Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
It took Wolf several moments after he hung up to calm down. Tex was missing. Had been kidnapped . If he hadn’t just talked to Melody and heard the terror in her voice, he would’ve thought someone was fucking with him.
Tex didn’t get kidnapped. He was the man who found those who were.
The one question front and center in Wolf’s mind was…who? Who hated Tex so much that they’d go to these lengths to get to him?
Pulling his laptop closer, he quickly reserved two red-eye tickets out of San Diego to Pittsburgh. They cost a fortune, but Wolf didn’t even hesitate to click the purchase button. His closest friend was missing. He’d pay whatever it cost to get to Melody’s side.
The next step was calling Elizabeth Turner. It was interesting how life came full circle. Beth had been kidnapped by a serial killer. along with his friend Summer, up in Big Bear quite a few years ago. She’d moved to San Antonio, Texas, to deal with the aftermath, where she’d met a firefighter named Cade. He’d helped her overcome her agoraphobia and, in the process, she’d been introduced to Tex.
Turned out Beth was one hell of a hacker. She and Tex became fast friends, and last Wolf heard, she continued to work with Tex from time to time. He hoped that was still the case.
He didn’t beat around the bush when she answered. “Beth? This is Wolf…Matthew Steel. I’m married to Caroline?”
“Of course. How are you?” Beth asked, the curiosity as to why he was calling easy to hear in her voice.
“I’m sorry this isn’t a social call. Tex has been kidnapped.” Wolf decided delivering the news like ripping off a Band-Aid was best.
Dead silence followed his statement.
“Beth? Did you hear me?”
“I heard you, but I’m not sure I believe it,” she said.
Wolf proceeded to relay all the information Melody had shared with him about what happened. “Caroline and I are on our way to Pennsylvania tonight to be with Melody and see if we can be of any help. But what Tex really needs is someone like him . Someone who can get intel. And you were the first person I thought of.”
“Holy shit. Tex kidnapped. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this. But yes, of course I’ll help. But honestly, a better person than me with the dark web is a woman named Ryleigh. She lives in New Mexico. Tex recently met her, and he told me that she’s even more talented than him when it came to hacking and getting into places that are supposedly secure.”
“That’s right! I know her! I met her not too long ago myself, when some shit went down at the resort where she works. Caroline and I were actually there. I’d forgotten that Tex said something about her being a computer genius.”
“Do you want me to contact her?” Beth asked.
“No. I’m on it. I need you to start searching. See if you can find anyone who has a grudge against Tex. Who might’ve been posting shit online about him. We need any and all information about anyone who could be behind this.”
“On it,” Beth said. “Would you mind if Cade and I came to Pennsylvania too?”
“You’d be okay with that? I mean…no offense, but I know about your condition,” Wolf said as gently as he could.
“I’m good. I mean, I’m not saying I want to go hang out at a Pittsburgh Steelers game or anything, but as long as Cade’s with me and I’m on my meds, I can handle it. I’ve come a long way since those awful days after I first moved here.”
“From what I’ve heard, you’ve done an amazing job. I’ll send you Melody and Tex’s address. And you’ll have my number so you can keep in touch.”
Beth chuckled. “No need. I can find both on my own.”
Wolf had forgotten who he was dealing with for a moment. “Of course you can. All right, I’ll call Ryleigh. See you tomorrow in Pennsylvania. And…thanks.”
“No need to thank me. This is Tex we’re talking about.”
The connection ended and Wolf quickly searched the Internet for contact info on The Refuge. He and Caroline had gone there to attend a wedding, but instead they’d found themselves in the middle of a revenge plot against the very woman he now hoped to talk to. He quickly dialed the number and waited impatiently for someone to answer.
“The Refuge. How may I help you?” a woman said when she answered the phone.
“My name is Matthew Steel. I need to talk to Ryleigh, please.”
The woman hesitated a beat before she replied with exaggerated politeness, “May I ask the nature of your call?”
Wolf took a deep breath. He needed to calm the fuck down and not sound like a psycho here. “My wife, Caroline, and I were there not too long ago when Ryleigh was having some…difficulties.”
“Oh! That’s right! I remember you. This is Alaska. How are you?”
“Not good. Tex has disappeared. I need to talk to Ryleigh about helping me find him.”
“What the hell? Tex is missing?”
Wolf supposed he was going to get that response from everyone he talked to, because it was so incomprehensible that the man who was instrumental in finding so many people in their circles had been kidnapped himself. He quickly summed up the situation for Alaska, internally itching to talk to Ryleigh. But he understood, and approved of, Alaska being the gatekeeper for anyone cold calling The Refuge to talk to a staff member. Everyone who lived and worked there had been through their own traumas, and they couldn’t be too careful.
“If you give me your number, I can run over to her cabin and see if she’s around.”
Wolf quickly rattled off his number.
“Give me three minutes. Four, tops. I know she’s gonna want to call you back immediately,” Alaska told him.
“I appreciate it.” Wolf ended the connection and went into his bedroom to pack. Caroline wasn’t home yet, but she should be on her way. She’d been visiting My Sister’s Closet, her friend Julie’s consignment shop in downtown Riverton. He didn’t want to give her such upsetting news over the phone while she was driving.
He hadn’t even gotten halfway through packing—and he was rushing—when his phone rang.
“Wolf,” he said by way of greeting.
“Tell me you’re shitting me,” the woman on the other end said.
“Ryleigh?”
“Yeah. What the hell happened?”
For what seemed like the hundredth time, Wolf explained what he’d learned from Melody.
“What about Hope and Akilah? Are they all right? Are they in danger? Do you think whoever took Tex and Melody will go after them?”
Wolf’s blood ran cold. The thought of either of Tex’s girls having to go through the trauma that their parents had was unfathomable.
“Hope is covered. I’m not sure about Akilah.”
“I’m on it,” Ryleigh said, and Wolf heard keys clicking in the background. It was such a familiar sound, something he’d heard so often when he’d talked to Tex, that he immediately relaxed a fraction.
“Right. So, we need to find out who and why. That’s the first step.”
“Exactly. I’ve already talked to Beth. Elizabeth Turner. She’s also working on this,” Wolf told her.
“Good. She’s amazing. No offense though, I’m better. Has there been a ransom or any communication from whoever took him?” she asked, her tone brusque.
“Melody said a brick painted bright yellow was on the road near her, after she was thrown out of the van. There was a note wrapped around it but she didn’t touch it because she was afraid to contaminate any DNA or fingerprints.”
“Smart. Okay, I’ll hack into the police department databases and see if anyone has started a report yet. Forensics might still be working on it.”
Wolf should’ve been concerned by how nonchalantly Ryleigh talked about hacking into a government entity’s database, but at this point, he didn’t care who the fuck she hacked as long as it resulted in intel he could use to find his friend.
“I don’t suppose he was wearing one of the prototype trackers he’s been working on, huh?” Ryleigh asked.
“Not that I know of. But it’s possible.”
Ryleigh grunted. “I’ll find out. It would make tracking him down a hell of a lot easier if he was.”
Wolf thought that was the understatement of the century.
“You going out there? To Pennsylvania?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m thinking you should call Baker.”
Wolf had heard of Baker. He was a former SEAL living out in Hawaii. He’d never met the man, he was older than Wolf and his friends, but from what he understood, he had almost as many connections as Tex. Except his connections were a little…darker. Which might be extremely useful.
“Good idea,” he said.
“I’m texting you his numbers now,” Ryleigh said, even as Wolf’s phone vibrated in his hand. Pulling it away from his ear, he saw a text from an unknown number. He assumed it was Ryleigh’s.
“I’m not going to fly out to Pennsylvania. I’ve got everything I need here. My computers are secure here, as is the wi-fi. I’ll be in touch.”
Then she hung up. Wolf wasn’t offended. He was actually relieved that she and Beth were already working on their ends to find out any information they could.
Wolf continued to pack as he clicked on the phone number Ryleigh had sent him.
“What?” a deep gruff voice said as the man answered. “Who is this?”
“My name is Matthew Steel, otherwise known as Wolf. Do you know Tex?” He wasn’t beating around the bush.
“Yes, why?”
“He’s been kidnapped.”
“The fuck you say!” Baker exclaimed. “Where?”
“Off his street in Pennsylvania.”
“What’s being done about it?”
The man didn’t even ask questions about what happened. He was all business.
Wolf explained about Beth and Ryleigh, and how he was heading across the country as soon as he could.
“I’ll meet you there. We’re going to need boots on the ground to get our man back,” Baker said. “How’s his wife?”
“Not great,” Wolf admitted. “She’s pretty banged up from being thrown from a moving vehicle.”
“Motherfucker. You think she’d find it weird if my wife came with me? She doesn’t know Jodelle, but my woman is really good with people who’ve been through trauma, since she’s been through her own.”
Wolf didn’t hesitate. “No. If that’s something she might want to do.”
“Oh, Jodelle will want to come. I’m sure. It’ll take me longer to get there than you, since I’m coming from Hawaii, but I’ll get there as soon as it’s physically possible.”
Wolf nodded. He hadn’t even thought past getting to Pennsylvania to Melody’s side as soon as he could. But Baker was right. In the meantime, hopefully Ryleigh and Beth could find out where Tex was being held. If they did, he’d need some backup when he went to retrieve his old friend.
“Appreciate it.”
“You called Rex?”
“Rex?” Wolf asked. It seemed as if everyone he talked to had someone else for him contact. Truthfully, it was getting old, but he’d talk to as many people as necessary if it meant putting together the best team to get Tex back.
“Yeah. He lives in Colorado. Runs the Mountain Mercenaries. He’s got contacts in the sex trade industry. Not that I think Tex was taken for that, but those lowlifes always know people who know people. Rex might be able to work some kind of angle to see if there’s been any chatter about a plot against Tex.”
Wolf nodded as he went into the bathroom to grab his toiletries. “I’ve got about five minutes before my wife gets home and I have to tell her the bad news. You got his number?”
“I’ll text it to you. Assuming the number you’re calling from is a good one to send that text to.”
“It is.”
“Right. I’ve got my own list of contacts. I’ll get a hold of them to see what they know. These are men and women who live on the fringes of society. I’ll be calling in every marker I have. By the time I get to Pennsylvania, I’ll hopefully have a lead.”
Wolf was feeling better about their odds of finding Tex with every phone call he made. “Hopefully,” he echoed.
“See you on the East Coast,” Baker said, then ended the call.
The text he promised came through a minute later, and once more, Wolf clicked on the number he’d received. He only had a few minutes now to talk to this Rex person before Caroline walked through the door.
“The Pit.”
Wolf blinked. He had no idea what The Pit was, or if the man who answered was the guy he needed to talk to. “Is Rex there?”
“Who is this?”
Wolf took a deep breath and introduced himself. “My name is Wolf. I’m a former SEAL and a friend of Baker’s. He said you might be able to help me.”
“With what?”
Wolf still had no idea if he was talking to Rex or not, but he didn’t have time for this shit. “My friend Tex was kidnapped. We don’t know by who, or why, or what they want. But Baker said Rex might be able to use his connections to find any scrap of information about this fucked-up situation, because right now we have dick. All we have is his wife all banged the hell up from being thrown out of a moving vehicle, two kids who are probably scared out of their minds and wondering where their dad is, and my best friend fucking missing.
“Now, will you please put Rex on the phone, so I can finish this call and figure out how the hell to tell my own wife that one of her best friends has been brutalized, and the man who helped track her down when she was kidnapped is fucking missing?”
“This is Rex. I’m on it. Tex is the one man who I’ve never—and I mean never —heard one bad thing about. And trust me when I tell you that I’ve seen the worst humanity has to offer. Baker’s also a good man. He’s on this?”
“Yes. He’s meeting me in Pennsylvania so if we do find Tex, he can go with me to get him back.”
“Good. And you’ll find him. There’s no other alternative. I’ll send out some feelers. See what people know. Anything else you need? More boots on the ground?”
Wolf sighed in relief. He’d take any help he could get. “Intel. That’s what I need,” he told this mysterious Rex.
“I’ll see what I can do. This a good number to use to contact you if I find out anything?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll be in touch.”
The phone went dead in Wolf’s ear just as he heard Caroline pull into the driveway. He threw his toiletry bag into his duffel and zipped it before throwing it over his shoulder and heading out of the room to meet his wife. This wasn’t going to be an easy conversation, and he was already dreading it.