21. Chapter 21
twenty-one
Airless - UNWELL
Twenty-five Days Since Talia’s Abduction
Jackie stood in front of her whiteboard. She was going to have to replace the giant throw rug she’d put down when she moved in, once this was all over; it was starting to wear down right in front of the board.
She had crossed Renegat and contact off and had added a calendar.
She circled the day Talia was taken and the day they’d gone to the club.
If they were lucky, they had a week, maybe two, to find her.
The day was marked with an X. After that day, they assumed they’d have to go international.
They’d have to start looking into filthy rich men who had the means and lack of morals to buy women to satisfy their sick desires.
Jackie tried not to dwell on it. Tried not to think about the fact that Nikita wanted her in exchange for Talia. She knew what she’d do when they found Talia. She wasn’t about to share that with anyone, because she knew it would be a fight. But she knew. Talia would come home no matter the cost.
She was staring at the map in the top corner when Dimitri arrived, again a little washed out and breathless.
“Figure something out?” he asked, following her eye up to the Port of Toronto.
“More like a hunch,” she sighed. “If they’re planning on trafficking her, they’ll want her out of the city as fast as possible once a sale goes through.
If they don’t have her in the port yet, she’ll be there soon.
” Dimitri glanced up to JP’s name. If the Bratva were now planning to sell Talia, the man handling the money would be their best bet for finding her.
He hated all of this. Jackie continued, “I’ve got Drew and Liv combing through city records to see if they can find any link between all the shipping and storage facilities down there and the Bratva. ”
Dimitri nodded, agreeing it was their best bet other than contacting JP. They stood in silence, contemplating whether there were any other possibilities as they stared at the board.
Dimitri’s ringing phone cut the silence. He pulled it from his pocket, stared hard at the screen for a long moment before silencing and pocketing it again.
“Who was that?” Jackie asked, chuckling.
He looked at her, hesitating a moment before answering, “My mom.”
Jackie’s eyes went wide. “And you silenced her?” She gasped.
Dimitri hesitated again. Jackie clocked it this time, wondering if it really was his mom who called, and why he was being cagey about it if she had.
“No one is ever going to silence that woman,” he hedged, then sighed.
“My dad’s birthday is this weekend. It’s way more lowkey than Mom’s, but everyone is still going to be there. ”
Dimitri’s weirdness left her mind as she turned back to the board. They didn’t have much time, certainly not enough for a birthday party, as much as she liked Dimitri’s dad. “We’ll have to see where we’re at before deciding if I can go or not.”
“Yeah,” Dimitri agreed, but he seemed distant. His eyes drifted back to the board, but remained unfocused.
“You are going,” Jackie asserted. “You’re not missing your dad’s birthday. But we’ll have to get all this shit sorted by then if I’m going to go, too.”
A knock at the door had them both turning before Dimitri could answer. Drew stood, looking slightly more confident than usual, holding a small stack of papers.
“Got an update?” Jackie asked, meeting him halfway to the door.
“Same old,” he said, handing her the stack. “Liv and I cross-referenced all the shipping companies and their associates in the port with any known associates of the Bratva. Everything we found was pretty shaky, but there are a few possibilities that should be looked into more.”
“Thanks,” she said as she flipped through the pages.
“Anything else you need?”
“Not right now, but I’ll let you know if we find something in here.
” She held the papers up and turned back to Dimitri.
Drew turned to leave, but Jackie called back after him.
“Actually, that old tactical suit that Masters commissioned for me a while back, do you know whatever happened to that during the coup? I thought I had it in my storage, but I can’t find it. ”
“That’s a good question,” he pondered. “I’ll take a look around for it. Masters wouldn’t have let that disappear. It’ll be due for some upgrades by now.”
“That’s what I was going to ask next.”
“Do you know where it is?” Drew asked, pointing at Dimitri. His eyebrows shot up as he shook his head.
“I didn’t even know Jackie had a tactical suit. I’d like to see her in it.”
Jackie stuck her tongue out at him, making him smile. She noted the distance remained in his eyes.
“I will take that as my cue to leave. I’ll look for the suit. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”
Jackie snorted and returned to the board, handing the stack to Dimitri to look through. He flipped through, pausing on some pages to think if he recognized the name or not. “Nothing’s familiar, but I’ll send it off to my contacts to see if they know anything.”
Jackie nodded, her eyes drifting up to the last name listed under Leads. Dimitri followed her gaze, his stomach sinking at the sight.
“No,” he said quietly, but firmly. “We exhaust all options before we even consider it.”
“I think we’re running out of options—and more importantly, time—at this point.”
He turned back to the calendar on the board, looking at the big red X and counting how few days they had left to act. “We exhaust all other options first.”