16. Chapter 16
sixteen
Love is Red - Colorblind
Seventeen days since Talia’s abduction
Dimitri found Jackie again, in front of her whiteboard.
“Was there an update on the cars?” he asked, arriving next to her and examining the board for any updates.
“Yeah, but not a great one,” she replied, sounding dejected. “They basically spent the night driving around the city before going back to the club through that alleyway that conveniently doesn’t have any security cameras. Or at least none that Drew has found yet.”
His eyes flicked over the board. Jackie had circled Renegat in red marker. “They probably held her right there at the club.”
Jackie nodded. “I’d guess for a week at least. Assuming we’d find and watch the cars first, and we’d waste our time following that lead, giving them the opportunity to move her away by the time we caught on.
” She sighed heavily. “I have Drew using his algorithm to track each vehicle that’s come and gone from there since the car she was in arrived.
If we can pinpoint what other businesses they have, or are associated with in the city, we should be able to find some possible locations where she’d be now. ”
Dimitri’s chest grew tight as his eyes again scanned the board, his mind racing, thinking about the timeline.
“We’re running out of time,” he breathed.
“If they kept her there a week, that’s still almost two weeks since they moved her.
She could be anywhere in the city. And that’s only if we’re lucky and they haven’t shipped her out yet. ”
“I know.”
“I don’t like that they haven’t reached out with any demands yet. You’d think they would have.”
“We know what they want, Dimitri.”
He glanced over at her. She was right. The Bratva wanted his head on a silver platter. Even if he paid them back the money he’d conned out of them, that wouldn’t make up for the sleight of stealing from them in the first place. Whatever the Bratva were doing to Talia was a drop in the bucket.
“They want us to come to them.”
Jackie nodded. “Despite the risks, I think we need to go to the club.”
Dimitri’s eyes flicked up to where Contact was written simply under Leads. “What’s he going to want in exchange for information?” he asked, lifting his chin toward the board.
Jackie shrugged. “He must know who I am at this point. He’ll either try to hand me over to his boss or see if he can get anything out of me. If he doesn’t, well, I’ll play along and see what I can get out of him, then get the hell out.”
“He’s got to have figured it out by now.
He’s just going to hand you over to his boss.
And even then, I really don’t like the idea of you trading your body for information.
That place is a glorified brothel. One of the many reasons I hate that you used to just visit casually, and hate even more the thought that they probably kept Talia there.
Let me go. Maybe I can cut a deal or something. ”
“They’re going to shoot you on sight, Dimitri.”
They turned to each other, facing off in what felt like an unwinnable battle. No matter who visited the club, they both risked not walking out again.
“This isn’t like Halloween,” Dimitri stated quietly. “We’re not going to be able to outmaneuver each other and still manage to work together on it. We need to be smart. We need to be careful.”
“I know.” Jackie nodded. Her eyes flitted around his face before she tilted her head to examine him. “Are you feeling okay? You’re all washed out. I thought you were sleeping better this past week, too.”
Dimitri opened his mouth as if he had something to say, but Jackie watched as he stopped himself. He shook his head, jaw tight with restraint. “I’m fine,” he said halfheartedly. “It’s going to take more than a few days of good sleep to catch up, I guess.”
Jackie didn’t believe him, but chose not to push it. They had enough going on already to worry about keeping secrets from each other, too. She had her own secrets, and she knew damn well he was aware of them. She wasn’t going to push him to share his secrets when he hadn’t pushed her.
She turned back to the board, not wanting to dwell on whatever Dimitri was hiding from her and sighed.
“Listen, I’m not interested in any kind of hooking up.
If I haven’t been exposed to them yet, I can probably talk myself into some information.
JP had said that they didn’t know my identity yet, and they grabbed Talia out of my place, assuming she was me.
So let's assume they still don’t know what I look like.
I doubt JP went out of his way to expose our little tryst because then he would have had to explain why he didn’t hand us over himself. ”
Dimitri considered her words. He didn’t disagree. JP would have put himself in a very precarious position with his bosses by admitting he’d had both Jackie and Dimitri in his home and hadn’t handed them over immediately.
Finally, he sighed. “Fine, a compromise then. We go separately, but at the same time. It’ll be a dead giveaway if we go together, and they might think we’re attacking.
So you go in, get your information, and I’ll come in a little while later.
I’ll feel better if I can be there with you.
And who knows, maybe I can broker some sort of deal with them or something. ”
“That would be a miracle,” Jackie replied skeptically. “But it’s worth a shot. We need to move sooner rather than later, though.”
“Sunday should be dead. They never technically close, so we can go any time, but Sunday, there will be fewer civilians around.”
Jackie nodded, writing the note under the club's name on the board. She finished at the same time as her watch started vibrating. She sighed. “I have to go. I have a session with Kendra.”
Dimitri raised his eyebrows at her, surprised to hear that she had returned to therapy willingly. “Who knew a few nights of decent sleep and some good dick would have such a positive impact on you.”
Jackie laughed as she collected her journal from her desk. “I think it’s more a combination of the eating and decent sleep.”
“Liar,” he scoffed.
She paused as she passed, wrapping an arm affectionately around his waist. “Your tongue was also very effective. That pinky, too.”
A broad grin spread across his face. “You liked that, huh?”
“I told you that anal wasn’t something that I typically craved, but I don’t know, Fraser. You might be changing my mind.”
His eyebrows lifted even higher. “Oh, really?”
She smiled sweetly before pecking him on the lips. “We’ll talk about it. But I need to get going before Kendra storms my office again.”