Chapter Twenty-Nine
Maximus
“I don’t care what buildings are down or what is on fire. We’ve been played, and I need those fucking systems up right now!” Panic reared up inside me like a beast trying to escape.
“If they have any sense, they will be suppressing their trackers,” Jordan said from beside me. “However, Grampa is old school and that includes the systems he insists on using, and old school technology is not that easily suppressed.”
I had no idea what he was talking about, watching as he typed on his phone.
“I want all roads in this area closed. No one in or out without us seeing who is in their car,” I instructed Jake. “Get me eyes on the ground using every resource we have.”
“Those girls are more than capable of handling themselves,” Caine said, and I wanted to keep hitting him until I felt better.
“That is my wife who is missing,” I pointed out through clenched teeth.
“They knew the instructions, and walked out there deliberately. We need to trust them,” Caine replied.
I grabbed him by the throat, but Jordan stepped between us.
“This is not helping, and my wife is also missing. The first person to annoy me will have a bullet in their ass.” He stared at me before moving his attention to Caine.
“He has a point. Megan isn’t that careless unless it comes to squirrels, so I have to believe she had a plan. ”
Jordan’s phone rang, and he put it to his ear.
“Grampa! Sorry to bother you at this time, but Megan seems to have gotten herself kidnapped. Could you activate the alternative tracking system?” He rolled his eyes.
“I am well aware that she is the key to you obtaining great-grandbabies, so I would be grateful if you could help. Okay, okay, go and have a cup of tea, and I’ll phone you when I hear anything. ”
He hung up, and continued to work on his phone.
Jake moved closer to me. “Black SUVs were seen leaving the area. Ryan is putting drones up to locate them.”
Our main hub had been hit, but that was the one people knew about. Ryan was currently sitting in a new state-of-the-art facility, where he could access more of the city than was legal. We had a minor inconvenience of our coms not working properly, but our back-up grid was up within a few minutes.
Unfortunately that was all it took for Olivia and Megan to go rogue, and get themselves abducted.
I turned and walked away for a moment before I killed someone just to release the tension in my chest. The monster inside me howled for release to destroy everything in our pathway. My fingernails dug into the palms of my hands, and my teeth ground together.
The worst part of standing here was being utterly helpless. I had accepted that I loved Olivia after she had been attacked. In the beginning, I had wanted her with every fibre of my body. Part of me had believed that when she was mine, that obsession would fade.
It hadn’t.
Olivia was a fever in my blood that consumed me on every level. Whoever had dared to touch her was a dead man walking, and his death would be extremely slow and painful.
“I have a contact who has sighted the car we’re looking for,” Jake said, appearing beside me. “I have men mobilising as we speak.”
I nodded slowly. “Tell them to watch only. Whoever the fuck is behind this is going to receive a personal visit.”
“I’ll make sure we have everything packed. Ryan has a few new tricks he wants tested out in the field.” Jake patted me on the shoulder, and moved away.
I turned back to watch Jordan organising his team.
“Megan’s tracker has flashed every so often but not enough for us to locate her,” Flynn said. “However, it is allowing us to narrow the search area, and my guys are heading north.”
“We have a sighting of the car,” I announced, earning me a stern glare from Jordan.
“Could you not have shared this information?” Jordan demanded.
“Jake just let me know. I suggest we get ourselves ready because wherever they are taking them, it will be guarded by a small army.” I checked a message on my phone letting me know Ryan had drones tracking the car to avoid them detecting us.
“Are you wanting an extermination or an elimination?” Flynn asked, glancing up from typing on his phone.
“What’s the difference?” I replied.
“An extermination kills everything in our path, and we leave our hits where they fall. An elimination means we kill everything in our path, and remove all evidence of what happened.”
We had eliminated a few bodies in the past, but this was different than anything I had considered before.
“I used to hold wallpaper samples from the Council headquarters and anytime we had to clean up a mess, it was as if it never happened. They just vanished without a trace,” Jordan continued from Flynn’s explanation.
“It certainly makes people sit back and take notice. Losing the odd man is one thing, having a mystery akin to the Mary Celeste is something entirely different.”
I met Jake’s stare, communicating silently. The people in our organisation knew how we operated, and this would freak them out.
“Eliminate them,” I replied. “I want each family gone one at a time, until there is no evidence they ever existed. Every man who threatened to rape Olivia or bid on her should be locking his door every night, and praying the bogey man doesn’t find a way into his home.”
“You heard the man,” Jordan said. “Activate our clean-up crews, and brief them.”
“You have incinerators?” Flynn asked.
“Jake will give you everything you need, including men,” I replied.
Flynn nodded, and indicated Jake follow him toward his car.
“I want to rip their fucking heads off,” I muttered, trying to slow my breathing.
“I know,” Jordan replied. “Megan is my entire world, but I trust her, and that is the reason she agreed to let me back into her world. All I can do, is ensure I’m there to save her ass when her hairbrained scheme is finished.”
I chuckled at his forlorn expression. Love made fools of the best of us.
“Let’s minimise the time they hold them,” I said, moving toward my car. “Jake, navigate the first tactical unit to where they stop.”
“Roger that,” Jake replied. “All our tactical cars are ready to go.”
I nodded once, knowing I was going to have to make a stop to pick up one of Ryan’s war fleet fitted with enough armament to make it a small tank. Jordan followed me, sliding into my car, and hiding us from the rest of the world.
“No matter what happens, the safety of Megan and Olivia are paramount,” he said. “Men like us don’t love easily, and I doubt there is another woman anywhere in the world who would tolerate assholes like us.”
I glanced at him as I started the car. “She thinks I married her because she asked me to help her,” I said, expunging that sin from my soul.
“Nonsense,” Jordan replied. “She has seen the way other wives are treated, and how you cherish her. You started a war because those other men wanted to touch her. That is love without words, and is felt at a soul level. Words mean nothing, and I should know considering I’m a barrister.”
“Yeah, I’ve met my fair share of convincing liars,” I muttered.
We fell into silence as I drove like a maniac, the monster inside me screaming that I should have tied her in our room and locked the door. If she was in my bed, then no one would have dared to look for her there.
I swung my car into the private carpark under one of my buildings. It had been bought under a company that no one knew belonged to me. I had been disassociating myself from the oppressive overarching organisation Dad had believed in for so long.
The tracker in my car activated the metal door into the underground area which housed our vehicles and storage area.
Jordan whistled lowly when he saw the line of cars in the middle of the area. “Impressive. We have cars back home, but nothing at this level. Zee and Ash would be green with jealousy.”
“Men do love their toys.” Ryan emerged from the door in the corner, his tablet in his hand since he was away from his computer terminal. “We’re tracking the cars. They separated a few minutes ago, but my drones put trackers on the cars in case we lose sight of them.”
“Jordan, this is Ryan our technical expert. He keeps us all safe out there. Ryan, you probably know more about Jordan than I do, so introductions are likely useless,” I said.
“Pleased to meet you,” Ryan said, moving forward to shake Jordan’s hand. “I do admire an artist, and you tend to take pride in your work.”
The Englishman laughed. “It’s not often that killing is considered an artform, but if it is, then Flynn and his men should have their work recognised in a major museum.”
“Are the cars ready?” I asked, needing to follow Olivia.
“Absolutely!” Ryan replied. “Let me talk you through the latest upgrades.”
He spent the next few minutes talking us through all the different ways we could kill people. Jordan selected guns from the collection on the wall, filling his pockets with magazines. He slid a pair of glasses from the inside pocket of his jacket, putting them on, and touching the side of them.
They had brought them to South America with them, and they’d been a godsend in that forest. We had been trying to replicate them with little success.
“Ryan has a list of questions about those glasses,” I said, starting to strap weapons to myself. “He’s very impressed with them.”
Jordan waved his hand. “I have little input in the science behind them, but I’ll get one of our engineers to contact you, and have a chat about them.”
“Appreciate it.” Ryan rocked back and forward on his heels, looking slightly overwhelmed at having a minor celebrity in our world in our lair.
Jordan held a pistol up, aiming at the wall, oblivious to being watched.
His phone pinged, and he checked it. “Megan’s alternate tracker just came online.
Grampa still believes in old technology, and insisted on the use of this when she joined the family.
They’re not as discrete as the new trackers, but they are harder to nullify. ”