Kenzie’s face went bone white. Reese held on to his control by a thread. “Fine, we’ll do whatever you want. But we’ll still need proof of life before I sign the final documents.”
“One more phone call. You talk to the kid, but if the deal isn’t closed, the kid disappears without a trace and there’s no way to prove who killed him. You understand?”
Reese’s hand tightened into a fist. “I understand.”
“You’d better.” The line went dead.
Kenzie walked away from the phone into the bedroom and Reese could hear her crying. He wanted to go to her, tell her everything would be okay, but it was a promise he wasn’t sure he could keep.
“It was a fairly long phone call,” he said. “Think Tabby can trace it?”
“No point,” Chase said. “He’ll be using a disposable and we already know where to find him.”
A penthouse apartment above the casino. It was common knowledge in Shreveport.
“You’re right,” Reese said. “It’s Griff’s location we need to find.”
“Wherever Griff is,” Bran said, “now that DeMarco knows Reese is in Shreveport, he’ll beef up security around the boy. We’ll be going up against a small army.”
Reese flicked a glance toward the bedroom, saw Kenzie wiping tears from her cheeks. He forced himself to focus. He phoned Derek Stiles and told him what he needed him to do. Black Sand Oil and Gas would be substituted in the contract, taking over the purchase of the platform. Whatever it took, the deal needed to be completed by tomorrow morning.
Derek wasn’t happy, but he would do what Reese asked.
When the call ended, he checked Kenzie’s computer screen, felt a rush when he spotted an email from Rick Holloway.
Did a little digging. Found a piece of property in Loggy Bayou owned by DeMarco’s grandfather. Attaching an assessor’s plat map and deed description. Hope this is what you’re looking for.
Reese clicked open the attachment and examined the map. He felt Kenzie moving up behind him, caught her hand, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Holloway found a piece of property in Loggy Bayou owned by DeMarco’s granddad. Got to be where they’re holding Griff.” A least he hoped so.
He felt Kenzie’s pulse accelerate, pounding in the delicate bones in her wrist. She looked down at him and managed a worried smile. “Let me in there. I’m better at this than you are.”
Reese smiled back and felt a sense of longing. How had this woman managed to get through his carefully guarded defenses?
“You’re right,” he said. “Youarebetter.” He slid out of the chair. “Help us figure out what we’re up against.”
This was Kenzie’s domain. Handling problems, coming up with solutions. Blocking thoughts of Griff and the kidnappers’ new deadline, she brought up Loggy Bayou, overlaying parcel map details with the angles of meandering streams and what looked like dirt lanes. She cross-checked, using the legal description on the deed, along with longitude and latitude coordinates on Google Earth.
Finally satisfied, she leaned back in her chair. “There it is, guys. I’ll bring up the satellite image.”
Bran and Chase moved closer to Reese, who looked over her shoulder. The bayou landscape was forbidding, nothing but green for miles, a huge mass of swampy land cut by overgrown creeks, heavy thickets of trees, and dense, leafy foliage.
Kenzie went to Google Earth and zoomed north and south around the property. It was mostly a sea of green.
“Looks like a big bunch of nothing,” Bran grumbled.
“The map shows a couple of hunting camps in the area,” Kenzie said. “You can see a few buildings here and there, but none of them are near DeMarco’s property.” She zoomed in as close as possible.
“Looks like there’s some kind of structure on the land,” Reese said. “But it can’t be very big.”
“You mentioned hunting camps,” Chase said. “Maybe that’s what this is.”
Bran started nodding. “A cabin the old man built for hunting. Got to be plenty of game out there.”
“White tail deer, otter, turkeys, skunks, turtles, bobcats, opossums, and just about everything else,” Chase said.
“Not to mention alligators and snakes,” Bran added glumly.
Kenzie suppressed a shiver. “How can we be sure that’s where they’re holding Griff?”
