Chapter 36
The team rushed back to the Dawg, piled into vehicles, and raced to Hettie’s house.
The old Queen Anne stood sentinel beneath tall trees, lights blazing from the windows.
Ethan couldn’t stop to think about what he might find.
Trey had stolen a piece of Violet’s paper to write on.
The only way he’d gotten that was from Hettie’s house.
He hadn’t been inside the cottage on Chestnut Street because the alarm hadn’t been tripped.
Ethan was first out of the vehicle, first to race across the yard.
He skidded to a halt at Hettie’s door, scanning for anything out of place.
Then, because he didn’t know what the fuck he would find, he pounded a fist on the door, praying beyond hope that Trey hadn’t actually been there.
That he’d found a piece of Violet’s paper on Paisley’s desk or something.
It was possible. Anything was possible.
“Miss Hettie,” he called. “Violet. It’s Ethan.”
The sound of his pounding echoed throughout the house. His team raced onto the porch, eyes wide, faces grave. They were all missing their women, all worried, yet they were here with him. Looking for his little girl. And Miss Hettie.
Just when he was ready to kick the door in, it swung open to reveal a wizened old face. Hettie Woods was stooped with age, but her eyes flashed fire.
“Ethan. There was a man. He came inside but Violet and I hid behind the secret panel.” She put a hand to her heart. “Dear Lord, I was afraid to come out until I heard you shouting. Well, Violet heard you if I’m honest, which is why I’m here and she’s still in the library.”
She turned to yell over her shoulder, but her voice wasn’t very loud. “Vivi, honey, come here! It’s Mr. Ethan and his friends.”
Violet was there a moment later, her little eyes wide, blond hair flying. She ran into his arms and he caught her close, lifting her, dropping his nose to her hair. Strawberries.
“It was my daddy,” she said. “The mean one. He was here but me and Aunt Hettie hid. He cussed a lot.”
Jesus.
Violet reared back to look at him. “I want you to be my daddy, Mr. Ethan. Forever.”
He squeezed her, his heart hammering. “I want that, too, honey. I’m proud to be your daddy. Can you tell me if Trey—that’s your mean daddy—said anything? It might help me find him.”
Her lower lip jutted out. “Why? He’s mean. You don’t want to find him.”
“I really do, honey. I want to make him pay for being a bad man. Make sure he never scares you again.”
She curled her little fists into his shoulders. “He said the house was gonna esspode. When everyone was there. I don’t know what that means. Where’s Mommy?”
Ethan exchanged a look with his team. Kane’s jaw was granite.
He was their explosives expert. They all knew Trey was rigging a house to explode based on what Violet said, but Kane would have a better idea than any of them on how he planned to do it.
Ethan didn’t think it was this house since nothing had happened when Hettie opened the door, but he wasn’t taking chances.
“Mommy had to work late, honey.” He hated lying, but he wasn’t going to tell her that Mommy was in terrible danger.
“Miss Hettie, need you to come with us. You and Violet both. Going to take you to the Suttons’ house.
” Blaze nodded when Ethan gave him a look.
The Suttons were the safest people he could think of since he didn’t want to involve the police yet.
“John and Ellen will watch over you both until we can make sure everything’s good to return. ”
He expected a fight, but Miss Hettie gave him a once over and nodded. “Let me get my purse, young man. I’ve read enough murder mysteries to know what the correct course of action is. You don’t have to worry I’m going to be stubborn.”
“I really don’t think you should go back inside—”
She reached over where he couldn’t see what she was doing and returned with a handbag. “I keep it inside the credenza by the door. I’m ready. Vivi, are you ready to go with your daddy?”
“Yes, ma’am. But I want my drawings.”
“I’m sure the Suttons have paper, dear. We need to get moving so your daddy can get the bad men before they hurt anyone. Isn’t that right, Ethan?”
“Yes, ma’am, it is.”
“Precisely.” She stepped out of the door and gazed at him expectantly.
“Seth and Blaze will take you, ma’am,” Ghost said, stepping in to take control. “We need to look around.”
Hettie’s eyes sparked. “Ah, of course. Clues. Vivi, say goodnight to your daddy. He has work to do.”
Violet hugged his neck tight and then kissed him on the cheek. Ethan’s heart was a mess of emotion. Love for his child, love for Paisley, and fear he wouldn’t get to her in time.
“Bye, Daddy Ethan. See you and Mommy later. But I’m sleepy so maybe I won’t see you until I wake up in the morning.”
Ethan kissed her cheek. “It’s okay, baby. I’ll make waffles for you and Mommy, okay?”
“Okay.”
He set her down and she put her hand into Hettie’s. The two of them went down the steps and strolled to the street with Seth and Blaze.
“Demon?” Ghost said to Kane.
“I don’t see any wires. I honestly don’t think he put charges on this house. The women aren’t here.”
“Agreed,” Ethan said.
“Then let’s get inside and see if we find anything that might lead us to McCann.”
They searched the downstairs first. When they came up empty-handed, Ethan wanted to scream
He wasn’t the only one. The look of pain on his friends’ faces tore him in two.
Yeah, he’d had some good news, but it wasn’t enough.
He was so damned thankful Violet was alive. He hadn’t known what to expect when they’d rolled up to Hettie’s house, but he’d tried to prepare for the worst. To have Hettie and Violet alive and well was more than he’d expected—and everything he’d hoped for.
Now he had to rescue Paisley. How would he live without her after they’d just found each other again? And how would his team live without the women they loved and the children on the way?
Jesus.
Ghost was the only one whose heart wasn’t compromised on this mission but he was there beside them, going into battle with them. Just like they’d go into battle for him.
Please, Jesus, just let Paisley be alive. Let them all be alive.
But where?
They raced for the range and rushed inside to put on assault suits, paint their faces, and arm themselves to the teeth.
They miked up but they didn’t have anywhere to go.
Not until Trey deigned to tell them. Ethan was banking on the man wanting to gloat, wanting them to suffer, but it was possible Trey would be satisfied by simply taking the women and making them disappear.
He’d clearly wanted Violet, too, but he hadn’t found her. Thank God for big, old houses with hidden doors and secret staircases. Hettie had delighted in showing him those features when he’d worked with Diego on a job for her, and he was more thankful now than he’d ever been.
Seth was busy on his laptop, typing things in, searching, asking questions of his contacts. He looked frustrated and angry and Ethan understood. He felt the same things. Along with a despair that said he’d never be happy again.
“Clint Harris!” Seth yelled, startling them all. “Fucking hell.”
“Clint Harris? What’s that?” Kane snarled.
“Trey Clinton McCann. He grew up on Harris Street in a little town in Idaho, which took me fucking forever to dig up. Clint Harris! He fucking rented a car in Huntsville and then returned it in Destin the same day McCann arrived there a few weeks ago. Then I traced the name back to Charlotte. He boarded a plane to Huntsville from Charlotte the day McCann arrived and checked into the airport Hilton. But Harris never made the return trip to Charlotte, and McCann never went to Dubai.”
Ethan stiffened. It was confirmation Trey had been in Sutton’s Creek, watching Paisley. He’d probably been the man on the camera that night. But he hadn’t done anything then. He’d returned to Destin. To plan. To come back and do whatever he was doing now. To involve all of them, not just Ethan.
“How does that help us now?” Ghost snapped.
“Clint Harris is one of Brent Gannon’s contacts.
Which means I’ve got audio of a call they had two days ago when Gannon was in his office at Eagle Defense Systems. It didn’t raise any alarm bells at the time, but Harris asked if the property was ready for their hunting trip.
It’s coyote and feral hog season year round so nothing suspicious there.
Gannon said it was. Then he gave an address.
Harris thanked him and said he and his friends would be arriving the next day, which was yesterday. ”
Ethan surged to his feet along with the rest of the team. “What?” Kane barked, hope flaring in his voice. “You have an address?”
Seth closed his laptop and stood, a feral smile on his lips. “Yeah, I do.”
“Then let’s head out, men,” Ghost said.
They piled into Kane’s Yukon and Ethan’s truck, because they were less suspicious than a van—plus there was room to bring five women home—and headed for the remote property between Sutton’s Creek and Triana.
They hashed it out over the comms, deciding on their approach.
Trey was too unpredictable and too dangerous for them to waltz in like this was an ordinary op.
Not that ordinary ops weren’t dangerous, but the targets weren’t usually people with the same training they had.
When Ethan’s phone rang, the caller was unknown. He hit the screen to accept the call, his teeth clenching tight.
“Hello?”
Because he had to play it dumb. Blaze and Ghost were with him but he could only see Ghost’s face in the front seat. The man looked angry. And vengeful, like a dark god who’d been tricked somehow.
“Ethan Snow,” Trey said, sounding joyful—and slightly nasal. “How’s it going, my man?”
“What do you fucking want, Trey?”
“Oh, I think you know. Paisley. I’ve got her. Got all the bitches. Thinking about killing them if you don’t show up. You and the whole team. Wraith, Shadow, Demon, Phantom—and Ghost most especially. Can’t wait to see that fucker again.”
“What’s the plan, Mick?” he said, calling Trey by his call sign. “What happens when we show? You just planning to let them go?”
“Not really, no. Thinking we’ll do a trade. The six of you for the five of them. You come here, show good faith, and I’ll let them walk. Then it’s you six against me and my boys. You might win. You might not. But at least your ladies will be free.”
He wondered how to ask for a head count on the ‘boys’. That’d be helpful, knowing numbers. “How do I know I can trust you to let them go?”
“My word as an operator. We’re a brotherhood, Dragon. We’ve served. Seen some shit. Done some shit. You show up, and I’ll let them walk. Then we’ll see who comes out on top.”
“Okay,” Ethan said. The man was full of shit and they all knew it, but the only option was to bargain with him. Let him think he was getting what he wanted. “When and where?”
“Nope, not telling you that yet. You’re gonna need to follow some clues, kinda like one of those mystery games where you gotta solve a puzzle to get a clue.”
“You’re a fucking bastard, you know that?”
Trey laughed. “Heard it a time or two. But you know what? I’m a rich bastard, and you aren’t. You can tell Ghost that for me. I’m fucking rich. People pay me to do the kind of work I did for free in the goddamn Hostile Operations Team. The kind of work he didn’t appreciate.”
Asshole. “Then why do you want to risk it all by taking us on? You could walk away, enjoy your money, and know we’ve got nothing like that. That we still have to work a nine to five while you can light your cigars with hundred dollar bills.”
He laughed. “Thousand dollar bills, my man. But I like a challenge. Keeps my skills honed.”
“Seems like a dumb fucking risk if you ask me. You might lose. Then what?”
“I think you overestimate your ability. But maybe you’re right.
Still, it’s too late now. I’ve got your lady tied to a chair in a house in the middle of fucking nowhere.
There’s a bomb under the kitchen table. It’s got one hour on it.
You follow the clues, get here on time, and I’ll stop the countdown.
Don’t figure it out and boom, bye bye pretty ladies. ”
“We’ll be there.”
He laughed. “I’m sure you will. But will it be on time or not?
I’ll send over the first clue. Finding the rest is up to you.
Oh, and don’t bother trying to trace this phone.
Phantom isn’t the only IT guy worth his weight in gold.
You’ll waste too much time and that’s not what you need to be doing right now. ”
The line went dead. Blaze exploded in a torrent of obscenity and plans for murder. Ethan was right there with him. He gripped the wheel and concentrated on the road in front of him. His phone pinged with a text. Ghost picked it up.
“I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish. What am I?” he read. “For fuck’s sake, it’s a map. How much of a douche do you have to be for this shit?”
“That’s it?” Blaze asked.
“There’s more. Go to the Gas-n-Go. Find the object I’ve described and look closely. You’ll find the next clue there.”
“He wants us to go to the Gas-n-Go to chase down a map? Is he fucking crazy?” Ethan growled.
“Yeah, well, we aren’t doing it. You hear me, fellas?” Ghost said. “He’ll send us on a wild goose chase and we won’t learn a fucking thing from any of the clues we don’t already know.”
Kane responded from the other vehicle. “Roger that. No fucking treasure hunt.”
“No fucking treasure hunt,” Ghost agreed. “We do this the way we planned.”
They just had to hope what they planned was enough.