I force myself to breathe.
In. Out. In. Out.
Focus.
She needs me to focus.
"Get me those fecking plates," I say to Vanir. My voice is steadier now, the rage banked but not gone. Never gone. "Whatever it takes."
Vanir zooms in on the footage, enhancing the image frame by frame.
The resolution is grainy, but he's good at his job.
Slowly, the license plate comes into focus.
"Got it." He reads off the numbers, already typing them into another program. "Running it now."
We wait.
The seconds stretch into eternity.
I'm aware of my own heartbeat, too fast, too loud.
Aware of the sweat on my palms, the tension in my jaw.
Aware that somewhere out there, Dalla is in the hands of a woman who wants her dead.
Hold on, love. I'm coming.
"Registered to an LLC," Vanir announces. "Sunshine Holdings, Inc. Florida corporation, registered three years ago."
"Can you trace it?"
"Already on it." His fingers fly across the keyboard. "Shell company. No obvious connections to any individual. But they own property..." He pauses, eyes scanning the screen. "Here we go. Sunshine Holdings owns a farm about an hour outside the city. Sixty acres, isolated, no neighbors for miles."
My gut clenches.
An isolated farm.
The perfect place to hold someone.
The perfect place to do whatever you want to them without anyone hearing the screams.
"That's where she is," I say.
"You don't know that for certain," Runes says, but there's no conviction in his voice.
He knows it too. We all do.
"It fits Freya's MO," Vanir adds quietly. "She always operated from isolated properties. Places where she could control access, control the environment. If her daughter learned from her..."
"Then that's where she'd take Dalla." Runes nods slowly, his jaw tight. "Okay. We go."
"Wait." I turn to him, something occurring to me. "Tor. He knew Freya. He might know the property, might know the layout. Any advantage we can get?—"
"Already called him." Runes holds up his phone. "He's on his way."
Tor arrives within minutes, his face grim.
