Pierce
“Slow down, son. I can’t understand you.”
I rake my hands through my hair in frustration. I can’t slow down; I just need help. I’m in the parking garage, desperately trying to find a direction to go, but I can’t drive in circles.
“Agent Cole Dutton. I need everything the CIA has on him, and I need it now.” I’ve never asked anything from my grandfather. I knew he would give me a lesson instead of the answer, “a good agent can solve his own problems.” But I don’t have time. I need him to be a grandpa right now.
“I don’t work for the CIA anymore.”
“You know people.” People he never hesitated to call to solve one of his own cases. But of course, I’m not someone he will bend the rules for.
“You know that information is highly classified.”
“Get it unclassified.” He runs a private security firm, in many ways, he’s an extension of the CIA.
“Pierce, what’s going on? I told you I needed to talk to yo—”
“This has nothing to do with you, Grandpa. Someone in the CIA kidnapped the woman I was protecting. I need…” I choke on the words. “Help.”
“Does this have to do with that formula?”
I stare straight ahead at the concrete pillar. “How do you know about the formula?”
“Because I sent that girl to you.”
I force air in and out as the world slows around me. He’s been my anonymous contact for years. The one who has sent some of the most sensitive cases I’ve dealt with. “You sent me Thea.”
There’s a moment of hesitation before he speaks. “It was a tricky situation. She came to me, needing help, and I knew you could keep her safe if things went south. Are you saying she’s the one who’s been kidnapped?”
There is so much I need to pick apart from that admission, but I don’t have the time or brain power right now to consider my grandfather’s role in my life for the last couple years.
“Have you tracked his phone?” Grandpa asks, switching to agent mode.
“He ditched it. That’s why I need everything on him and a Gavin Johnson. I need to know where they could have taken her.”
“I’ll get some men on it and get the copter ready. We’ll find her, Pierce.”
We better.
“I’ll call you right back,” he says before ending the call.
I call Megan and fill her in, then instruct her to lock down the house and not let anyone inside. I tell her to call me immediately if Thea somehow makes it home.
Then I sit. In the silence. In nothingness. I’m obsolete… and I loathe it.
I pinch my eyes shut, fighting off the ache. I’m useless. Hopeless, like I’m waiting for my mom to change. And I’m scared, because what now? I just want to find Thea and keep her safe.
Then there’s my grandfather—the one I put in the rearview and never looked back for.
The one I told to leave me alone, and he did.
But he also helped me. Found me real people who needed real help.
It was those cases he gave me that made me realize how much I despised the other ones.
He’s been there, hiding behind a fake email, because he knew I wouldn’t answer his real one.
I’ve been so selfish. Had I figured this out earlier, maybe Thea wouldn’t be in this mess.
My phone rings, putting me out of my misery, and I answer it immediately.
“Cole’s phone is offline, but last night it registered a quarter mile from the Meyers’ residence.”
I slap the steering wheel. That’s why our fight felt familiar. How many times did I fight him in the training room? He’s the one who broke in.
“Now, we’ve got three possible locations tied to both men,” Grandpa says. “There were more, but we’ve already ruled them out.”
“Give them to me.”
“Sending now. We’ve got a vacant warehouse in Modesto that is in Gavin’s name, a lake house in Tahoe also in his name, and a cabin in Eldorado National Forest that belonged to Cole’s uncle who died five years ago.”
They are all so endlessly out of my reach. The first one should be close to Noah’s current location. I send him a text, and he responds immediately.
Two left. Gavin wants the drug; Cole wants me. Why would he take Thea if he didn’t know about the drug? It makes more sense that Gavin would have taken her, but…
The tattoos. More specifically, Cole’s tattoos.
I couldn’t see them clearly in the picture, but it was him who mugged Thea in Mexico.
Cole may be a runaway thread, but I’ve got to chase it.
If Cole is here, something bad is on the horizon.
But what if I’m wrong? I can’t be in two places at once.
I’ll have to trust someone else to take my spot at one.
“I’ll take the cabin. You take the lake house,” I say, already plugging the cabin location into my GPS.
“I’ll send a team to your location as well.”
“Thank you.” I reverse out of the stall and speed through the parking garage.
“If she’s there, I’ll make sure she’s safe,” Grandpa says. And as I take the turn out of the parking garage, I wonder if maybe I got some things wrong all those years ago. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as my teenage mind remembers.
“Pierce?” he asks.
“What?”
“I’m glad you called me.”
I clear my throat, and turn onto the road, then speed up to change lanes. Me too, but the only thing I say is, “Let me know what you find.”
I press the end button and pull myself back together for Thea. I can’t afford to lose her, or I really will break.