29. Michael
After Pete told us he really wasn’t sure how Wayne knew to go out to the mill, we let him and his officer drive back to their station to check if there was any word there.
None of us bothered to go with them.
He won’t be there. Hitmen don’t work like that. His cover is shot. He’ll make the kill, then disappear.
The only thing that matters is getting some kind of lead. Anything that will let me know she’s still alive and I still have a chance of having her back with me.
My composure is unraveling as the minutes tick by.
Judging by the lack of empty seats, most of the little town is here, waiting for news on Dana. Dale has ordered everyone to sit tight while we try to locate her. The last thing we need is a town full of people who mean well running around and making this worse.
Grey and Eagle left us to gather the rest of our tactical gear from the cabin while we wait for a scrap of information I’m not sure we’ll find.
Sighing, I stand, pushing out my chair with more force than I realize, and it skids back and tips over.
Everyone stops to look my way.
Logan is quick to lift it up and set it right. Then he steps in front of me, blocking out the rest of the room.
“We’ll get her back.”
“Don’t.” I hold up my hand. “Just don’t.”
Logan knows me better than most of our team. I’m not one to seek comfort in encouraging words. I need to work in reality, with most likely scenarios, and it is most likely that Dana has been killed. If that’s the case, I won’t rest until I find Denver Moore, and I’ll kill him for what he’s done.
Logan bows his head and takes a step back. Then Grey walks in, waving us over, and Logan excuses himself.
It’s been Logan’s mission to protect the innocent from harm ever since he lost his sister. There was a time he thought he wasn’t on the same side as Dana. Now he sees her as one of the innocents he’s failed to keep safe.
I take the reprieve to approach Jessa, who’s been sitting quietly on a stool behind the bar, with Jack looking over her shoulder as she types furiously on a keyboard. Dale offered the use of his old computer, and Jessa jumped on it.
Eagle and Grey drop off duffel bags of our gear as I reach Jessa.
“How is she doing on that thing?” I ask Jack. The machine she’s working on is so old that I hear phantom grinding and screeching dial-up sounds in my head just looking at it.
Pride turns the corner of Jack’s lips into a smirk. “She’s already broken into Denver’s home computer.”
Jessa breaks her concentration to speak. “I patched in through Link. He’s been a big help. Denver Moore was an active contractor until he went off the grid about thirteen years ago. His browser history shows him logging in to check active hits almost weekly going back years, but he never accepted one until—” She makes a face to indicate our current situation.
Dale inches closer to our group. “So he’s really a hitman then.”
There’s something in the way his face pales as he asks the question that draws my attention.
“He is. It’s my guess that he was done, but Dana’s hit was just too lucrative to pass up, and she was right in front of him.”
“Why do you say that?” Jack looks over her shoulder at the computer screen, and Jessa steals a glance at Dale.
“Because there’s a long-standing hit on someone else who is local. His browser history shows him accessing it many times over the years but never accepted. I think it’s because the money wasn’t enough for his trouble.”
Jessa taps a few more keys, pulling up an image and stepping back so we can all get a closer look at a much younger Dale.
Dale’s voice is a shell of what it normally is when he whispers, “He knew—all this time.”
He looks like a gentle breeze could knock him over. Finally, he snaps out of it. He glances around the room, then lowers his voice and speaks so only the three of us can hear him. “I was an informant. I was in deep with a crime family, right near the top when I flipped state’s evidence. I had enough on the organization to have our capo locked up. It didn’t matter; the guy was offed in jail before he saw a courtroom. The family put out a hit, and I went off the grid.” He takes a second look at his younger self on the screen, then mutters, “So the only reason I’m still here is because it didn’t pay enough.”
Dale retreats until he’s leaning against the back of his bar, and Jessa turns her attention to us with her own stricken look on her face.
“There’s nothing to go on, Michael. There is no phone in his name. I can’t track their cars. There’s nothing on his computer that will tell me where he—” She takes a deep breath to stop herself from crying, and Jack pulls her into his chest as my radio crackles.
“Link, tell me you?—”
“I’VE GOT HER!” My team rushes over as he continues, “Who gave your little hellcat a phone?”
Logan smacks his forehead. “Shit! With everything—I blanked. I gave her a burner.”
“Yeah you did!” I hear the glee in Link’s voice. “She came through on my line. I think she’s hiding. She can’t talk, but I’m sending you her coordinates now.”
Jessa’s screen goes blank of its own accord before a map shows up, flashing one point of interest.
“That’s—she’s in the fields.” Dale corrects himself when he realizes he’s talking to people who aren’t from here. He points at the screen. “If she’s there, she’s in our cannabis fields behind the lavender farm.” He points at a couple seated with a group around a table. “That’s Steven and Bonnie. They run the farm. There’s no one out there right now.”
“We’re moving out. Grey, you’re driving. Eagle, have your long range ready. Logan, you’re with me.” I steal a glance at Jack, and we nod. I already know one of us needs to stay with Jessa, and he won’t let it be anyone but him. “Dale, no one leaves.” I point at Jessa, still typing away as Jack hands her one of our earpieces, but she pushes it away and takes a step toward me.
“I’m coming with you.”
Jack rounds on her. “Like hell you are.” She opens her mouth to double down, but he isn’t having it. “Dana needs you, but you are more lethal on that laptop than you will be in the car. You know this.”
That shuts her up, and she reaches for the earpiece Jack still has in his hand. Her chin trembles with her words. “Just—get her back.”
I rush to the door, uncaring if anyone is following me or not. I’m going to get her with or without backup.
Dana is out there, and she’s alone.
I got the math wrong and handed her over to a killer.
He was under our noses all of this time, just waiting for his chance to cash in.
I’ll forgive myself for my mistakes once I have her safe in my arms.
* * *
Grey hasn’t taken his foot off the gas since we pulled out of Dale’s.
I switched out some of my clothing for my tactical gear while Eagle sat on the open window frame of the back driver’s side, securing his long-range rifle to bolts and brackets welded into the roof.
Link patched her location through to our GPS, and I watched her move around in an odd pattern until she stopped altogether a minute ago.
Our own GPS location flashes too far away from her for my liking.
“Link, we’re ten miles out. What do you have?”
“I’m trying to reach her. I’ve connected Jack and Jessa into our call.”
There’s a long silence between us in the car. Grey doesn’t drive any faster. He can’t. We’re already whipping from side to side as he speeds up the mountain road.
I zoom in to get a better read on her exact location, and she is absolutely still.
All of a sudden, her position starts to move in a chaotic manner.
Link lends his voice to my worst thought. “I think there’s a struggle. It doesn’t look good.”
“I’m going as fast as I can.” There’s a hint of an apology in Grey’s tone.
We can all only do what we can do.
“I know. Keep going. This isn’t on you.”
It’s on me.
Dana is a firecracker, and she’ll fight me every step of the way, but if I get her back, I will chain her to my bed if it keeps her safe.
The blip on the screen has stopped moving again, and my world falls apart.
Link’s voice is solemn. “She isn’t moving. Michael, I?—”
Silence settles into the car, and my gut twists.
Jessa cuts into our conversation. “Yes, she is. Don’t ask questions. I’ve hacked into a military satellite. She must have dropped the phone. She’s moving fast, Grizz, and I have someone in pursuit behind her. If she makes it, she’ll be in the open in two minutes. You need to be in position before our killer clears the trees.”
Grey steals a glance at the map on my screen, then looks at the road ahead. We still have to make it to the entrance, then double back along a road.
“We won’t make it in time,” he says to himself, but the car goes quiet as he glances out the window to his left before saying, “Hang on. This is gonna be rough.”