26. Kael
Was this what insanity felt like? As if my mind had been trapped in a mythological maze, my thoughts ran in zigzags until they either slammed to a halt at a dead end or carried on and on down a dark corridor haunted by fear and monsters. I couldn’t seem to make sense of anything—each new avenue of thought only led me deeper into Minos’ labyrinth.
Tabitha sent me little sideways looks of concern, her two laptops open on her legs as I drove us through the city and down to New Jersey where a private jet waited for us. I still had favors I could call in, and that was as far as my tattered thoughts had managed to get me at the moment. She clicked on her laptop, scrolling with her finger on the screen through the listings she’d pulled up. “He has… Jesus. One hundred forty-two properties around the world.”
The city lights blurred past us, and I hit the gas, crossing the Hudson River and heading away from the populated area. “Narrow it down to which ones he spends the most time at.” Faster. Do it faster. She could be on a plane somewhere right now. I had to stop thinking panicked, useless thoughts like that, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.
“This is going to take me hours, Kael,” Tabitha said seriously, pulling up several tabs on her browser. “I can comb social media and interviews, but it’s going to take time.”
I couldn’t think straight. Instead of productive problem solving, my brain kept conjuring images of Mattie tied and gagged. Mattie being hit. Mattie being raped. Mattie crying and afraid. I shook my head. “Which ones are in the U.S.?”
Tabitha ran her eyes over the list. “Two in California, one in Texas, one here in New York, and one in Florida.”
“Gunther is still here in New York. Give me the address and I’ll send him there.”
Tabitha shook her head. “Kael, even if you pull every operative out of retirement, we aren’t going to hit all of these quickly enough. It’ll take weeks.”
“We don’t have weeks.” I didn’t know why I thought we had a short window of time, but I just knew. My instincts had warned me that something was off with Jonathon Cohen, and I’d ignored them. I couldn’t afford to do it again. “Just give me the address.”
We made fast time getting to the airfield, which was nestled between cookie-cutter home developments and patches of rural farmlands in the tiny state. I drove us straight to the waiting jet, which Nathan had running for me and ready with the steps down and a flight attendant present at the base of the stairs. On our drive, Tabitha and I had been able to narrow down where Cohen spent most of his time. He’d been most noted in California, his chateau in France, and a lodge resort in Switzerland. Those destinations were a hell of a lot different, so I knew Nathan would need some time to prepare and gain prior authorization to wherever we decided to go. Which was fine because I needed time to find the bastard. He could have taken her anywhere.
I parked, killed the engine, and then strode with long, rapid strides to the boarding stairs. Tabitha followed close behind, juggling two laptop bags and her personal backpack, so I reached over and took them from her.
Nathan poked his head out of the open doorway. “Well, if it isn’t Ghost. You look nice. Did you crash a wedding or something?”
That earned him a dark look from me. “It wasn’t a wedding. And he stole my person, so if there’s crashing to be done, it will be into his house.”
Nathan glanced at his gorgeous Global 7500 with a nervous eye bounce. “Crash what now?”
“Your person?” Tabitha asked with warm amusement.
I rotated a look to Tabitha over my shoulder. “Do you have a problem with that?”
She sucked in a smile. “Definitely not.”
“We’ll be flying internationally,” I said to Nathan, taking the stairs two steps at a time. “I know you need time to authorize that.”
“I mean, yeah, and it kind of matters where, friend.”
I sighed through my nose, moving past Nathan at the top of the stairs with irritation pulling my features tight. “We’re working on that.”
“Oh, right, sure, that clears that up.” Nathan followed close behind me as I boarded the spacious plane and sat in one of the camel-colored seats. This jet was one of the more expensive ones I’d been on, and despite years of traveling, working for wealthy clients, and experiencing everything under Earth’s sun, I hadn’t been on a jet quite this expensive before. But the owner owed me several large favors.
Nathan had a friendly face with a wide jaw and flat nose that twitched when he was thinking. He kept his blond hair on the longer side and looked more like a gym trainer than a pilot. “I was surprised to get your message. Must be urgent.”
I yanked one of Tabitha’s computers out of the bag. “What do you know about Jonathon Cohen?”
Nathan rubbed his dimpled chin. “The billionaire? My buddy flies his plane.”
I looked up in surprise. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, I mean, it’s not like there are that many disgustingly rich billionaires flying around. And oh man, it’s a gorgeous aircraft. It’s a Falcon 8X that they decked out to the nines with—”
“We don’t care about the aircraft,” Tabitha snapped. “Has your buddy told you where his employer flies the most often?”
“Uh, Switzerland, I think,” Nathan said. “Goes there a lot. And California.”
“Not France?” I clarified, typing in the passcode on the computer.
“I don’t know.” He frowned in thought. “We just talked about Switzerland because airspace is easier than some of the other countries. And he’s got this girl there he sees when they visit. She keeps a teeny tiny bottle of vodka shoved up her p—”
“Nathan,” Tabitha and I said in unified exasperation.
“Sorry, sorry,” Nathan grinned lopsidedly. “I don’t know about France. Sorry.”
I kneaded my forehead with my fingers, staring at the social media sites we had pulled up on the browser tabs. They showed various pictures of Jonathon standing in front of monuments, attending events, and going on world-class excursions to exclusive locations. Very few of them showed him at his homes.
Tabitha sat down across from me, opening the other matte black laptop, but keeping her worried gaze on me. They both watched me, and I knew I looked more perturbed than usual. All I could think was that a lunatic had Mattie and I’d failed her. I’d promised to keep her safe, promised that if she was there with me, she wouldn’t be in any danger.
I’d lied. And her life was in danger because of it.
I stared at the computer screen, and with my brain spinning in dizzying circles, I covered my eyes with my hand. “Switzerland, then. It’s in a different country, it’s where he spends most of his time, and it’s where he was a year ago exactly on his socials.”
“Aye aye, Captain.” Nathan paused mid-turn. “Wait, that’s me.”
“Did you get this pilot from the Wish app?” Tabitha asked with wide-eyed incredulity.
Nathan laughed before heading back to the cockpit to arrange for airspace travel internationally. The problem with flying a jet from American airspace into another country was that it took some time to contact the right channels. Too long. No matter what I did while I waited, how much I tried to keep busy, my brain only seemed to twist itself into its own maze of confusion until I was exhausted, cranky as fuck, and fed up.
It was an hour later when I finally closed the laptop and stood, pacing again. Tabitha stood as well, her large, dark eyes watching me closely. “Kael, we’ll find her,” she assured me.
I took out my gun, and in a nervous habit, I emptied the chamber and released the catch on the magazine to take out the rounds so I could slide them back into place. “I fucked up, Tab. If I’d just been paying attention—”
“It was my fault,” she reminded me. “I told you to relax, and I completely gaslighted you. You knew something was off. Don’t blame yourself.”
I smashed the rounds into the empty magazine, stacking them neatly on top of each other. “You know I’m better than that. It shouldn’t have mattered what you said or didn’t say. I know better. I am better than this.”
“Yes,” Tabitha said slowly, coming to stand next to me. She laid her hand on mine, halting my nervous habit. “But when has anything ever gone according to plan with Mattie?”
“Never,” I muttered, pressing the last few rounds into the magazine. “Not one time.”
Tabitha smiled slightly. “Kael, you’re not thinking clearly, because you love her.”
I paused. “What?”
“You love her. And dude,” she added, raising her black eyebrows, “you’ve had it bad for a long time. Why do you think she got away from you so easily before?”
I frowned, replaying our interactions in my mind. “That’s…” I pulled an incredulous face. “No, there’s no way.”
“It’s the truth,” Tabitha reiterated. “You haven’t made a single logical choice with Mattie.” Her mouth softened. “You’ve loved her since you met her. And it’s clouded everything you do.”
I thought back to all the maddening encounters I’d had with Mattie over the last year or so. Every sniping round of banter, every scuffle, every frustrating back-and-forth exchange that had culminated in a chase and capture I hadn’t been ready for.
Mattie challenged me. She challenged my perceptions, my skills, my patience, my icy, dead heart. She challenged me to feel. She challenged me to grow and change, and I realized then that Tabitha was right. I had craved that so badly that I had sought her out even when I shouldn’t have.
I had been chasing Mattie, but it wasn’t because I had wanted to catch her. I wanted to be caught up in her, in all that made her vivacious, witty, and clever. I wanted to be wrapped up in her until I had nowhere else to go. Because there was nowhere else I would rather be.
I swallowed hard, meeting Tabitha’s stare, and she shook her head. “Kael, you’re thinking like a man in love. Mattie doesn’t need that. She needs Ghost.”
I closed my eyes, blowing out a calming breath and stepping away. I slammed the magazine into the gun well. “Okay.”
“You can do it,” Tabitha said with quiet confidence.
I paced the length of the cabin until I reached the back, and then I leaned an elbow on the cherry wood inlay. I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against my fist. Think, Ghost. What do you know about Jonathon?
Ownership. He wants to own her. She said he wants her, and you know what men like him are like. You know how far they’ll go. But you also know their profile. Genius, unlimited resources, but predictable patterns. Always predictable patterns. They crave control. Routine. And if he wants to “own” Mattie, then where would he want her?
“He has an entire collection of mineral deposits from the trench itself that he’s installed in the chateau.” Alicia’s breathless voice speared through my memories first, followed closely by Mattie’s.
“I escaped an entire fleet of bodyguards in France. I can handle one ghostie.”
I opened my eyes and fixed them on Tabitha. “Change our destination to France.”