The comments flew, and he groaned, plopping his head back against the headrest. “Assholes.”
The laughter in the vehicle was the release they all needed. “Get us to the helipad, Jug.”
“Your word is my command, Skipper.”
Fucking asshats. Talon closed his eyes. He would talk to Ronan. If that fucker knew she was on that ship … He’d end up in worse shape than the woman he’d hit with the butt of his weapon. Thankfully, that one would be interviewed by Guardian—not released to the local authorities. Seemed the ship had drifted exactly one mile into international waters. Or so the GPS coordinates Guardian had verified for the locals stipulated.
CHAPTER 5
Talon processed into the SCIF at Airbase 201 and took his position at the desk and the secure phone system. Their communication devices were secure, but the people working in the mountains of Colorado couldn’t use the earbuds due to the amount of rock they were working under. Nothing known to man could penetrate the granite and electrical mesh that covered their secure location.
Ronan leaned back and waited for his debrief. It took less than a minute for the line to connect.
“Good job last night, kiddo.” Ronan wasn’t the one to start the conversation. Instead, Jacob King, Talon’s father, spoke.
“Thanks, Dad. The team did well,” Talon acknowledged. “What do we have on Shoemaker?”
“Shoemaker? Why do you want to know about him?” His dad’s confusion was evident.
“Didn’t you get the information about his daughter? Dude should have sent that over three hours ago.” Talon glanced at his watch.
“His daughter? No, you’ve caught me short. Hold on.”
“Wow, how did that happen?” It wasn’t like his father not to know everything about a mission when doing a debrief.
His dad chuckled. “I took the morning off. This call hit me before I got to my emails.” He could hear his father accessing his computer programs.
“Why did you take the morning off?” Talon was honestly curious. His mom and dad hardly ever took time off during the week unless they were going on a vacation out of the area.
“Mom is looking at doing some renovations to the house. Ah, here’s Dude’s report. Give me a second.”
Talon waited. He knew exactly when his dad hit the bit about Riley.
“Motherfucker.”
“Right?” Talon leaned forward. “Tell me you andMom wouldn’t know if one of us boys were missing for a week.”
“You, definitely. We have an electronic tether on you that most parents don’t. Tristin, Tanner, and Trace aren’t tied to us with comms, but yeah, we talk every other day, sometimes multiple times in a day. But not all parents are like us. Some don’t care.”
“You should’ve seen her, Dad. She was covered in filth and dehydrated, had no food, and was enclosed in a metal box with no hope of rescue because her father didn’t tell us she was on the boat.”
“Did he know?” Jacob asked.
Talon drawled, “That’s what I’d like to find out. If he did, I have more questions for him.”
“Taking this a little personally, aren’t you?”
Was he?That gave him pause, but …Yeah, it was personal.“You’d take it personally, too, if you’d carried her out of that hellhole. She’d been strangled, beaten, and left to die.”
His dad was silent for a moment. “I’ve been there and done that, Talon. Follow your heart on this one.”
Talon frowned. “What? I assure you, this has nothing to do with my heart. This is a matter of right and wrong. And if this guy left his daughter there to die, he’s got problems.”
“With all of us. Hold on a second.” Talon heardhis father typing. “I just called in a personal favor. I’m getting Elliot Sawyer to go over to interview this guy. Has his daughter called him yet?”
“I don’t know. Her phone was dead, but a nurse was going to let her borrow a charger.” Talon looked at his watch. “She’s probably resting. She was wiped out, so chances are she hasn’t called anyone.”
“Good,” his dad said as the keys kept tapping in the background. “Jared tells me springing the truth on the unsuspecting will let you know if they’re lying or not.”
