Chapter 28
ALEX
Istare at the computer screen for what feels like an eternity.
My lips are parted and frozen as I read the ransom request over and over again. My pulse quickens as each word sinks in deeper, bringing reality down on me with a loud and crumbling sound, like bricks collapsing on top of me.
“Alex, what is it?” Max’s voice pierces through the disbelief.
Our office has never felt colder and darker than in this moment despite the sun pouring through the windows. Vincent slowly sits up in his chair, a troubled look on his face.
“Alex?” he asks.
Finally, I manage to look into his eyes, then Max’s.
“There’s another ransom demand,” I tell them.
Like shadows, they both leave their chairs from across the room and flank me behind my desk, their eyes glued to my computer screen.
“Pay five million dollars in Bitcoin to this account,” the email says, complete with an embedded link, “or she pays with her life.”
The way Max reads it adds even more gravity to the meaning.
My stomach sinks. Rage turns everything red before my eyes, and I close them for a moment while Max takes over the wireless mouse to click on the video file.
“Open it,” Vincent says.
A video comes on, full screen and terrifying, as it gives us a clear camera view of Raina. Her hands are tied behind her back. Disheveled and scared out of her mind, she’s crying as she listens to someone’s instructions.
She nods slowly and clears her throat.
“Fuck,” Vincent whispers.
“My name is Raina Redford,” she says with a trembling voice. I see the fear in her eyes. It tears me apart and makes my blood boiling as I become restless in my seat.
“I am being treated well, and I will continue to be treated well, unless the ransom demand isn’t met. You have twenty-four hours.”
“Where the hell is she?” Max mutters, inching closer as he tries to get a better look at the video, to pick up some kind of details that might clue us in as to her whereabouts.
I can’t see anything useful. She’s sitting in a chair against a plain, white wall. I turn the volume up, hoping for some background noise. The lighting looks natural, so there’s a window in that room, likely on the other side of the camera.
The look on her face breaks me.
“If you don’t pay,” she says, tearing up again, “they’ll kill me.”
She’s about to say something else when the video cuts off into a black screen. Rage takes over, and I slam my fist into the desk. The whole thing jiggles and trembles before me as Max and Vincent jump back.
“This can’t be fucking happening!” I snarl.
A split second later, our secretary, Marie, pokes her head through the door. “Is everything okay?” She pauses, then the blood drains from her face as she notes the room’s sudden change in temperature. “What’s wrong?”
“Call Detective Wilcox from Portland PD,” Max quickly instructs her. “Have him transferred to our confidential line ASAP.”
Marie nods and hurries back to her desk.
My blood simmers as I pace the office like a lion trapped in its cage. “This can’t be fucking happening,” I repeat.
“But it is happening,” Vincent replies. He watches the video again and again, and Raina’s terrified voice makes me angrier with each replay, yet I know he’s doing it to analyze the video, to figure something, anything, out.
“Someone kidnapped Raina. And they want us to pay five million dollars for her safe return.”
“They don’t mention a safe return,” Max bitterly remarks. “They want five million just to keep her alive.”
“Wilcox will have to go by Portland PD’s protocols,” Vincent says. “That’s time we don’t have. We do have the money, though. I can just transfer it—”
“Not yet,” I reply. “Get Luke Parrish on the line and give him remote access to my computer. He needs to trace that email back to its original sender.”
“He didn’t have much luck with the previous message,” he reminds me.
“I don’t fucking care. He can go over the video, analyze, whatever the fuck it takes, to get us closer to finding her. We’ll notify Wilcox in the meantime and have him do his job on his end. Everybody needs to do something about this,” I say, shaken to the core.
Max straightens his back and gives me a hard look. “You know this has Jeremy written all over it, right?”
“Yes.”
Which means we’re not about to sit on our hands. Jeremy picked the wrong men to fuck with.
From the moment we came back from the military, Max, Vincent, and I swore we’d put that side of us behind us.
We’d put those demons and those wretched memories to rest. The past had to stay in the past in order for us to build a better future.
But Jeremy seems hell-bent on dragging our dark side out of the archives.
And he has no idea what his greed and blinding ego have just unleashed.
By the time we reach Bancroft’s main offices at the top of the building their law firm occupies, it’s too late for anyone to react. Moving swiftly, like panthers on a hunt, we spread out across the bullpen and catch Jeremy just as he walks out of the men’s room.
“Hey, what are you—”
I punch him hard before he can finish that sentence. He spits out blood as he hits the floor. Someone screams from behind one of the other desks, but Max keeps everyone else at bay.
“Please remain calm,” Max says. “This is a private matter.”
“Call 911!” one of the legal aids tells somebody else.
My eyes remain on Jeremy and the pain imprinted on his face.
“Don’t!” William Bancroft rushes out of his office. “Everyone get back to work. I’ve got this.”
“But sir—”
“I said go back to work!” he snarls.
Jeremy tries to get up. “You son of a—”
I punch him again, my knuckles causing a satisfying crack.
“For fuck’s sake,” Jeremy cries out. Blood trickles from his nose. “What is the matter with you?”
“You know why we’re here,” I tell him.
Vincent looks at Bancroft. “We need your help.”
“Whatever it takes,” Bancroft replies. “You didn’t tell me much over the phone, but it sounded serious.”
“Kidnapping is serious,” Vincent says.
Jeremy startled expression is almost convincing, but I’m not buying any of it. “Kidnapping? What are you crazy bastards talking about?”
“Do not take us for fools,” I roar and kick him in the gut with the tip of my boot.
He curls up in pain, the fetal position making him look downright pitiful. But I have no pity for this worm. I don’t even care if he lives or dies, as long as he tells us what we need to know. I grab him and lift him off the floor like he weighs no more than a sack of feathers.
“You’re going to talk, Jeremy. One way or another, you’re going to talk.”
“Bill, we need to go somewhere private for this,” Max tells Bancroft.
Glancing around, I see the fear and the hesitation on everyone’s faces. Most of them are young and wide-eyed. In their line of work, they don’t see much violence.
“The basement,” Bancroft says. “Take my private elevator. I’ll make sure no one disturbs you down there. I’ll notify security, too.”
“And keep a lid on your people,” Vincent adds. “We’ve got this. You know what’s at stake.”
“You’re sure it’s him, then?” Bill asks. He looks at Jeremy like he can’t quite believe it, though deep down, he knows already.
“Positive,” I reply.
“Then do what you have to do.”
Just as we shove Jeremy into Bancroft’s private elevator, Vivian comes rushing out of her corner office with a pale face. “What’s going on here?” she asks. “I heard the ruckus, but I was on the phone with a client and—”
“Raina was abducted,” I tell her. “We got a ransom request video.”
“No!” She gasps, the horror imprinted on her face.
“So whatever you can do to help us connect Jeremy to this, it would be much appreciated. We know he’s responsible—”
“I know he’s responsible!” she snaps and gives him a sour look.
“Vivian, we need leads. We’ve got people working on it already, but every bit helps. We need to find Raina,” I insist.
She gives me a firm nod. “Do what you have to do.”
“Vivian, don’t! Call the cops! They’re going to kill me!” Jeremy cries out.
Another legal aid gasps in terror. Someone insists they should call the police, but Bancroft shuts them all down with a loud, sharp hiss.
“I just hope they do it slowly,” Vivian says and turns away.
The basement of Bancroft’s building is dark but dry.
It’s well-kept, with dehumidifiers and climate control blowing through an intricate ventilation system because it’s mostly a labyrinth of case files and settlements.
There’s one room at the end of the narrow corridor that features a chair, a table, and empty metal shelves that have yet to be filled.
It’s perfect for what we’re about to do.
“You don’t have to do this,” Jeremy keeps pleading, but he can’t muster any dramatic tears. Not yet, anyway.
“Actually, I do have to, because you didn’t give us any other choice,” I reply.
Vincent zip-ties him to the chair, and Max closes the door behind us.
“You misunderstood us from the get-go, Jeremy. I told you we’re not to be trifled with,” I say, standing in front of him.
“I don’t understand—”
I smack him hard across the face. “For every lie, you get one of these. And trust me, they get more painful the more patience I lose.”
“You said Raina was missing?”
I backhand him hard across the other cheek.
He whimpers from the pain, like the coward he is.
“She’s not missing, Jeremy. You took her.
And then you sent us a video with the ransom request. Whether you did it all by yourself or you had help is what you’re going to tell us, if you want to make it to tomorrow. ”
“I swear to God, I have no idea—”
I hit him again. His whole body shudders from the force of impact. His blood sprays and spurts across the floor as I take a step back to avoid getting any of it on my clothes.
“Oh, God,” Jeremy cries out. “Somebody please help me!”