Chapter Forty
There was little traffic on the road, which was a damn good thing. Angus Force wasn’t happy. Not one inch of him felt good. Or even decent. His brain still pounded against his skull, his liver seemed to be having difficulty working with his kidneys, and his left leg had gone numb days ago. But none of that, notonebit of it, compared to the rage in his chest that Nari had been left helpless in the mud and two of his own taken. Dana was working with the team, so that made her his, too.
They’d been gone for more than two hours. Two whole fucking hours.
Worse yet. He’d read through every one of the reports Brigid had filed about the Deep Ops team, and every single one was positive. She’d betrayed nothing, and he hadn’t had the chance to tell the rest of the team that she was clean. One of them to the end.
And either somebody had hit Nari in the head, or she’d struck a rock on the ground, because all she could remember was that Dana was the target. That the mysterious guy she couldn’t remember had wanted the reporter.
He followed the directions to Dana’s apartment that Wolfe had left for him after arriving in DC via the private plane, bleeding like a stuck pig and then disappearing and refusing to answer his damn phone. Finally finding the sprawling apartment building that housed a myriad of urban professionals who worked in DC and the outlying areas, Angus parked and eased himself from the vehicle, careful of his numb leg.
Ducking his head against the rain, he hustled up the stairs to apartment 3A, where he knocked loudly.
“It’s open,” Wolfe called out.
Okay. So the guy was alive. Angus shoved open the door to a modern-style living room with cut glass, hardwood floors, and comfortable furnishings. “You couldn’t answer your damn phone?” he snapped.
Wolfe looked up from a white plush sofa, a remote control in his hand. Dana Mullberry’s face was frozen on the screen. “She was on camera for years, and her last interview was just a month ago. She does both print and live podcasts.”
Angus studied him as he would an injured animal. “You’re bleeding on her white sofa.”
“I have it bandaged.” Wolfe returned his attention to the screen, his clothes a wild mess and bristle along his hard jaw. “I’ve been going through all of her recent interviews, research, podcasts, and stories. Nothing stands out as suspicious.”
Angus looked at the smiling blonde on the screen. Intelligence shone in her moss-green eyes, and her facial structure looked fragile. “She’s smart, and so is Brigid. They’ll be all right, Wolfe.” But would they? As far as he knew, neither of the two knew how to fight.
Wolfe shook his head, his entire body a long, tense line. “I should’ve been here. I promised to back her up, and I wasn’t there. And somebody took her.” He threw the remote, and it slammed against the wall, sending a picture of a calm, peaceful lake crashing down.
“They were out to dinner,” Angus said, his vision graying. “There was no way to know they’d be taken.”
Wolfe shook his head. “I don’t know which case this is about. Who wanted her and why?” Standing, he dripped more blood onto the sofa, his hands curling into fists and cracking his already damaged knuckles. “Has Nari remembered anything else?”
“No.” Angus swiped both hands down his face. “She’s at the hospital now, and they’re keeping a close eye on the head trauma. She knows her name and so on, but the last week is still a blank.” He’d never forget the sight of her dark hair on that hospital pillow, her long lashes resting on her pale face. “I stopped by there on the way here. The doctor will call me if there’s any change.” He desperately wanted to be there with her, but he had a job to do.
Wolfe looked around the pristine apartment again. “I haven’t found a thing. Not one.”
“That’s okay. I’ve called in an HDD tech, and she’s going through all traffic pictures right now. Let’s work the case from the office.”
“Fine.” Wolfe stormed by him, smelling like blood and gunpowder.
Wonderful. Angus followed him, and the drive back to the office was made in angry silence. Finally, they arrived and made their way down to their floor. Hopefully the tech had found something.
The elevator door opened to the sound of a commotion. A bruised and battered Raider Tanaka was yelling at the purple-haired and furious Agent Frost, while Malcolm and Roscoe watched from a safe distance.
“What the hell is going on here?” Angus bellowed, limping out of the elevator.
Frost pivoted toward him. “This jackass thinks I’m a hacker, which I am not. I’m a techie, and that involves a totally different skill set.”
Raider’s chin lowered, his eyes blazing. “Then be a techie and get me my information. Who took them and where did they go?”
Angus’s temper competed with his sympathy. “Malcolm? You have anything to say?”
The ex-cop, his body tense in case he needed to step in, shook his head. “No update from the hospital. Agent Frost has called friends and connections to use traffic cams, but there aren’t any cameras around the restaurant from which they were taken, so we have no idea what kind of vehicle was used. We don’t even know where to start.”
Agent Frost turned toward Wolfe. “Any type of lead with the reporter’s records? A trail to follow on a story?”
“No,” Wolfe said shortly, fury cascading off him. “What about the flash drive we took from Eddie’s? Anything?”
“I. Am. Not. A. Hacker,” Frost said, her pointy chin turning red. “So, no. There are, however, several hackers at HDD, though none as good as Brigid.”
