Chapter 36 - Rurik
It didn’t take much effort to commandeer the security office, barely a few bribes. The people who worked there weren’t the sort I’d hire to be on any of my teams, and they only wanted to get the crazy guy out so they could go home.
By that time, my team had arrived and were scouring the mall, inside and out.
The individual shops were all closed, so that made it easier, though I wasn’t at all assured that Clem wouldn’t have been able to hide in one of them until morning.
Clem was capable of a lot, I had seen it firsthand.
It was one of the things that made her so special.
“There,” I said, pointing to an image of her at an ATM.
The somewhat frightened but mostly impatient security guard pulled up the images from the surrounding cameras to try to follow Clem’s movements, but she had disappeared like a ghost. Or more likely, shitty camera coverage, with vast swathes of the place just big blank spots where she could have slipped away.
Without having any more useful information, I let the underpaid guards close up and go, and met with the head of my own team, who was keeping tabs on all his guys around the perimeter.
“She might have just left by another exit,” he said, since my original guard swore up and down that Clem never came out the way she went in.
The poor woman was afraid I would lose it in her direction, and while I was on the verge of losing it, I kept it together enough not to explode on my subordinates.
“So why wasn’t she on any of those cameras?” I asked, knowing full well that one at the east exit was completely down.
I tried calling her phone again, and this time it went straight to voicemail.
Off. Now what? I was on the verge of panic and not sure why.
I never panicked, not even when a gun was pointing straight at my face, and yes, that had happened before.
But this wasn’t me, this was Clem, and for some reason I couldn’t explain, I knew my wife needed me.
Even if she didn’t know it herself yet, she did. And I would always be there for her.
If I could find her.
I got a call from the security guard at my office, and I almost ignored it, but with the attack at my warehouse and Clem going missing, the timing seemed too perfect.
Once again, my heart plummeted as thoughts that she might have set this up to distract me from an attack on the office crowded past my worry.
“What?” I demanded, ready to dispatch a team that way if necessary.
“Listen, Boss,” he said. “I’m not at the office.”
“Where the hell are you?” I asked.
He cleared his throat. “I was meaning to put this in my weekly report,” he stammered.
“I would have told you sooner if I thought it was a big deal.”
“Cut to the chase,” I snapped. “I’m not exactly concerned about the building right now.”
“Yeah, okay. So, this guy showed up on the cameras outside the front doors twice now, a couple of days ago, just kind of lurking around. I figured he was a druggie or something at first, but then I spotted him when Mrs. Fokin left earlier. He followed her down the street.”
“What?” I bellowed.
“Daniela was on her, right?” he asked, then hurried on. “So, anyway, this guy goes flying past the office again, probably a half an hour or so after Mrs. Fokin left, so I got curious and went down to try and grab him. You know, ask some questions.”
“Tell me you’ve got him,” I said, all my irritation disappearing and vowing to give him a raise if he did.
“Not yet. He got in a car. I’ve been following him. I can stop him any time and pick him up; he’s got no idea I’m on his tail.”
“No,” I said. “Follow him to wherever he ends up. Don’t lose him, don’t engage unless you have to.”
This had to be Jordan, and if it was, I might have inadvertently found Clem if he was following her. Was he a danger to her, the source of her jumpiness? Or what if it was a set-up, fully orchestrated by her to bring me and my family to my knees?
The guard sent me his coordinates, and I set off in that direction with my team on my tail, keeping an eye on my phone for updates. This could be a dead end, the loser Jordan giving up and going home for the night. Or he could be leading me to Clem.
Who might greet him with open arms.
Did I hope she might be with him just so I knew where she was? Her betrayal, if that’s what this was, would be a blow I might not recover from, but at the moment, it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was getting Clem back where she belonged.
With me.