Chapter 40
CHAPTER FORTY
TONY
I launched myself off the sofa. “I’m gonna kill him,” I growled.
Dante grabbed my bicep. “Easy there, Rambo. Let’s dial it back a notch. We have to find him first.”
When the fog of my rage lifted, I saw Gio staring at me wide-eyed, his laptop clutched close to his chest, and Alessandro glaring at me like he wanted to rip my head off. Sal was staring at me with his arms crossed over his chest. My cousin raised a brow. “You done with the dramatics, Anthony?”
“Dammit,” I whispered. I squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them again, I looked over at Gio. “I’m so sorry I frightened you. I was out of line.”
Gio nodded. “It’s okay. I know you’re scared.”
“That’s no excuse,” Alessandro snapped.
I was inclined to agree with him, but both Hunter and Dante stiffened, prepared to defend me. Before I could intervene, Sal stepped in front of me. “Anthony, go call your brothers. They should know what’s going on.”
“What? No,” I protested. “I need to make a plan.”
Dante put his right arm around my shoulders. “Boss, you brought us here for a reason. Hunter and I have experience planning this kind of operation. Let us do our jobs. You’re too close to this. You’re not thinking clearly.”
I wanted to object, I really did. But he was right. I sighed. “Okay. I’ll call my brothers. But you have to keep me posted about everything.”
“Of course,” Dante replied. “That goes without saying.”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “I’ll be in my bedroom.” Halfway across my living room, I turned back to Dante. “And don’t think you’re going to get away with managing me any time after this.”
He put up his hands in mock surrender. “I wouldn’t dream of it, boss man.”
I rolled my eyes. “Asshole,” I muttered.
“But you love me anyway,” he said with a cheeky grin.
“Yeah, yeah.”
I went to my bedroom, closing the door behind me. I checked the time. The team still had about three hours before they landed in Indonesia. I hit Marco’s number, hoping the plane’s Wi-Fi was strong enough for the call to go through. He answered on the first ring. “Tony? What’s wrong?”
As soon as I heard my brother’s voice, I wanted to break down. I sank onto my bed, holding my phone in a shaking hand. I could barely get the words out. “Greg’s been taken.”
“Fuck.” There was the sound of movement, and he spoke to someone else before he came back on the line a short while later. “I’m in the private room with Michael and Liam. I’m putting you on speaker. Tell us what happened.”
Telling the story to my brothers was harder than it had been to tell the people currently occupying my living room. I very much wanted them here with me now instead of halfway around the world.
“The timing of this is kind of suspicious,” Michael said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“It’s pretty convenient that your main search-and-rescue team is out of the country on the same day Greg gets kidnapped. What are the odds?”
I was going to argue with him, but then I thought about it. Personnel extraction missions happened maybe once a month. But still… “How could he have known? It’s not like we post the information anywhere online.”
“Wait,” Marco interrupted. “Didn’t you say he came to the office with a fake food delivery? What would have been the purpose of that? Greg doesn’t work for you. He’d have had zero chance of seeing him there.”
“Shit!” Michael exclaimed. “Text Liz right now and tell her to get the bug detector out of my office. Tell her not to say anything aloud.”
“Does she know where it is?”
“She does,” he said. “I taught her how to use it and asked her to sweep the office at least once a week.”
I quickly texted Liz and was relieved when she answered me right away. I got up and paced my bedroom while I waited for her to conduct her search and get back to me. Finally, her text came in.
I found a listening device under the lip of the reception desk.
I relayed the information to my brothers. “Tell her to drop it in a glass of water,” Michael said.
“Got it.” I texted the instructions to her.
Done.
Thank you. I’ll keep you posted and let you know when we find Greg.
“So he was able to find out that our team was going out of the country and probably thought you wouldn’t have anyone to help you search,” Marco said.
“But how would he know that?” Liam asked in the background. “You don’t list the names of your search-and-rescue team on your website.”
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“What?” all three of them asked.
“Liz had this bizarre conversation with someone who wanted to know how our extraction team worked. He specifically asked about our computer expert. Paul Langer knows that’s how we found him.”
“And he assumed if I was out of the country, you wouldn’t have another hacker to help you,” Michael added.
“He’s making a lot of assumptions,” Marco commented.
“To be fair, until recently, we only had the one team,” Michael said.
“By the way,” Marco began. “Why are you talking to us instead of working on finding Greg?”
“Dante sent me in here to call you while he and Hunter put together a plan,” I mumbled.
Michael, the asshole, burst out laughing. “He sent you to your room?”
“Shut up,” I grumbled.
There was a knock on the door, and a second later, Dante poked his head in. “We’re pretty sure we know where Greg is.”
“Is that Dante?” Marco asked.
“Yeah,” I replied, excitement filling me.
“Put him on,” he demanded.
“Okay. I’ll call you later. I’m going to go talk to Hunter.”
“Go get him, bro. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
I took the phone off speaker and handed it to Dante, then went into the living room. Hunter was checking his weapon. Sal and Alessandro were having an intense conversation in a corner of the room. Gio was staring at a satellite map on his computer.
I went over to Hunter. “What’s the situation?”
“Gio was able to trace the taxi using the picture Brendan got. We called the taxi company, and at first, they weren’t going to tell us anything, but then we told them someone had been kidnapped.
That was when he told us the driver of that taxi told him he’d been uncomfortable with a fare he picked up at Café Roma because the one man looked like he was unconscious.
He sent us the interior video of that ride, and it was definitely Greg. ”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “Where did he drop them off?” I demanded.
“An address on 12th Street in Greenwich Village,” Hunter replied. “It’s an apartment building that was undergoing renovations, but they were stopped because of money problems.”
Dante came out of my bedroom and handed me my phone. “We good to go?”
“Almost,” Hunter replied. He gestured with his chin toward where Sal and Alessandro were talking. “He wants to go with us.”
“Sal?” I asked in surprise.
Hunter huffed a laugh. “No. Alessandro.”
“Really? That’s…unexpected.”
He shrugged. “He was a big help in Colombia.”
“I know he was,” I replied. “I just thought he hated me.”
He scoffed. “I think he hates everybody. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to help.”
“We should get going,” I said.
“Where’s your gun?” Dante asked.
I rolled my eyes at myself. “In my bedroom. I’ll be right back.”
I got my shoulder holster, gun, and an extra clip.
I grabbed my leather jacket out of the closet and went back to join the rest of the crew.
Alessandro was talking to Hunter and Dante.
Sal was standing to the side, arms crossed over his chest. I went over to my cousin and pulled him into a hug.
“Thank you so much for your help. I owe you a debt I’ll never be able to repay. ”
Sal patted my cheek. “We’ll talk about debt when you have him back safely. Besides, you’re family. Family helps each other.” He looked over my shoulder and nodded. “Paolo is going to take you to your destination. Alessandro will be going with you.”
I nodded, tears pricking the backs of my eyes. “Thank you.”
“Let’s go!” Dante shouted.
I put my leather jacket on and followed the rest of the team out the door, praying to whatever gods there were that we would get to Greg in time.