Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
EROS
Istare at my hands; they're shaking. I ball them into fists, trying to calm myself, but it’s not working. Nothing will. I want to rage, but I can’t. Not right now, not yet.
“Anything?” I stop pacing to stare at my father.
He has Bonte’s laptop. We found it on the ground where she had scaled the wall.
Yes, fucking scaled it all on her own. She wasn’t taken; Bonte left of her own free will.
I can’t even wrap my mind around what she was thinking.
That will have to wait until later. Until I know where she is and that she's safe.
One of the sensors placed along the walls around the property had gone off near the bunker, which I knew Bonte was at with Naomi. Most everyone had gone to the game, but I’d met up with my uncles and dad to go over new information that he’d gotten from his handler.
As we thought, the agents who had placed Bonte were dirty. Actually, they're far past dirty. The lengths they’d gone to trying to cover their own crimes were undeniable. It was all starting to piece together.
“She's been messaging with someone."
"What?"
"Her laptop was still attached to her cloud. You might have gotten rid of her old phone, but this was still linked."
“How long?”
“Give me a second.” I grit my teeth and play the footage again.
When the sensor went off, the camera came online and started recording.
I watch as Bonte tries to scale the wall.
The stone makes it almost impossible because it’s so hard and smooth.
It takes her a few tries because she can’t get good footing.
I know she makes it over. This is the tenth time I’ve watched it, but watching her slip and knowing she’s scraping herself in the process makes me grab the back of my neck and squeeze.
Once she gets over, she drops her bag down before jumping herself. Bonte lands on her feet, but the momentum has her dropping forward to her knees and catching herself with her palms.
The next part makes all the muscles in my body lock up. A car pulls up. Bonte starts backpedaling as two figures get out. She turns to run, but one of them lifts a gun and fires. It’s a dart, hitting her in the back. A second later, she collapses.
Then the feed goes out. They must have remembered to turn on the jammers disabling the cameras, but only for thirty seconds while they switched over to a satellite to get past it and override it. When they finally come back, we only see taillights leaving.
Right now, we don’t have a clue where they could have taken her.
If it's the dirty agents, we're at a loss there too.
They're both on vacation leave from the FBI.
One is single with no family or roots here.
The other doesn't have any background here either and had a wife, whom we believe he killed and pinned on Bonte's father.
The only link they would have to the city would be through WITSEC when they planted Bonte here.
We were able to find who the people she was living with were.
They too had been in the program. Both of them had flipped on the cartel, giving up information.
They should have been in jail going off their past, but the Feds wanted the bigger fish, and they’d gotten it.
I hate that they placed her with them. I don’t think her father was too happy about it either.
We’d only been able to find them with the DNA we pulled from the condo.
It took forever, but we were able to trace backward from an ancestry website.
People don’t realize how much information those sites have. There really is no hiding anymore.
Mac is searching through city camera footage of the roads that come out to our property, but it’s not good. A black car isn’t in the area, if they even went to the city. She has my aunt Marks helping her, and they're doing it from their location so they can use their own computer systems.
“Looks like it started the same day you two were followed out of the school.” My father pushes the laptop over so that I can see the messages.
Both fear and anger fight for the top spot of my emotions right now. There’s also a bit of sadness and understanding mixed in there as well after reading the messages, knowing that Bonte left because she thought she was going to see her dad.
I may not know where she is right now, but it’s only a matter of time before my family figures it out.
What I do know is that whoever took her made a grave mistake, and they will pay for it with their lives.
I will show no mercy. It will not be a quick death for them, either.
I’m going to make them pay for taking her from me. She belongs to me.
“We need to get in touch with her dad,” I say.
If anyone has information on the men that took her, it’s him.
His contact with them had been far more personal.
“He might have something for us. I’ll take any information I can get.
” I run a frustrated hand through my hair.
“I do think if he knew where those men were, they’d already be dead. ”
“And how do we go about finding him?” Dad leans back in his chair.
“He knew when we took Bonte,” Naomi says. She’s been standing quietly off to the side. Naomi always simply listens and lets that mind of hers work, piecing things together in her way.
“Yes.”
“I think you all beat her dad that day when she was taken with Kinsley. That’s the only way he would have known we had her.
” Likely. “He was in the empty apartment next door. It’s been vacant for a few months.
He finally found his daughter, but I think he was letting her live.
She was in school and had her own life. He was simply watching over her.
The people she was placed with were shitty but not harmful. ”
“We’ll have to disagree on that one,” I mutter.
“But I think he was keeping an eye, so like I said, he let it be. Until she was taken and shit went sideways.”
“All right.” I lock in on what Naomi is saying because it has to be going somewhere. She’s not one to ramble.
“He was toying with you that day. The killing of the people she lived with was his move. He knew we’d taken Bonte and was pissed. It was to draw someone out. Anyone at that point. Desperation. Whether it be us or the dirty agents to come clean up.”
“The agents came.”
“They did, but at some point, he put together that Bonte wanted to be with you. She was safe, and he gave you a warning.” She taps her cheek. “To keep it that way.”
“I failed.” I drop my head, staring down at my feet.
“We’re not done yet,” Dad tries to reassure me.
“Oh, I’m sure he’s pissed that his daughter slipped through your fingers. But as you said, if he knew where those men were, he’d have killed them, so he doesn’t.” Naomi says.
“You think he knows she’s missing already?"
“Yes, I think he would have stayed close to her. That’s his style. But I also think they’ll want him to know they have his daughter. He knows one way or another.”
“He’ll go after her.” It’s not Bonte they really want. It’s her father. He knows too many of their secrets and their dirty doings. They can’t have that.
“He will.” She nods. Using Bonte as bait has never played out well for anyone. “But he'll come here first.” I stare at Naomi.
“He can’t get on our land without us knowing.” An alarm would go off, and we’d be all over him. We already have extra guards that have been pulled in for patrol.
“I don’t think he’s going to sneak in. He’s going to knock on the door.” Naomi gives a rare smirk, letting me know how sure she is of herself in this. “Well, ring the gate.”
It hits me where she is going.
“He wants to be the bait,” I say.
“Bingo.”
“Because if they have him, they’ll still kill her.” I clench my fist. She too is a loose end. One that they kept tucked away in case they needed her for if or when her father came back out and tried to ruin their lives.
They've been in a holding pattern all this time.
My father’s phone goes off. “One of our men.” He answers, turning it on speaker as he answers. “What do you have?” They wouldn't call unless they had important information.
“We have a man here. He said he needs to speak to you. He's claiming to be the girl's father.”
“Bring him up to the house,” I order, already moving toward the front door.
“I’m going to fill everyone in on what’s going on,” I hear Dad say. I don’t bother to respond, knowing he can handle it. I pull open the front door. Naomi comes to stand next to me.
“Would it be weird if I asked for an autograph?” I don’t know if Naomi is trying to bust a joke to lessen the tension or if she’s being serious. I’m guessing the latter. I glance down at her. "Shit, my board is in the—" Naomi presses her lips together, not finishing her sentence.
"The bunker."
"I don't know what that is, but I'd like him to see my board. To know if I'm right."
"Naomi, you're right." She quickly pieced things together. In another life, she could have been a profiler.
I take a breath when I see them. I don't wait at the door.
Right now, every second matters. I have no idea where they have Bonte or what they might do.
Did they put her in a dark room? She'd be terrified.
They might keep her alive, but I personally know you can inflict things worse than death on a person.
“How do we do this?” I ask to get straight to the point. He pauses, and I can tell from his expression he wants to lay into me, but it’s not that fucking time, and he knows it.
“I’m the bait.”
“I knew it,” I hear Naomi whisper behind me.
“Come on.” I nod toward the house.
I don’t care who her father is or the fucked-up shit he may or may not have done. I’d trade my soul to the devil to get my girl back.