"What else do you know about him? What does he look like?"
When the guy clamped his mouth shut, Taylor inched his gun closer to his head.
"Jesus. Big gut, fat face, thinning hair."
"Miss America then?" Tag snarked.
"Yeah, he's a real fucking beauty queen."
"I need more details? Is he white? How tall? What color hair?"
The goon hesitated slightly, but when his eyes slid over to the gun Taylor pointed at him, he answered begrudgingly. "Yeah, he's white. Maybe five-ten. Brown hair, what's left of it."
Satisfied that they now had a physical description, Cade asked, "Can you call him?"
"Nah. Uses a burner. Numbers change all the time."
Cade fished out the guy's phone and searched the call history, confirming the story when he saw dozens of unknown numbers. He knew it was a long shot, but punched the number for the last incoming call, pressed the speaker button, and slid the phone in front of their hostage.
"If the Handler answers, tell him you need to meet him. Set up a time and place."
"I told you, he won't answer."
"Do it anyway," Cade hissed.
The man made a face, and they all listened to the sound of ringing until a message played saying the number was no longer in service.
Cursing, Cade turned back to the man. "How often does he call you?"
"I don’t know, man. When something is going down, like we're transferring product or something."
"Anything like that planned?" Cade pressed.
"Not that I know of."
Fucking dead end after dead end. "When will he call again?"
"I don't fucking know. Never do."
Jesus, this was going nowhere. Cade hadn't expected much, but it was still frustrating. Deciding the guy had nothing else to offer, Cade turned to Tag and asked, "Anything else?"
"I don't think so."
On comms, Cade announced, "Annabeth, we're bringing the girls out now. Send Kate."
"Understood. ETA two minutes."
Nodding to Taylor, Cade turned to leave the kitchen, speaking into his earpiece. "Rodriguez, I'm on my way up. Let's start rounding up the girls."
Before he reached the staircase, a gunshot popped.
On comms, he heard Taylor report, "All hostiles eliminated."
"Understood," Annabeth responded.
Upstairs, he and Rodriguez gathered up the girls. Cade returned to Natalie's room and assured her, "It's safe now. We're getting you out of here. Tristan's outside waiting for you. Can you help her?" He motioned toward the other girl, who sat rocking on the bed.
"You're sure it's over?" Natalie asked warily.
