Chapter 20
RAMPAGE
Dozer called at two in the morning. He answered on the first ring.
"Ghost has him."
Three words. Rampage was fully awake before the second one.
"Clean?"
"Clean. Wichita property. Delling and two other network members. The feds are moving on the Denver connection simultaneously. Diaz coordinated the timing." A pause. "It's done, Rampage. The immediate threat is neutralized."
He sat on the edge of his bed in the dark.
"The network above them?"
"Still running. That's a longer operation. But Delling is out, the Wichita cell is out, and the Denver logistics point is being hit right now." Dozer's voice was level. "Emily is no longer a target. There's no one left in this cell who knows her name."
He breathed through that.
"The other women," he said. "The four."
"Three families are getting phone calls tonight. The fourth—" A pause. "The fourth victim's case has a different resolution. Ghost found evidence at the property. It's not good."
Rampage closed his eyes briefly.
"I'm sorry," Dozer said, which from Dozer meant something.
"Yeah."
"Tell Emily she did good. Her evidence was foundational. She gave more information than she even knew. Some of the little details she remembered helped make sure they caught him. Diaz made sure that went in the official record." He sighed. "She's got people looking out for her."
"I know," Rampage said. "She does."
He hung up and sat in the dark for a moment.
Four families. One that wouldn't get its person back. The particular weight of that sat on him the way these things always sat, the way they sat in combat, and when he worked favors for Rider and the team. It wasn’t crushing or consuming, but still a present heaviness.
The kind of weight that didn't go away but that you learned to carry without letting it change you.
He got up and went next door.
He didn't knock this time, just opened the door quietly. She was asleep, on her side, the blanket from her apartment pulled up to her chin and her stuffed animal tucked under her arm. She'd been sleeping better the last few nights.
He stood in the doorway and watched her. She’s damn adorable. He thought. And his. His adorable little girl. She looked peaceful and innocent. He was tempted to crawl into bed with her, cuddle her against his back and try to sleep, too.
He thought about waking her. Thought about telling her tonight, right now, because she'd asked him to tell her when he knew.
She was asleep. She was safe. She was here.
It would keep until morning.
He was almost back to his room when he heard her.
"Daddy?”
He turned. She was in the doorway, she'd heard him, some part of her still running alert even in sleep. Hair loose, blanket wrapped around her shoulders, eyes half-open and soft with sleep.
"Everything okay?" she said.
He looked at her for a moment. Standing there at two in the morning wrapped in her blanket and all he wanted to do was pick her up and take her back to bed.
"It's done," he said.
She went still. Woke up fully in the space of a second. "He's caught?"
"Yes. Ghost and Dozer's team. Tonight."
She stood there processing it. He watched the information move through her. Relief, then the complicated layering of everything that came after relief when the thing you'd been braced against was suddenly not there anymore.
"The other women?" she asked.
"Three families are getting calls tonight. They’ll be getting their loved ones home." He paused. Let her hear what he didn't say.
Her face changed. "The fourth."
"Yes."
She pressed her lips together. Nodded once, slow.
"Come here," he said.
She crossed the space between them and walked straight into him. One arm went around her back and one hand at the back of her head, and he pulled her, the blanket and all, against his chest.
She didn't cry. She pressed her face against his chest and breathed and he held her.
"I'm glad she was found," Emily said, muffled against him. "Even — I'm glad she was found. Her family needed that closure."
"I agree. It’s better knowing."
"And the other three families—"
"Yes, because of your evidence," he said quietly, "it’s in the official record. Diaz made sure. What you saw in that garage connected everything."
She was still for a moment.
"Okay," she said. Soft but clear. "Okay."
He held her in the hallway for a long time. Clover appeared from somewhere, assessed the situation, sat on their feet.
"Clover," Emily said, her voice still muffled.
"Yeah."
"He's on our feet."
"He does that."
"It's very heavy."
"I know."
She laughed. Just a small one.
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and felt her go completely still and then completely soft.
"Go back to sleep," he said.
"I don't want to."
"Emily."
She tipped her head back and looked at him. Sleep-soft and tear-bright and entirely, completely herself, standing in his hallway at two in the morning wrapped in a blanket with his arms around her.
"Stay," she said. "Just — stay. Please Daddy. Stay with me until I fall back asleep."
He looked at her for a moment.
"Yeah," he said. "Okay."
They went back to her room. He crawled into bed with her and she curled up beside him with her blanket and her head on his shoulder and Clover immediately colonized the foot of the bed with the confidence of a dog who had been waiting for this exact arrangement.
"Clover," Rampage said.
Clover didn't move.
"He's fine," Emily said. “Let him stay.” She was already drifting off.
He laid in the dark room and listened to her breathing slow and felt the specific weight of this moment. He reveled in the way she trusted him and chose him to be here with him. His thoughts kept replaying what Dover had told me.
Three families getting phone calls tonight. One that wouldn't.
And here, in this room, was a fifth target.
A fifth woman who would have been one of those numbers had they not been close enough by to stop it.
A woman who'd come through the trauma of almost being kidnapped by a trafficking ring clear-eyed and functional, who'd made breakfast and gone on runs and colored botanical flowers in wisteria pencil and given a federal statement that had mattered enough to help rescue the other victims. Who was strong and brave.
His girl.
He'd known it a month ago when they’d had lunch. He knew it when he knelt beside her car in the parking lot.
He knew it with considerably more evidence now.
She made a small sound in her sleep. Shifted closer.
He stayed exactly where he was.