But that one job was enough for Diego to get his hooks in Andy.
“What does he want now?”
The teen looked like he might throw up. “He—he wants me to mess with a crypto account.”
Brian stared at him for a fraction of a second. “Cryptocurrency?”
Andy nodded, frantic. “He didn’t say much. He said I had to log in to an account and change where the money goes. Just redirect it into another wallet and don’t get caught. He asked me to do it the other day, and I told him no. Brian,I swear, I said I wouldn’t do it. But he said it didn’t matter. That I already owed him. And now he has Tess.” The tears spilled over now, unchecked. “He said he’d text me everything I need. I told him I had to research how to do it—I’ve never done it before. He said I had an hour then he’d send the text. And if he sees any cops—any at all—then Tess...” He swiped his eyes. “Fuck! I never meant for this to happen. I swear. I didn’t think—she’s my sister. I wouldn’t have?—”
“I know,” Brian said quietly, his mind racing.
Inside, rage flared hot and vicious. Terror followed, cold and suffocating. He locked them both down and exhaled slowly through his nose.
Impulsiveness. Stupidity. Teenage logic. It was a part of growing up, and he could rake the kid over thecoals for it later. Right now, what mattered was that a sixteen-year-old stood in front of him believing a gang member’s choices were his fault.
“This is not on you,” Brian said, voice quiet but firm. “You made a bad call. Yeah. But Diego is the one who crossed a line. He’s the one who decided to grab Tess. That’s on him. Not you. You hear me?”
Andy’s jaw flexed. He nodded once, but his eyes said he didn’t believe it yet.
Brian filed that away with everything else he couldn’t afford to deal with in this moment.
He had to think.
See the angles.
Work the problem like an agent.
And, most importantly, save Tess—nothing else was an option.
“Listen to me.” He gripped Andy’s shoulder and kept his voice low and steady. “You are not doing anything for him. You are not touching that crypto account. You are not logging into anything. You understand?”
Andy’s eyes flicked to his. “But Tess?—”
“We’ll get her back—unharmed,” he cut in, sharper than he meant, then reined in his temper. “Diego thinks he’s got you backed into a corner. He doesn’t. You did one stupid thing for him—okay. That’s done. We’ll deal with that fallout later. Right now, the only thing that matters is getting Tess back in one piece.”
“But she said—” Andy’s voice cracked again. “Shesaid not to call the police. That’s the first thing she said. ‘Do what they say,don’tcall the police.’ But she stressed the worddon’t, so that means do the opposite, right?”
“Yeah. That means someone was standing over her,” Brian said, feeling his teeth grind. “She said it because they told her to. That’s not the same as her not wanting you to get help.”
He believed that down to his bones.
Tess trusted the system more than most. She’d spent her adult life helping turn hard truths into something that couldn’t be erased. She wouldn’t suddenly decide, unprompted, that notifying the police was off the table.
Glancing at the phone in Andy’s hand, a thought came to him. “Do you and Tess have an app or setting that lets you see where each other’s phones are?”
His hope died when the teen’s shoulders slumped and he hung his head. “I already tried that. The last place her phone pinged was the M.E.’s office, a few minutes after she texted me. According to the app, it’s off now.”
“Damn.” He set his hands on his hips, took a deep breath, and stared at the ceiling, trying to think of what to do next.
“Could they know you were coming here?” Andy whispered. “Diego said not to tell the cops, especially you—my sister’s detective boyfriend. He said that. Could they be watching the house?”
He stepped over to the back window and scanned the beach—low dunes, packed sand, and the glistening water beyond. Nothing and no one looked out of place.
“They’re not watching from out there,” he said. “At least not in a way that sticks out. When I pulled in, I didn’t see any occupied vehicles parked nearby, and I wasn’t followed from headquarters.”
He trusted his instincts when it came to patterns and anomalies—nothing on the drive to the house had set them off. That made surveillance unlikely. Possible, but unlikely. He didn’t voice the other scenarios that flickered through his mind. Paranoia spread fast, and he needed Andy to be functional.
Brian checked his watch.6:42.
