“Great story, but we’re wasting time.”Nothing Jared had said made Callum believe Jared was any more invested in finding Grace than any other client.
“Baer pulled strings and orchestrated my fucking nightmare.He captured the woman I was going to marry.”Fury flexed in his square jaw.“After I found Sugar,I took his everything.His property.His company.His contracts.Everything.I cleaned out the dirty and kept what didn’t stink like shit, and I turned that into this.The division of Titan Group that you work for today.”
The similar betrayal, fury, and panic resonated.As did Jared’s revenge.
Jared pushed out of the chair and stalked to the windows again.He studied the activity below and turned to Callum again.“I have been burned by the people closest to me and the people who fought beside me.I get it.I know what’s in your head right now.Probably better than anyone you’ve ever met.”
“So what?”
“I’m vouching for this team and the people who I’m bringing in as an additional layer of security.If you work with us, we will bring Grace home.I give you my word.”
The confidence in his rough voice offered the first shred of hope that Callum had felt.His molars clamped, and he didn’t trust his voice.
“We will bring Grace home.If I have to, I will personally deliver her to your doorstep—”
“I will be wherever she is.”
“I get that, and I’ll make sure it happens.”
He wanted to trust this guy.But it meant he needed to trust his team.Callum swallowed hard and had never felt so helpless.
“It’s a horrible feeling,” Jared grumbled, “not to be able to manhandle your way to a solution.”
“Like you’re reading my mind.”Callum moved to the windows and peered out next to Jared.Law enforcement canvassed the office parking lot.He didn’t know what they might find that would help.Investigators were interviewing everyone in the surrounding offices.He scrubbed a hand over his face.“I feel fucking helpless.”
“I did too.”Jared clapped him on the back as though to say it would be okay.“Now that you know why you should trust me, let me give you what I’ve learned.The feds believe they have what’s needed for a grand jury indictment.They wanted to avoid subpoenaing her.”
“What could she possibly know that is worth this much effort?”
“Marino is in deep with a Triad out of Shanghai.On paper, they look like Vegas investors who dabble in crypto trading.But actually, they’ve got an entire hedge fund propped up like a Ponzi scheme, laundering crypto.There’s enough money moving through their entities to theoretically never stop grifting unless someone pulls a cog out of their well-oiled machine.If that happens…” Jared let out a low whistle.“Lots of everyday people around the world will have their investment portfolio disappear in an instant, and lots of criminal enterprises will find they don’t have the money they thought they did.”
Callum blinked.“What on earth could Grace possibly know about that?”
“Prosecutors believe Marino used her aliases, VPNs, and communication network to hide his tracks.She was the front and didn’t know it while she was so-called dead.”
Callum connected the dots between what Jared said and all of Grace’s concerns, the way she lived, and her paranoia.“Marino knew where she was the whole time?”
Jared nodded.“Probably, and he was also using her as a third-party aggregator of sorts, laundering through accounts that she opened and thought she closed before opening new ones.She was staying hidden because the world thought she was dead, and it was a fantastic solution for Marino.”
Every possibility ran through his head.Dean had said her skills erasing her tracks had been beyond what one person could do, and he hadn’t been wrong.Callum had asked about it, and she didn’t explain the complex layers of hiding her tracks beyond VPNs and ghost accounts.“He’s not behind the Molotov cocktail or the safe house breach.Forget that those are two wildly different approaches to keeping her quiet.It would serve no purpose to endanger the communication network he built through Grace.If she’s actually dead, his system disappears.”
Jared nodded.“The different approaches tell me there’s disagreement in the Triad.”
“They know what the DOJ is investigating.But why take her now?She has nothing with her.She can’t access her VPNs and emails.Just to keep her quiet?”
He raised his shoulders.“Sure, and keep her accounts away from the DOJ.The faction that wants to kill her probably has a shakier relationship with Dominic Marino than the group that abducted her.”
His eyebrows lifted.“Then… that’s good news?”
“Relatively speaking.”Jared rubbed the back of his neck.“Look, there could be multiple bogeys in this shitstorm.The AG’s office could have empaneled a grand jury without Grace.They obviously needed access, and given what happened today, where it happened, the Triad has a mole embedded within the feds’ ranks.”
But not Titan’s?
“Our intel also leaked,” Jared said, as if reading Callum’s thoughts.“I don’t know how yet, but I assure you that I’ll tear everything apart and make sure that never happens to us again.Because it is anus, Callum.You’re Titan.That means something.Maybe you don’t realize it yet, but you will.”
Callum didn’t trust a soul here—yet part of him yearned to be so interwoven into a team again that it felt like family.
Jared tilted his head toward the office door.“I’m going to introduce you to men from our central headquarters team.They’re older.They’re experienced.They’ve been through this before.Every move will be redundant.Just to double-check that nothing shady is going on with your team.I trust them, but you don’t have to until this is done.Are we on the same page?”
