Chapter 34
Adam
I’m whistling as I type up the monotonous paperwork that seems to never end. Things are so damn good right now that nothing can bring me down.
“Yo, Loverboy!” Sin says as he walks up to me and tosses a file onto my desk.
“What’s this?”
“A breakthrough.” He grins.
I open it up to see an architecture company and all their inner workings.
“A breakthrough for what exactly?” I ask.
“Cano to Lorentz and Page.”
“We have that already, with Lorentz showing up.” I don’t get it. I’m clearly missing something.
“This firm is where Page and Lorentz run all their business through. All the artifacts, all the money from that.”
I jolt up and look at him. “How the fuck did you find this?”
“So many goddamned hours.” He sighs. “We had to track all the companies for both guys. See what overlapped and then look at anything offshore we could find. All things led to LP Group.”
“They didn’t even come up with a creative name.” I scoff.
“Right? It’s ridiculous how it was right in front us. Obvious as a damn neon sign,” Sin says.
“So, we need to dig, right? Connect all the pieces and hope we find out where they’re putting all the artifacts?” I ask, already pulling up tabs on my computer.
“Exactly. Pull employee records and see if anyone interesting shows up,” he says.
“On it.”
I have no idea how long I’ve been looking through LP Group personnel, but I think I’ve finally found something.
Charlie Daniels.
That can’t be a coincidence, can it?
I go searching for information on him, what he did at LP Group and anything else I can find on him. The first thing I find is that he is, in fact, Claire’s twin brother.
Fuck, what were you into, Charlie?
I have the sinking feeling that drugs weren’t Charlie’s problem.
“Hey, gather around,” Woodcroft calls out to the group.
“It’s all hands on deck with LP Group. I have a warrant for all the records, film, and media of any sort.
LP thinks we’re looking into their firm because of some tax issue, and I’d like to keep it that way.
They send over a ton of camera feeds, so get on it. ” Then he goes back to his office.
“I’ve got something too,” I tell the team. “Claire’s twin brother worked there. I think there’s more to it, so I’ll send you what I have on him. Keep an eye out for him on the tapes; it might lead us somewhere.”
They all nod and disperse, but Juliette sticks around.
“You okay? I can work overtime and look into this for you.”
“I’m good. I’m hoping …” I sigh. “I’m hoping I can give Claire something good to learn about her brother.”
“That’s a big ask, A-man.”
“I know.”
She pats my shoulder. “If there’s information to find, we’ll find it. Claire’s a part of this family too.”
I nod because I can’t articulate how much that means to me.
Now, it’s onto finding some answers.
Several hours later, I find something.
“Guys!” I call out, waiting for them to circle around my computer.
I hit play on the video and watch as Charlie walks down the hallway quickly, looking around nervously.
“I don’t get it,” Stone says.
“Right, watch as I reverse it.”
All five of us watch as he walks backward to a larger office.
He huddles against the large door, eyes wide, before the video shows him walking backward to his desk.
I wait about a minute and point to the video just as Oscar Cano steps off the elevator, holding a paper-wrapped object that’s most likely an artifact.
“Holy shit, he stumbled on the whole operation,” Juliette whispers.
“Seems so. That means he wasn’t killed because of some made-up debt. He was killed because he figured out too much.” My heart is in my throat. I’m not sure if this is good news, but at least I can tell Claire that he didn’t die because he was a junkie.
“We can’t guarantee that yet,” Lex says.
“Come on.” I gesture to the screen.
“I want to see what the medical examiners said about his death,” Juliette adds, already moving back to her desk.
“This is good. Keep digging,” Woodcroft says.
Everyone leaves my desk when my phone vibrates. The chuckle that leaves me when I realize my woman is stuck on the floor again eases the pit in my stomach from all that I’ve learned about Charlie. I not-so-subtly suggest she make my apartment home base but don’t expect her to take the bait.
“Hey, I’ll be back. I gotta go rescue my baby mama from the floor,” I tell Juliette, grabbing my phone and keys.
“I … Honestly, that sound horrible.” She cringes. “I’m not sure she makes the idea of pregnancy a good one.”
“Yeah, she hasn’t had the best of times. That’s why I’m going to go help her.” I smile.
“Go on. We’ll call you if we find anything big.”
I hustle out to my car and head the ten minutes it takes to Claire’s apartment.
I’m whistling again as I make my way up the stairs, until I reach her front door, where I abruptly stop and go for the gun in my holster.
The door is cracked open. No sign of forced entry, but something is very, very wrong here.
My hand pushes open the door, happy for the first time that Claire is in a studio apartment and the only place I can’t see from the front door is the bathroom.
The apartment is cleared quickly, and I find her laptop flipped upside down on top of all her research.
There are chip crumbs on the floor and a spilled Diet Coke.
My phone is up to my ear without a second thought.
“Do you need help with Claire?” Juliette answers without missing a beat.
“Someone was here. She’s not here, and there are signs that someone took her.” My chest is squeezing so tight. This must be what a heart attack feels like.
“We’re on our way,” she says with zero hesitation.
I’m frozen in place. Can’t move. Can’t even begin to think about the process that needs to happen in order to find her.
A hand on my shoulder has me spinning around, gun raised, until I see it’s Woodcroft.
“Sorry,” I murmur, holstering my weapon.
“Understandable. Fill us in.”
“She texted me that she needed help getting up off the floor. When I got here, the door was cracked open but not broken into. I haven’t touched anything.” My voice is robotic. “That’s all I know.” Now it crumbles, emotion seeping into the broken cracks of my soul.
“Alright. Check everything and see if we can figure out who took her,” Woodcroft tells the team before he drags me out into the hallway. His hands go to my shoulders, and he ducks down to make eye contact. “We will find her.”
“She’s thirty-six weeks pregnant.” The anguish I feel at not protecting her and our baby is all-consuming.
“I know.”
“Who would take her?” My head tilts up to stop any tears from falling.
“We’re going to find that out.”
“It’s got to be connected to Oscar.” My head finally grasps onto something logical.
“We’ll check everything.”
“Kellen …” I look at him. “I can’t lose them.” Those tears I hoped wouldn’t fall betray me. “I can’t … They have to be okay,” I croak.
“You know we’ll do everything in our power to get them back. You have my word. Anything it takes, okay, Adam?”
I nod. It’s the only thing I can do. I’m lost to negative thoughts. Horrible scenarios in every shape and form run circles in my head. I can’t get it to stop. I sink down against the wall, head in my hands, as I try to catch my breath.
I failed them. I promised Claire she would be safe, and look what happened. How will I ever survive if they don’t?
My shoulders shake as chest-wracking sobs take over. I can’t get enough air. I can’t think.
“Hey.” Juliette’s soft voice barely breaks through the haze.
“I can’t,” I gasp.
“Do not go there. We will get to them.” Her words are as stern as the look on her face.
I wish like hell I could believe her. I wish like hell we didn’t let up on Claire’s protection. I wish like hell that we didn’t act like anyone dealing with this case was safe.
“It’s my fault,” I mumble.
“It’s not.”
“It is. I should have done more.”
“Adam.” Lex’s pained voice joins us. “If anyone’s to blame, it’s me.”
“We’re done,” Woodcroft says, entering the hallway. “Blaming anyone right now is absurd. Our only focus should be on figuring out who took Claire and getting her back safely. Push all your bullshit guilt down, and let’s go. Stone thinks Starbuck has something.”
I scramble to my feet, wiping my face off and trying to steady my breathing. Lex claps me on the back as we all go back into the apartment.
“First, her cell phone isn’t here,” Stone starts.
“Track it,” Woodcroft tells Juliette.
“Next, Starbuck found this.” Stone holds up a gold chain on a pen.
It’s one I instantly recognize, but it doesn’t make sense. No one has said anything, and I realize they’re all looking at me.
“I, uh, know it. But it doesn’t make sense.” I shake my head, trying to piece it all together.
“Whose is it?” Woodcroft pushed.
“Nico Rojas.”
It’s like the entire room is frozen as soon as I say his name. Then all hell breaks loose.
“Sin, get me anything you have on property for him. Juliette, any progress on the phone?” Woodcroft barks as they usher me out of the apartment.
“Trying,” Juliette responds.
Someone jolts me on the stairs, making me focus and really think. Where would Nico take Claire?
I wrack my brain about where he hung out, any place he would go frequently, but nothing comes to mind.
We climb into Woodcroft’s SUV, Juliette pulling open a laptop from God knows where. Sin is on his phone, typing a million miles a minute.
Lex is next to me, fidgeting. “It’ll be okay,” he says almost to himself.
I nod, but I don’t quite believe it yet. There’s this knot in my stomach. It’s making me nauseous just thinking about what Nico could do her Claire and Teeny.
“Pull over!” I yell, opening the side door before the vehicle has even stopped yet, and puke up what little I’ve eaten today. The stomach acid coming up does very little to settle the dry heaves I now have.
My sleeve wipes across my face as I sit back up and tell Kellen to drive. I’m still extremely uneasy, but we don’t have time for my ass to freak the fuck out.
“Got her cell,” Juliette calls, completely ignoring me. She directs Woodcroft to an area just north of New York City, heading to New Rochelle. Woodcroft slams on his breaks, pulling over when Juliette tells him to, and we all jump out looking around.
“Got it,” Lex calls out with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
That’s when I see it’s smashed to hell and useless.
“Dammit,” I curse. It would have been lucky for this to lead to Claire, but I was still hopeful. And then a memory flashes in my mind. “The warehouse.”
“Which one?” Sin asks from the front seat.
“The one Oscar liked to do meetings in. It’s a little smaller, and I did some digging on it at one point and saw that it was actually in Nico’s name.”
“On it.” Woodcroft peels out and drives half an hour to the warehouse.
“You need to stay here,” Stone tells me, but I’m already rolling my eyes.
“Like hell.”
“Look, I’m not banning you, but stay behind us,” Woodcroft says, looking at me in the rearview mirror.
He’s trying to protect me from what we find. The thought makes my stomach convulse, almost gagging again.
“Flank out, cover all exits. Ready?”
The team nods and moves into position before we move to the door.
“One, two, three.”