Both men laughed at that. They didn’t believe she stood a chance against their ringleader. And Mae loved that. Because once someone underestimated her, she’d have an advantage.
And as much as she wanted to check on Jessie, and yes, Laurel too, she couldn’t waste the precious time. Who knew how long she’d have until the men came back? First things first. Mae needed to inventory what she had.
Okay. One bed. Mae pressed down on the mattress. Memory foam. No fucking springs to be fashioned into a weapon. One thin sheet that she might be able to do something with… a steel toilet in the corner that looked like it came right from a prison. The sink was the same, solid construction. Nothing she could break off and clobber someone in the head with.
“What are you doing?” Laurel hissed.
“Trying to figure out a plan to get us out of here.”
“Us?”
“I’m absolutely not leaving Jessie behind. And you think I’m leaving your broken and busted ass here? I hate you for what you did to my friends… to my family… but that doesn’t mean I’m going to leave you here to finish whatever sick fucking plans those assholes have.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me until we are out of here. And you’re not completely off the hook. I need information. And I know that’s the one thing you happen to be good at getting.”
Twenty-Four
Twelve hours. Twelve hours without Mae. No one had heard from Jessie, either, which meant the entire Ford family had taken up residence in the Montgomery Defense office alongside Stone and the rest of the team. It was chaos, but the girls were supporting Dolly as best they could, and Colt had taken to keeping his dad right by his side. Danny wasn’t a small, timid guy, and they’d had to talk him down from riding out with a shotgun in his front seat. Having Colt keep him up to date with information as it came in was the best route.
Max’s cell rang, and the room went silent. An update from his team was likely the best hope they had at finding the girls, although Gage had been locked onto his laptop without taking a single break since they knew something had happened. It wasn’t long after Max showed up that Gage was cracking open chats on the dark web to see if he could get any clues about what the hell was actually going on.
“Got it. Thanks, Watson.”
Every eye was on Max as he turned around.
“An agent working undercover in the Marset Cartel got unexpected marching orders. To pick up three women from an abandoned pharmaceutical testing laboratory outside Oklahoma City. The word is they were brought in from Texas.”
Stone’s heart stumbled in his chest. “Did they get descriptions?”
Max nodded. “Mid-twenties blond, and two women in their thirties. One blonde. The other is a brunette.”
Mae.
“This cartel? They’re connected to the guy you were watching here?”
Max nodded. “The missing link is who we’re after.”
“How long do we have?” Stone asked.
“They were told the women would be ready to be moved to auction tonight.”
“Fuck,” Gage jumped up from the computer. “That chatroom you had me monitoring?”
Max nodded, walking over to look at the screen. “God dammit.”
“What?” Nash asked.
“The threat has been nebulous. Something that was coming in the next month or so. The last post was a call to arms, to ready the people following whoever this psychopath is.”
“But they posted again. It’s happening today. There’s a list of targets, but it’s encrypted, and I don’t have the key.” Gage groaned.
“I’m calling my counterpart in cybercrimes.” Max picked his phone back up off the table. “He’ll get the team working on it.”
“And what about the warehouse? Tracker, can you get a list of abandoned places? We have to get to her.” Stone was hanging on by a thread. His head was pounding, each heartbeat that banged between his temples a reminder that heneeded to be moving. He needed to be doing something, anything, to make sure Mae was safe.
For fuck’s sake. They needed to be heading to their trucks. Oklahoma City was a three hour drive. There wasn’t time to be sitting around!
