Cade slammed the door and stalked into Hamm's basement, feeling like he had swallowed a live creature that was writhing in his gut. His jaw ached from clenching it so tightly, and every muscle in his body cramped with a throbbing tension, like he was vibrating out of his skin.
Ignoring Taylor and Rodriguez trailing behind him, Cade strode directly into the bathroom and closed himself inside. Leaning his back against the door, he closed his eyes and breathed in and out, resisting the primal need to scream and searching for the strength to fend off the dangerous spiral that threatened the tenuous hold on his emotions. Feeling too weak to stand, he slid to the floor and rested his head against the door.
Hours earlier, Annabeth had found six possible temporary holding sites by cross-referencing the warehouse's coordinates with the data on Wilson's laptop, and Hamm had immediately dispatched teams to investigate.
Cade had clung to the hope that the intel would lead them to Tristan, even though his instincts screamed it wouldn’t.
He hated that his instincts had been right.
Finding the sites vacant and silent had felt like a foreshadowing of a future he feared, where Tristan was gone and the emptiness left behind threatened to swallow him whole.
A week ago, he couldn't have even fathomed a loss that would hit him with such force, stealing his breath and his sanity. Theidea of Tristan suffering — beaten, abused, and god knows what else — had him teetering on the edge, a blink away from coming completely unhinged.
Cade let himself feel it all, the frustration and disbelief, the fury and heartbreak, for several long minutes, then willed his body to relax and his brain to engage. He needed to think, to be clearheaded enough to act if they got a lead.
To keep his shit together.
Finally feeling stable enough to stand, Cade took one deep breath and blew it out before joining the rest of the team. As he stepped from the bathroom, he scanned the room and found Natalie curled up on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket and staring at the television with hollow eyes above dark circles.
Her gaze shifted to him, hopelessness radiating from her in waves, and a stab of emotion pierced Cade's chest, though he wasn't sure if it was guilt, sympathy, or responsibility.
Or maybe all three.
Given Natalie's demeanor, he figured someone had already briefed her on their failure. Taking a seat next to her on the sofa, he greeted her softly. "Hey."
"Hey."
"We didn't find him. I'm sorry."
She nodded numbly.
"Did you sleep at all?" he asked her.
She lifted one shoulder in response.
Cade hadn't slept well himself, with anxiety-ridden dreams where he searched frantically for Tristan but was constantly disoriented and obstructed by hallways that zig-zagged in illogical directions. His panic had escalated throughout the nightmare sequence, and he'd woken with a tightness in his chest and the same near-hysterical feeling that hadn't yet subsided.
Because the dream was too close to reality, like he was living in some low-budget horror movie.
Except the monsters were real.
Unsure what else to say and still frustrated over his inability to comfort someone adequately, Cade sat silently next to Natalie, figuring he could at least be there if she wanted to talk. She didn't seem inclined to speak, so they stayed like that, still and quiet, trapped in their own worlds. Cade’s thoughts twisted between fear for Tristan and the crushing sense of failure: failure to find Tristan, to protect him and Natalie, to do his job, to carry out his mission, to uphold the code that had shaped him.
Without his code and without Tristan, what would be left of him?
Annabeth called out, drawing their attention. "Cade, Natalie, we found something."
He watched Natalie rise and sit at the table, looking so stiff and fragile he worried she was about to break, and his gut churned at what this was doing to her. She had already endured so much — too much for someone so young.
Reminding himself he needed to keep it together for her sake, he moved to the table himself to sit as well, doing his best to mask his agitation, to school his features into a somewhat neutral expression. Scanning the faces around the table, he noted the matching stony expressions, and his gut clenched at the realization that they all shared his pessimism about the outcome of this situation.
Hamm and Annabeth stood at the front of the room wearing the same clothes as last night.
"I deployed a program to search the dark web for certain keywords related to the case," Annabeth began. "I found several messages from disgruntled clients and one contract out on theHandler by someone called the Gem Collector. At first, I didn't think much of that, since none of the communications seemed interesting or informative, but about a half hour ago, I found a message from the Handler to this Gem Collector." She hesitated for a second before adding, "And it's bad."
Cade's hands fisted on the table, and he pressed his mouth into a hard line as Annabeth said, "Before I read it, I think they are using the terms 'star ruby' and 'fire ruby' to refer to female and male redheads."
There were some nods around the table, and Annabeth continued. "It says, 'I realize you are unhappy about the rough ruby, and I have a proposition to help compensate you for the loss. I understand that while you prefer star rubies, you occasionally purchase fire rubies as well, and I have one I think you will be interested in. It has strikingly similar qualities to the rough ruby since they are from the same crystal. I am willing to sell it to you for half of your initial bid in the auction and the cancellation of the contract on my life. I've attached a picture. Deal expires at noon.'"
