picked up on the white building behind me. That he was able to triangulate where we were, and at any moment, I would hear a helicopter or gunfire or something to indicate that he was saving us. I also thought about Paul possibly not coming through.