25. Drake #2
That knocked a reluctant chuckle from me.
“That begs the question; where did he take her?” I ran a hand through my already tousled hair for the thousandth time. “He was running this organization of masked men right under our noses. Did he have any properties we didn’t know about?”
“Already looking into them. But I’m surprised you didn’t have a tracking device on her,” he joked.
“I should have,” I groaned. “But Monty would have had my balls if I’d tried.”
“I’m sure she already does, but I don’t really want to think about your balls, mate.
” Julian’s half-grin reminded me of all the years working together and the missions we’d successfully completed.
He had always had my back in a way no one else did.
It helped me shove my fears into the back of my mind and bring rationality to the front.
I needed to treat the situation like any other rescue mission or else my emotions would bowl over me and send me to an early grave. And I wasn’t going to my grave unless Helen was there, tucked safely in my arms in the same damn coffin.
Charlotte reentered the house. As if the distraction of command returned her to the sensible viper everyone knew her as, she walked in with her hands clasped and not a hair out of place or a smudge of makeup around her eyes.
She nodded at Julian in quick acknowledgement before flicking her eyes over me.
I could see in her eyes that she realized how torn apart I was—that one powerful gust might knock me over.
I hated anyone seeing my weaknesses, but my love for Helen wasn’t one. It didn’t bother me if her mother saw how devastated I was with my ocean of worry. That sentiment put us on common ground; two people who cared deeply for Helen and were driven to get her back.
“We’ve accessed the security footage if you’d like to see it.”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation.
Julian and I joined Charlotte and Antoine in Helen’s downstairs office. I tried not to think of our recent shared hours in that room—in any of them, really. She existed in every inch of the house, and it drove a stake deeper into my heart when her lingering scent caught my nose.
A security guard plugged a drive into a laptop on Helen’s desk.
He pulled up multiple camera angles around the house.
We watched in silence as the events unfolded.
I noted the timestamp of Douglas’ arrival, how long he was in the house, and tried not to slam my fist into the wall when I watched him drag her across the front lawn and knock her out.
He hauled her limp form into the backseat, and I saw red, tasting blood on my tongue.
“We’re tracking the vehicle’s movement through the city,” the guard stated.
“Can you tell me what direction they went?” I asked. The man began typing on the keyboard.
“I’ve already got someone on our side tracking Douglas. His phone last pinged in this area, but we’re looking into his financials and any properties listed under his accounts,” Julian said, and I couldn’t appreciate him more for his proactivity.
That left me an agonizing amount of time to pace.
Another half hour passed. The cleaners mopped up the blood and debris inside Helen’s house and I briefly thought that she’d appreciate coming back to a clean home.
Even if I doubted the safety of the location, the stubborn woman loved her home.
That was how I found myself tidying up her upstairs office, struggling with my combative rage to kill something, when Julian burst through the door.
“We found something!” The sparkle in his eye gave me a hope that had started to dim. “But your father will be here soon.”
“Fuck that and fuck him. What do you have?”
“A warehouse listed under the title of an offshore account. But the registered name was Jackson Miller.”
“Wasn’t that Douglas’ dad’s name?”
“Sure was,” Julian said. “The Montgomery team works fast as fuck. I’m honestly simultaneously impressed and envious. They hacked the traffic cameras and followed the path of his car to that location.”
“Then what the fuck are we waiting for?” I jolted into motion. “Let’s go get my wife and kill the traitor who took her.”
Charlotte and Antoine understood better than anyone else why I wasn’t concerned with waiting for my dad to show up and stomp all over the scene as if he were the one in charge.
Charlotte even had a sad smile on her face as she ordered their reinforcements to follow my command.
Once suited up with extra weapons, Antoine stopped me at the door with a firm, silent handshake.