Chapter 17
Slate
Katie sits on the carpet with her new puppy across her lap. His little tail is wagging as she brushes him with a pink plastic brush Ma gave her. Every time she stops brushing he yips for more. Katie giggles each time he squirms. The sound fills the room in a warm way that settles deep in my chest.
I sit on the floor beside them, leaning against the edge of the bed.
My shoulders ache from the fight with Neal and the hours we spent dragging details out of him afterwards.
Neal was tough, right up until he wasn’t.
I gave him an extra tune up for the beat down he put on Rivera.
The stupid fucker actually thought we were gonna let him go.
That asshole is our ace in the hole. He ain’t going nowhere but six feet under.
Striker was still combing through data when I left to come upstairs.
Everything he found explained the mystery of why they were so desperate to get their hands on Christina that they pursued her for years.
I can’t believe she had an actual bounty on her head all this time.
Come to find out, there was more on that encrypted flash drive than any of us could have imagined.
And Striker reports we only opened about twenty percent of it.
Most of it implicated none other than Neal.
I’m still not happy that she took it upon herself to try and do some investigating of her own.
But to be honest, I’m not surprised. It’s what she does for a living.
Rivera is with her so at least she’s not alone and we’ve got the asshole who was stalking her in our cells.
I resist the urge to text her in case I interrupt important research, so instead I focus on my daughter.
She holds up one of the puppy’s paws for me to see. “Look, he’s got toes.”
“Yeah,” I say. “They’re really cute toes too. What are you gonna call him?”
She screws up her face in concentration, “Still thinkin’, he’s so fluffy and sweet.”
“He’s gonna be a big growly dog one of these days, so don’t go callin’ him Mr. Fluffball or Buttercup or somethin’.”
When she grins up at me, I add, “You’re taking really good care of him.”
She nods happily. “‘Cause I’m his mommy.” She carefully smooths the fur on his head with one small hand. “When’s Mommy coming back?”
I swallow down my concern about what Christina is up to. “Soon, sweetheart. She’s with Rivera. They had to do some errands.”
Katie nods slowly and goes back to brushing the puppy.
Truth be told, I should have heard from Christina by now.
She knows I wanted her to stay at the clubhouse.
I’m not quite crazy enough to think I can tell her what to do.
And I think that plucking up the courage to go to the local library or wherever she went to look for information proves that she’s putting some of her trauma behind her.
When I met her in Kabul, she was fearless.
I want her to have that confidence back.
That’s why I haven’t panic called her already.
She’s somewhere local with Rivera. That means she’s safe, I tell myself for the tenth time in the span of a few minutes.
I pull my phone from my pocket just to see if she’s texted. There are no texts or missed calls from her or Rivera. Normally, I would say that means there are no problems. However, in this instance, I have a bad gut feeling.
I finally decide to call her, planning out in my mind how to sound casual. The phone rings once before dropping straight to voicemail. Christina always picks up when I try to contact her. She always keeps her phone on vibrate and close. I curse under my breath.
Katie looks up when she hears me mumbling. The puppy distracts her by licking her chin before she can comment. I stand clutching my phone in my hand.
“I’m stepping onto the balcony for a second, sweetheart,” I tell her. “You stay with the pup.”
“Okay,” she says softly, eyes drifting to the dog’s ears again.
My protective instincts are getting the best of me today. I open the balcony door and step outside. Cool air hits my face, and I draw a slow breath.
I start to dial Rivera’s number, but before I even have a chance, my phone starts ringing. It’s Rivera. I answer quickly. “Where are you guys right now?”
Static crackles. Then Rivera’s voice comes through. His voice sounds tight and a bit alarmed. “Slate. We got a problem.”
I freeze. “Where are you?”
“Hydro Relief. The affiliate of REACH off County Twelve.”
I close my eyes for a second. “How could you fuckin’ take her there?”
“She had a fake press pass. Said she just wanted to take a tour. There was a sign about community tours between four and five PM, right before they close for the day. I stayed in the lobby. She finished the tour and texted me. There’s a restricted area she wanted to check out.
Told me she’d text once she got there. That was fifteen minutes ago.
I’m going looking for her, but I don’t like the sound of this. ”
Anger punches through me, fast and sharp. “Why the hell would you let her roam inside a building tied to the same people who put a bounty on her head and hired that asshole to hunt her down?”
“They put a bounty on her? That’s pretty fucked up,” Rivera says.
“You should have told me what you were up to,” I spit out.
“She didn’t want you to be distracted with less important shit when you were tracking down her stalker. I figured if you guys were occupied with him, then we’d be safe.”
“He turned out to be a fuckin’ contract killer.”
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Slate. You got him though, right?” he asks with naked fear in his voice.
“You fuckin’ know that I did, brother. That fucker was a wealth of information, too. Now tell me about Christina.”
His voice turns worried. “Like I said. She went on the tour and then when it was over she pretended to go to the restroom and snuck back in. She never came back out. She told me she was heading to the west wing. I’m outside the building now trying to figure out another way to get to that part.”
My anxiety flares enough for my hand to tighten on the railing. “You think she’s in danger or just hiding out in there waiting for everyone to leave so she can snoop around?”
“I don’t know. It could be either. She told me she’d text me, it might just be that there’s no reception down there. Most everyone has left the building. There’s only a couple of cars left in the parking lot.”
“That could be their nighttime security.”
“All I know is if they found her, I’m gonna need backup to get her back out again.”
A short silence spins out between us, because we both know what this means. It means war with this huge multinational corporation, something we’re not gonna pull off without some bloodshed.
“I’m coming,” I say. “Do not engage anyone alone. We gotta hope that Christina knows enough to keep herself safe until we come and get her. If they leave with her, follow them.”
“I parked my vehicle out of range of their security cameras, on the left side of the building. I’ll hold position until you get here no matter what.”
With that, the call ends. I let out a shaky breath, because I’ve just realized that I will tear the world apart to keep Christina safe.
I text Queenie first.
Me: Come get Katie. Now. No questions. Watch over her until I get back.
Her reply comes a second later:
Ma: Sure thing, honey. On my way.
I text my father and brothers.
Me: Emergency meet. Five minutes. Main table. Full force.
My phone lights up with a series of acknowledgments. They’re all coming to the war room now.
I return inside our suite to find Katie still sitting on the floor, the puppy curled up on her stomach. I kneel and kiss the top of her head. She smells like the strawberry kids shampoo Christina used on her last night. It’s the scent I’ve come to associate with my daughter.
“Grandma’s coming to hang out with you,” I tell her. “I need to go help your mama out for a little bit. We might both be gone overnight. I’ll bet you could talk her into having a pajama party tonight.”
Her eyes light up. “A pajama party?”
Queenie appears in the doorway. “Oh, you want a pajama party. We can do that. It’ll be all kinds of fun.”
Katie scrambles to her feet and carries her puppy over to Queenie. My ma’s eyes glance from Katie to me. I know she can feel the tension rolling off me in waves. She steps inside and rests a hand on Katie’s shoulder.
“Is everything okay?” she asks quietly.
“It will be, once I get there. You’ll take Katie, right?”
“Of course,” she responds firmly. “Always.”
I follow them out of the suite and then take a hard right.
By the time my boots hit the stairs, the shift has already happened inside me.
The mindset of a soldier rises to the surface, though truth be told I don’t think it ever left.
I turn once more into the man who battles danger with skill and cunning and will stop at nothing when someone he cares about is under attack.
I don’t know exactly what Christina is up to, but I’m worried that she’s bitten off more than she can chew with that damned place. I wish she’d never been ballsy enough to walk into that building.
She’s either hiding or has been caught prowling where she shouldn’t have been. If someone dares to put their hands on her, they’re going to learn how stupid that decision was.
I reach the small room in the back of the clubhouse where we hold church, my father and brothers are already waiting around the main table. They look almost as worried as I feel.
Jasper speaks first. “What’s going on, brother?”
I drop my phone onto the table. “Christina went to Hydro Relief’s Greer County building. She hasn’t come out. Rivera is on-site and we don’t know whether she’s hiding out waiting to snoop around or if she’s been caught. We’re gonna need to go out there and extract her either way.”