“Yeah, the gym the guys own.”
“The place where we were attacked,” she adds, shoving her shoulders back. She takes a deep breath and releases it slowly. “It’s the last place any of us saw them alive.”
Christ, I love this woman. She’s so damn brave, so strong.
Oliver’s eyes narrow, the wheels turning in his head. “That means we’ve got two options to find them. First one is that I crack open one of the trackers instead of scanning it from the outside. It’ll take a fraction of the time, might let me see what we’re working with, but I run the risk of corrupting them.” He flicks his gaze at his workstation. “We have five between us that don’t appear damaged.”
“Second option?” I ask, though there’s not much I’d say no to right now. We’re basically desperate.
“Either get to the house or The Den, and both are risky as hell.” He flicks his gaze between us. “If you can get me to Stone’s hub, I can trace them—” He snaps his fingers. “Like that. As long as they have their devices or trackers close by, I can find them.”
I nod, feeling the weight of the situation pressing down on me. “But we can’t just stroll into either location. If Augustus’ men knew enough to jump us at the party, they might be watching those places too. We need a plan, something that gets us in without tipping them off.”
“What’s the likelihood that Gus took them right to the Diablos compound?” she murmurs, her delicate features tightening. “Or out of the city entirely.”
I reach over and squeeze her hand. “We don’t know where they are, my love. They could be absolutely anywhere. We can’t rule anything out.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Oliver drawls, biting his lip. I cock an expectant brow and he shrugs. “What? Did you think that after all these years, we’d be flying completely blind?” He scoffs. “If you think the amount of plants and surveillance a piece of shit like Augustus Luna has is a lot, you’ve never seen aMilieu Corso-Marseillaistask force in action.”
I give him a pointed look, telling him to expand on that point of get fucked. Oliver huffs and rolls his eyes.
“We have a fuck ton of our own surveillance.”
I sigh. “Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?”
“I did,” he growls. “You’re just too stupid to—”
“Enough, children!” Ella hisses. “God, you two are infuriating. Can’t you just stay on topic for five seconds? We’re in the middle of a literal mafia war, for fuck’s sake!”
Feeling properly chastised, we shoot each other apologetic looks and murmur, “Sorry.”
“Anyway,” Oliver says quietly. “Point is, we have surveillance all over the state, and far beyond. We have plants within his organization, and many others. We can confirm without a doubt that your men are not within the Diablos compound or anywhere near it. Unfortunately, our plants are not within his inner ranks. If there was a plan, which we assume there was, our people are not in on it.”
Her shoulders slump. “So, we’re back to square one.”
“Not exactly,” he murmurs. “We have a solid idea about how we can find them.” He squeezes her shoulder. “That’s something.”
Ella takes a deep breath, her gaze flicking between Oliver and me. “We should attack this from both angles. You tear apart the trackers. Do what you need to do. While you’re doing that, we need to go in.” She places a hand on her stomach and the other on her chest. “I have this…feeling. The answers we need are on Stone’s computers. Before we left the night of my party, he said…” she trails off, swallowing hard.
Unable to stand the distance between us anymore, I tug her chair closer to mine and wrap my arm around her shoulders. I press a kiss to the top of her head, murmuring how much I love her in a moment meant for just the two of us.
“I love you, too.” She sighs happily and kisses my jaw. Turning back to Oliver, she continues. This time, her voice is stronger. “Stone said that if anything went wrong, everything we would need is on his computers. Based on the map you showed me yesterday, The Den is closer, but the home office has more resources. Stone was paranoid—he set it up with every possible contingency in mind. If we can get there, we might be able to override whatever’s blocking the signals, or at least pinpoint where they were last transmitting from.”
Oliver leans back, considering. “I can work with that. We’ll need to move fast, though. The longer we wait, the colder thetrail gets. And if the trackers are still active, they’re our best shot at finding them.”
“We’ll split up,” I suggest, even though the thought of leaving Ella to go anywhere right now twists something tight in my chest. “One group hits the house, the other heads to The Den. We coordinate through Oliver—keep him in the loop, let him direct us based on what he finds.”
Ella hesitates, clearly torn. “I should go to the house,” she says finally, her voice barely above a whisper. “I know Stone’s systems better than anyone. If there’s something buried in there, I’m the one who can dig it out.”
“No,” I say immediately, the word sharper than I intended. “It’s too risky. We’re not splitting up completely—I’m going with you. Oliver can handle things remotely, guide us if anything goes wrong.”
Oliver nods, already pulling up schematics and maps on his tablet. “I can do that. I’ll set up a secure line, keep us connected. But you need to be prepared—whatever Stone put in place, it’s going to be tough to crack. And if the guys are in trouble, we might be working against the clock.”
“We’ll get them back,” she vows, almost to herself. “I’m not leaving anyone behind.”
I can see her walls coming back up. Can see the utter pain written across her face. So, I do what I do best. I make my baby laugh. Or, snap at me. Both are acceptable.
“Well,” I croon. “I know someone we can leave behind.” Her eyes snap to mine as I flip the other man off. “The nerd.”
