27. Sometimes You Just Have to Suck it up and Eat Crow
I STARE IN complete shock as Amos walks Julieanne to an SUV, his grip tight on her arm. She”s stumbling along, and her uncoordinated movements could easily be blamed on the slickness of the sidewalk and her less than appropriate footwear.
But if I watch closely, I can see where she”s pulling against his hold. I can see how she”s trying to get free. I can also see the beige liquid soaked into the front of Amos’s white tactical gear, and I hope she nailed him right in the face with the entire cup of scalding coffee. God knows it would be less painful than what I”m going to do when I get my hands on him.
I just have to find him first.
”Send all the footage you have of her to Elias. I want him to comb it for every bit of information we can get.” I clench my fists, trying to keep my head even though the rush of my pulse is making it hard to concentrate. “Then I want him scouring the feeds from every public camera in a five-mile radius.”
The man monitoring the property nods. ”Yes, sir.”
I walk out of the room, but my steps immediately shift into a run. My breath is heaving when I reach the tactical room I left not long ago. Most of the team is still there, and they look my way as I start barking orders. ”Suit back up. I want you ready to go the minute I say the word.” I pause, before turning to the lead. ”Call everybody who”s in town. I want them all here, now.” I don”t wait for confirmation he understands my orders. I don”t fucking have time for it.
Racing back out into the hall, I cut through the building, cursing myself for building a place so goddamn big.
I reach my office and collide with Heidi in the doorway. I barely manage to grab her as she tips back, keeping her upright instead of knocking her to the floor.
Her eyes lock onto mine. ”I think I found something.”
Fifteen minutes ago I would”ve been fucking thrilled, but not now. Now there”s only one thing I need to find. ”Julieanne”s gone. Amos took her.” I rake one hand through my hair, fighting to come to terms with the situation.
I should have seen this coming. Should have sensed the discontent in my second. But even thinking back, it wasn”t fucking there.
Heidi grabs my shoulders, shaking me hard. ”Calm down. We will find her.” She leans forward, eyes fixed on mine. ”Who the fuck is Amos?”
”He”s my second.” I nearly choke on the words, because someone I trusted is responsible for taking the only thing that matters to me. Stealing her right out from under my fucking nose.
”No shit.” Heidi”s eyes widen further. ”That”s bad.” She shakes me again. ”That”s real bad. He knows you. He knows what you”re going to do.”
She’s saying things that haven”t occurred to me, twisting the panic and dread in my gut tight enough bile crawls up my throat. ”Then we have to get to her fast. Find where she is, get her out, and blow every person involved off the face of the fucking earth.”
Heidi takes a quick breath, blowing it out between pursed lips. ”I don”t disagree with that, but if that”s your first inclination, then Amos is going to be prepared for that reaction.”
”I don”t fucking care. I want him to fucking see me coming. I want him to count down the last seconds of his life before I gut him while he”s still breathing.” I couldn”t save my mother. Couldn”t fight the sickness that stole her from me. But I can save Julieanne. And I sure as fuck can obliterate everyone who thought it was wise to take her from me.
Darius, the lead from the team who just returned, rushes through my doorway. He”s already dressed and armed to the teeth. ”We’re ready, but no one else is in town. Amos sent everyone else out on assignment. The only reason we’re here is because we finished early.”
”Fuck.” I need more than ten men. I need three times that many. And that’s only if Elias can narrow down Julieanne”s location. If he can’t, I’ll need even more.
Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath. I know where I can get more men. I know where I can find a whole team of people just as skilled as the ones in the pit. I lift my lids and meet Heidi’s gaze. She gives me a small nod.
Abandoning her and Darius, I go straight to my desk and dial out. I hold my breath and count the rings, terrified it will go to voicemail. I don”t deserve for my call to be answered, but I will keep calling back until it is. I will do anything, anything, to get to Julieanne.
When the call connects after the third ring, I don”t give him time to answer. ”They”ve got her.”
The line’s quiet for a second before Pierce responds. ”They”ve got who?”
”Julieanne. She”s my—” My voice breaks, because if I can”t find her, I won”t have the chance to make her my anything. ”They took her right out from under my fucking nose, Pierce.”
”Who is they?” Pierce”s tone is all business now. Clipped and short, and I can hear him moving as we continue to speak.
”Amos took her off the property, but I don”t know who the fuck got him to do it.” I grab the trash can from under my desk as I start to retch.
Heidi steps in at my side, resting one hand on my back and smoothing it in circles. ”I can help with that.”
”Is that Heidi?” Pierce doesn”t sound surprised.
Heidi snags the phone from me, pressing it to her ear. ”Tell Harlow I”m about to start sending her a bunch of shit, and I need them to go balls to the wall on this.”
I don”t hear what Pierce says next, but I can imagine it”s something about how unhappy he is to discover she”s here.
Because Heidi fucking laughs at him.
”Get over yourself, Pierce. Don”t act like you”ve never been an asshole before.” Her eyes come to me. ”And I’m pretty sure he”s learned his lesson.” She shoves the phone back at me, and I take it.
The next words out of my mouth are ones I don”t think I”ve ever said before. ”I”m sorry.”
”Save it. You can apologize to me after we find your Julieanne.”
”STOP MAKING THAT face.”Pierce lowers into the chair next to me as I watch the countless people packing the pit trying to find the only fucking thing that matters in my world. ”We will find her.”
I want to keep it together. Want to remain true to who I”ve built myself to be. But I”m about two seconds from losing it.
”I don”t know what I”ll do if we don”t find her.” I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees as my head drops. ”I —” My voice breaks.
Pierce”s hand comes to my shoulder, steady but firm. ”I know. That’s why we will find her.” His hand stays where it is, gripping tight. ”What you need to be doing now, is figuring out all the ways you”re going to make them suffer for trying to take her from you.”
I lift my head just enough to slide my eyes his way. ”Thank you for doing this.”
Pierce”s expression is unreadable. I”m not sure where I’ll stand with him when this is all over, but I will be indebted to him forever for being here.
His next words stun the hell out of me. ”You would do it for me.”
I struggle to swallow. ”I would.” My throat is tight. Aching as I continue. ”Pierce, I—”
He shakes his head. ”All we’re worried about is finding Julieanne. Everything else can be dealt with later.”
I don”t know if he’s intentionally trying to make me feel worse, but if he is, it”s fucking working. I was already starting to struggle with the guilt of the stunt I pulled, but now—
”I”ve got a location.” Elias stands up, spinning to face me. ”I”m sending it out now.”
I’m out of my seat before his hands are back on the keyboard. ”Keep looking. I want to find every fucking place connected to these sons of bitches.”
Pierce stays at my side as I race from the room. He showed up decked out in the same tactical gear his team is wearing, ready to do what needs to be done. For me. The prick who was too proud to admit we were friends. The prick who was too far gone to just fucking admit he was lonely. That he’d accidentally found a woman who made life seem worth living and was stupid enough to pretend he could leave her alone.
”How are we going to handle this?” Pierce shoves open the exit door, holding it as I pass through.
”We’re going to get Julieanne, and then I”m going to torch their building with them inside it.”
Pierce shoots me a grin. ”Scorched earth. I like it.” He swings through the open doors of one of the waiting vans, sliding onto the bench seat along one side.
I drop down beside him, tapping my earpiece to alert Elias. ”Keep me updated. I want to know everything as it happens.”
He comes back immediately, his answer brief. ”Got it.”
The doors slam shut, closing us in while the rest of the men fill the vans behind us. Pierce had significantly more men on location than I did, so we’ll be able to hit hard and fast. Since his Intel team has helped strategize, we won”t be going in exactly the way I would have ordered. Pierce must possess an amount of patience I don”t, because his teams’ tactics lean toward stealth where mine tend to sway the opposite direction. I suppose that could be due to the fact that my connections allow me to clean up whatever mess I make, and he has to be a little more careful.
But between us both, we have the best of both worlds. Something my stupid ass could have had all along if I hadn”t been so goddamned stubborn.
”Vincent?” This time when Elias uses my name, it doesn”t irritate me. It makes me feel like he sees me as more than his boss, and I hope that results in him thinking of Julieanne as more than just a normal target. I want him invested in her recovery.
”I”m here.”
”We found a second location. I think it”s pretty unlikely this one is where she’s at, but—”
”Send me the address. I want men at every spot you identify. Clear them all and then burn them to the ground.”
”Sending it now.” He pauses long enough I think he”s gone. ”We found something else.”
My phone vibrates as the address arrives. ”And?”
”We think we found out who”s behind the program.”
I pull up what looks to be a shitty, half-collapsed retail space. ”Is it anybody I know?” I”m still half expecting it to be Julieanne. Of course, if it is, she’ll pay for not admitting it to me sooner.
”His name is Holden Marello.”
My fingers stop where they’re zooming in on the screen. ”Julieanne’s son?”
“Affirmative.” I can hear Heidi in the background, talking to Elias as he talks to me. ”Heidi says she finally decoded the chat thread and it turns out the program is corrupt. It doesn’t actually erase the data, it just camouflages it for a few days. Then all the data reappears.”
I stare at the shitty building on the screen in front of me. Compared to the nondescript, but solid trailer we’re headed to now, it would seem less than likely this is where they’d take Julieanne if they were trying to get her to give them something she would need access to a computer for.
If it was me, I would hit that trailer, and I would hit it hard.
I lean forward, getting the driver”s attention. ”I’ve got a new address.” I rattle it off and his passenger updates the GPS. ”I want half our men going to this new address and the other half to be in the area of the other address. No one gets close to it though.”
Pierce lifts his brows at me. ”Do we know what”s happening?”
I slide my phone back into place and tighten my vest across my chest. ”What”s happening is these fuckers just signed their death certificates for a program that doesn”t even fucking work.”