Callum didn’t want any fucking coffee, but he took Gage’s lead and filled up a mug.Gage moved the platter of pastries onto the table.Was this some kind of power play?God, he hated games.He just wanted to get Grace back.
“Don’t waste your time,” Gage said to Marino around a mouthful of Danish.“I have a video that confirms it.”
He didn’t wait for Marino to ask and connected his phone to a Bluetooth flat screen.“Here we go.”Gage chomped on another Danish.“These little fuckers are delicious.”
A grainy CCTV video from the parking lot where she was taken was displayed on the screen.Callum hadn’t watched this yet.His gut twisted.The window went up.Grace fell out.The landing had been hard, yet she fought to get to her feet before two people put her in the trunk.
“Pretty crazy, huh?”Gage tossed another piece of Danish in his mouth.“If she’s yours, you should do something about it.Because that is fucked.”
Marino frowned.His smug conceit had disappeared.“I have nothing else to say to you.”
“Want the footage?”Gage offered as he slugged back coffee.“Man, this isn’t too bad for hotel crap, is it?”he asked Callum.“Mind if I take another one of these for the road?”
“Send me the video,” Marino demanded through clenched teeth.
Gage sent the link to the number Marino recited.As soon as it came through, the crypto king was on his feet and blasted out the door.
Callum wanted to tear the hotel down.
Gage hooted, and after they were out of the conference room, muttered, “That couldn’t have gone better.”
They walked across the lobby and departed the hotel, climbing into the waiting SUV.
“Hook, line, and sinker,” Gage said as Roman pulled away from the curb.
Rocco glanced over his shoulder at Callum.“You don’t think so?”
“We didn’t get names.”
“That was a long shot,” Rocco admitted.“The video link?”
“Like I said: hook, line, and sinker.”
A phone call rang through the SUV.Rocco answered it so that the speakers picked up.
“He clicked the link.We are live,” Dean announced.“Job well done.”
Marino had downloaded the video infected with a phishing virus.They had access to his keystrokes and communications.All they had to do was wait for him to make a call.
Chapter Thirty
Withadrythroatand pounding head, Grace forced herself still and kept her eyes closed.Don’t panic.The walls hummed around her as if she were sitting in the center of a power plant, but she couldn’t hear her abductors or anyone moving or talking around her.
Carefully, she tested her arms and legs.They were bound.Not tightly, but enough that she couldn’t fight or run away.She squinted her eyes, carefully opening them—and met the gaze of an older man.
Grace jerked back but couldn’t escape.
“Easy,” he said without getting up from his chair.“Easy.Calm down.”
She searched her surroundings.Tied up and placed on a cot on her side, Grace twisted around and saw nowhere to go.The small room was almost like a storage closet, except hundreds of wires ran along the walls.Grace turned toward the man again.Older with graying hair, he was half the size of the man and woman who had taken her.
“Good,” he said.“Stay calm.I won’t hurt you.”
“What do you want?”She memorized his hairstyle and the scar on his right cheek.He wore a crisp white button-down shirt, loosened at the collar, and loafers without socks like he would rather be on a sailboat than wherever they were.
“You’re here for your own protection.”
She shook her head.“I want to go home.”
