Chapter 16 #2
“Jagger!” Ryker started to react.
At the same time, Jimmy shot straight up in his seat, eyes wide as saucers as he looked up at Jagger and yelled, “Hey! What the fuck?”
“Sleeping?” Jagger roared.
He reached his free hand through the space where the window used to be and forcefully yanked the door. Fisting the front of Jimmy’s shirt, he pull the shocked man out of his seat and threw his incompetent ass to the asphalt below.
“I’m sorry, okay?”
“Oh, you’re sorry?” He squatted down before pulling the man’s face so close to his, the tips of their noses were touching. His voice was lethally low as he promised, “You’re sure as fuck going to be sorry.”
“Get him off of me!” Jimmy fought to break free.
“That’s enough.” Ryker intervened before Jagger could choke the life out of the son of a bitch.
It wasn’t until Jagger chose to let the man go that he was able to scramble away like the chickenshit he was.
“How in the actual fuck were you ever even considered for a position with R.I.S.C.?” he questioned rhetorically.
It wasn’t an answer he needed that very moment, but it was one that Jagger had full intentions of getting. One way or the other.
First things first—
“Agent Foster got called into Homeland. I don’t suppose you saw her leave?”
“I-I…” Jimmy’s deer-in-the-headlights look was all the response they needed.
“Right.” Jagger scoffed, finding it difficult to remember a time when he’d been so utterly pissed. “You couldn’t have seen her drive away because you were fucking asleep!”
“I’m sorry, okay? I only meant to close my eyes for a couple of minutes!”
“They shouldn’t have been closed for two seconds, Mr. Baxter,” Ryker growled. “Last I checked, that was kind of the whole point of a stake out.”
“Yeah, you know…to sit and watch for any signs of danger. ’Course, it’s kinda hard to watch anything when your eyes are glued fucking shut.”
Every cell in his body was filled with an unprecedented, murderous rage. If Baxter had been awake when Talia left, he would have followed her into the city.
She would have made it into work safely. Maybe even be on her way back here by now. Instead, she’d been taken from her car on the side of the highway, and no one had the first clue about where she could be.
“I want everyone on this.” Jagger turned his back on Baxter to address Ryker directly. “I’ll call Hunt and fill him in.”
“I’ll get Shaw back on the line and have him and the rest of Echo meet us here. We can use the safe house as our war room,” Talia’s mentor and boss suggested.
“Cutler and Savage can get to work pulling the security feed from the complex, as well as all CCTV footage from the area between here and her car,” Jagger noted. “We’ll use whatever we get from that to figure out where to go from there.”
“What about me?” Jimmy asked, clearing his throat and pushing back his shoulders. “I’m here, so use me. I’ll do whatever you need.”
Jagger returned the pistol still held loosely in his hand to the holster concealed at his right hip. Turning slowly, he brought his attention back to Jimmy’s. He took two slow, purposeful steps closer to make sure the man heard every word he said.
“What I want, Jimmy, is for you to leave.”
“Leave? But your girlfriend’s missing!”
The corners of Jagger’s lips pulled with a small, humorless smile. “I’m aware that Talia’s missing, asshole. I’m the one who told you that, remember?”
“Whatever, Brooks. You know damn well what I meant.”
“And for the record”—Jagger ignored him—“Talia’s a hell of a lot more than just my girlfriend. So you’d better pray to God we find her soon and that she’s safe and unharmed when we do.”
“Whatever happens to her…man, that shit’s not on me!”
The hell it isn’t.
“Pretty sure I told you to leave.”
“You can’t do that!” Jimmy countered. “You didn’t hire me, McQueen did!”
“And he’ll be firing your ass the second I tell him about your incompetence in the field.”
“Bullshit!” Spittle flew from the other man’s tightening lips. “You have no idea who you’re messing with, but you’ll see!”
“The only thing I want to see are your taillights as you drive your busted ass away. Now, go. Before I change my mind and shoot you.”
“Now you’re threatening me?” Jimmy laughed and looked to Ryker. “You heard that, right? The man just threatened to kill me.”
“Kill?” Jagger took two broad steps forward, putting himself well inside the man’s personal face. “Never said anything about killin’ you, Jimmy Boy. But I will if you don’t walk away right the hell now.”
“Fuck you, Brooks.”
A sinister smile spread across Jagger’s tense face. “Goodbye, Jimmy. Oh, and in case it wasn’t clear…” He leaned in closer before whispering, “You’re fucking done.”
Jagger turned and marched back toward the apartment where he and Talia had been staying. To Ryker, he said, “I’m done wasting my time with this prick. I’ll meet you and the others inside.”
Someone had taken Talia, and he wouldn’t—he couldn’t spend another second on Baxter or his excuses. His entire focus had to be on finding his woman. His other half.
My future.
Jagger’s heart ached with fear, his thoughts whirling with worry he’d lose her to the point he felt it might be ripped in two. There were so many questions, and he didn’t have a single answer.
Things like where the hell is she and who had dared to touch what belonged to him? Had they hurt her? Was she lying somewhere unconscious? Was she already—
No!
He couldn’t let himself go there. Talia was alive, he could feel it in the very core of his gut. She was still there, in the heart that ached for her to return.
If that wasn’t enough to convince him, Jagger’s operator brain understood what the evidence most likely meant. If whoever took Talia wanted her dead, they would have killed her and left her body in the car along with her purse and phones.
She’s still alive.
It became the mantra playing on loop in his head. She was out there, and he was damn sure going to find her. Come hell or high water, no matter what obstacles came his way.
Hang on, darlin’. I’m coming for you.
And he wouldn’t stop until he had her back safe and in his arms.