Chapter 12
Brett
Brett arranged for the items they’d found to be sent to their contacts at a nearby lab, one that often helped the royal family with their needs, and then arrived back at Sec HQ to find almost all the guards present.
“What’s wrong?” he asked the second he entered the room.
“What can we do?” Nick asked.
Brett shook his head. “Find him. However we can. CCTV, dash cam footage, traffic cameras, goddamn drone footage for all I care. We need to find where he was taken.”
“You’re sure someone took him?” Eric asked.
Brett paused and inhaled, bringing the calm back to his voice and demeanour.
“Yes. Although there were no signs of a scuffle, the fact remains that Felix went into that alleyway and disappeared. I believe that car had something to do with it. I couldn’t see the number plate on the camera view we had, and the make and model were difficult to tell.
If anyone wants to have a go at trying to get a better image of anything, feel free.
” He waved his hand towards Felix’s computer.
“I’ll have a go,” Sam said, settling into a seat that should not have been empty. It caused Brett to flounder for a second, but then he collected himself again.
“I need at least two people to canvas the street and see if anyone has any door cameras or CCTV that might give us better luck. Or even if they heard something. Someone needs to check the roads that lead from the end of that road and figure out the options for directions they could’ve gone in.
” He exhaled. “He’s been gone nearly four hours. We need to find him. Fast.”
“Is this the warning we’ve been getting?” Maddox asked, and Brett nearly growled at him.
“Potentially,” he answered, not looking at the man who made him as mad as a dog that had been cooped up all day.
“What do you need me to do?”
Brett glanced at him. “Did you finish the weapons?” Maddox’s face reddened, and he shook his head. “Please finish it. We’re going to need every weapon we have available when we find Felix.”
Maddox blinked, nodded and turned on his heel and left Sec HQ. Brett took a few seconds and then started shouting orders again. Radio equipment needed to be checked, contacts needed to be called, and help requested. It was all hands on deck.
He was elbow-deep in information when several more people entered the already brimming room.
When he saw Christian, Patrick, Kieren, Freddie and Damon, he nearly cracked.
The big, sullen Head of Security was about to bawl like a bodyguard losing his day off.
But he didn’t have time. He set them to work instead.
He had no idea how long they’d been working when someone called out, “His phone is back!”
Brett’s head whipped up. “What?”
“His phone is showing up again,” Nina said.
“Where?” He scrambled over to where Nina was.
“Five miles east of Windsor. Looks like an abandoned industrial estate.”
It didn’t sound promising if it was Felix, but regardless, they would try. “Colt, Nina, Jade, Nick and Eric, come with me. The rest of you, keep looking. If we find Felix, we still need to figure out who took him.”
They left the room and aimed for the weapons hold. Maddox stepped clear when they arrived.
“I’ve just finished. They’re all done.”
“Good job, Maddox.”
They grabbed enough firepower to level a building and headed for the car park and the largest SUV they had. Although Brett knew the chance of finding Felix at the destination was unlikely, he couldn’t help the hope that curled inside him. He needed him to be okay.
“I’ll drive,” Colt said, and Brett didn’t argue, just climbed into the passenger seat.
Brett’s phone vibrated repeatedly in his hand as they headed for the location, but all he could do was stare out of the window, images of what Felix could be going through running through his head.
Despite knowing it wouldn’t help him, he couldn’t stop it.
They had shared so much—especially lately—and it couldn’t end. It just couldn’t.
“It’s just up here on the left,” Nina said. “Third building.”
Brett blinked and inhaled as large metallic buildings rose around them, and it wouldn’t surprise him if they hid a multitude of sins, not only a potential answer to Felix’s whereabouts.
Colt brought the car to a stop, and they all paused for a second before Nina broke the silence once more.
“The signal is coming from the far right corner.” Brett squinted at the building as she spoke. “From the blueprints I could find, it looks to have two floors, ground and first.”
Brett climbed out of the car alongside everyone else, heading for the boot of the car. “Colt, Nina, come with me. Eric, Jade and Nick go around the back.”
They gathered weapons, put their earpieces in and, as a unit, headed for their designated locations.
Brett’s heart pounded so much that it affected his breathing.
At least, he thought it was. It could also be to do with the fact that he couldn’t cope with the thought of losing Felix.
No. They wouldn’t lose him. They would find him.
And though he didn’t have hope that they would find him here—it was too quiet—he had faith in something bigger that they would find him eventually.
And he would be fine.
Inhaling through his nose first, he exhaled slowly, pushing every thought aside other than the current mission: search the property.
He used hand signals to direct Colt and Nina, and murmured words through the earpiece to the others.
Taking one last glance at their surroundings, he gave the signal for them to enter.
Attention solely on scanning the building and listening to any information given in his ear, he ignored everything else.
The building was empty, it seemed. They scoped the ground floor and found nothing in the dark corners, then climbed the stairs at either end of the building to the first floor, which was open plan like the ground floor.
Again, there was nothing in view except for dark corners, which they checked, and it was only when he reached the corner from which the signal was coming that he stopped.
It wasn’t as empty as it first seemed.
But it wasn’t Felix.
Placed with precision was a grave of roses, complete with a headstone. Exactly as had been at the church. But this time, there was a note attached to the headstone.
How many flies need to be trapped before the time runs out?
Brett’s hands tightened on the gun he still held against his shoulder, the barrel pointing towards the sea of red.
He wanted nothing more than to pull the trigger and blow away the implications of what he saw, and his finger even pressed against the trigger, ready to do it, but he heard Felix’s voice telling him to take it easy and breathe, and he let the gun fall to his side.
“Fuckers are gonna die,” Nick muttered beside him.
Brett agreed, but said, “Nina, is the signal still going?”
“Yes.”
“His phone must be here then. Try not to disturb anything while searching,” he said. “And obviously keep your eyes open for any surprises.”
He wouldn’t put it past whoever was doing…whatever this was to blow them up. He thought it unlikely but not impossible. This was a game, and whoever it was seemed to be enjoying it.
“Nothing, but we haven’t checked under the roses,” Colt said, appearing at his side.
“Let’s get Fe…forensics here.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I want nothing touched until we know we can get prints or DNA or whatever from them. Felix isn’t here, and his phone will hold another game, I’m sure.”
He heard Colt on the phone, along with Nick and Jade.
Nina and Eric disappeared, leaving Brett to stare at the grave.
If he was honest with himself, he didn’t think Felix was dead, but that, in many ways, might be worse.
As much as he wanted Felix alive and well, if he was alive, he doubted it would be well.
Those people who had him—and he was certain someone did—would undoubtedly be using Felix as a punching bag.
For what reason, Brett still couldn’t figure out, but it wouldn’t be anything good.
“Team’s on the way, along with Commissioner Thomas,” Colt confirmed.
Brett nodded and finally tore his gaze away from the reminder that the man he…cared for wasn’t with them. “Good. When they get here, I want all the surrounding buildings checked as well. For all we know, they could’ve been watching us this entire time.”
Within an hour, forensics scoured the place, and his team checked through each building, finding nothing of note.
“This is far too clean,” Nick said.
Brett nodded slowly. He didn’t want to entertain the idea that was percolating in his mind. The idea that he had to admit had been there for a while. The idea that it was someone too close for comfort. Someone he couldn’t easily touch.
His stomach churned, and he swallowed back bile. If the people in his head were the ones to have anything to do with this, then there was no telling the horrors Felix could be facing.
“Boss?” Colt called him. He turned to face him. “We found Felix’s phone. You might want to see this.” His voice held barely restrained emotion.
Colt held the phone for him as he didn’t have gloves on, and Brett stared at the photo. Heat built in his stomach. Felix stared back at him, eye freshly blackened, hair messy and sweat dripping from his chin.
“When I find them…” he said. “What other photos?”
“Just one of his housemate.”
“Let me see.” Colt swiped left. “Wait.” Brett squinted. The second photo was of Felix with his housemate’s arm over his shoulder, but it was what his housemate held in his hand that caught his attention.
A red rose.
And the housemate?
Austin.
****
Brett’s hand pounded against the front door, never letting up as his fist met wood again and again. The door flung open, and he barely stopped from punching whoever it was, and then regretted stopping himself as Austin appeared, eyebrows disappearing into his hairline.