“Yes, but they’re too far out to do anything about it.” My fingers fly over my keyboard a moment before I tell him, “Antonio made a call to Ely, and since it’s her territory they’re in, hopefully that means they have someone close by that can reach them.”
Jude comes into the office. “What the fuck happened?”
I tune out Carter bringing him up to speed and focus on helping Hollis hack into the few cameras we can access.
I frown at my screen. “They’re on the move.”
“I need to get out there,” Keegan says.
“Wait.” I turn my head enough to look at him. “We don’t know where they’re going. They currently still have their phones—it’s how I’m tracking them—so we can assume they’re with Ely’s people.”
“Can confirm,” Hollis says. “I was able to get a look at the plate on the car they got into, it’s one of Ely’s. That, plus the partial shot I got of her face on the camera before they left the area is enough to confirm. I’m trying to track their route via the cameras, but they’re moving fast, and they’re few and far between in this area.”
Carter steps closer to Hollis’s desk, studying the screen. “They’re moving away from Ely’s territory, rather than going deeper into it.”
“They probably don’t want to bring trouble to their doorstep,” I muse. “Once we get a ping on where they are, and possibly see if we can get them on the line, then you can go play knight in shining armor. But until then…we don’t know what trouble you’ll be walking into.”
“How do we know this isn’t another trick of yours?” Keegan asks flatly. “Maybe youmadethis happen.”
Both dogs take issue with his tone, letting out simultaneous growls of warning. I give him a bland look. “I had nothing to do with this. I said I wouldn’t interfere again without speaking up, and I haven’t. Trust me.”
“No, you manipulated the situation, and twisted your words so you never had to make specific promises. I don’t trust you one bit,” Keegan bites back.
I shrug. That’s his problem, not mine. He, and the rest of the Martellis, will learn. I don’t go back on my word. Tennant asked me not to play chess master by myself anymore. While I can’t stop what’s already in motion, even if I wanted to, I won’t put anyone under this roof in harm’s way. I learn from my mistakes, and it won’t happen again.
“They’ve stopped, but there’s no surveillance whatsoever to tap into. I’m assuming they’re at some type of safehouse.” Hollis rattles off the address, but it’s not on the list of known properties Ely and her gang own, and a quick search brings up nothing, which means we need to look deeper, and that's something that will take time we might not have.
“You’ll be walking in blind if you go now,” Hollis says. “I’d rather try to get a bead on Antonio and Marcus before sending anyone in.”
“I’ll send out another group of soldiers,” I offer.
“Fuck!” There’s tension in Keegan’s voice as he realizes it’s not safe for him to go rushing off to save his Boy, as badly as he might want to.
The last thing Marcus and Antonio need right now is for us to lead the danger right to them, especially if they’re safe at the moment. And there’s nothing to say that won’t happen, since we have no idea what the fuck’s going on. Not until we hear from the men surveying the scene of the “accident”.
“Call Ely,” Carter tells Keegan. “I want to know what the fuck is going on. Just because we assume she has them, doesn’t mean anything.”
Keegan pulls out his phone, but before he can make the call, Carter’s cell phone starts ringing.
“Wait,” I tell him. Pulling up what I need, I tap into his phone, doing a quick run of the unknown number and coming up with nothing. “Okay, answer it.”
“Hello? Who’s this?”
Turning my speakers up, I start working on trying to trace the call, while Hollis spins his chair around and starts interpreting for Jude.
“Is this Carter Amato? Or De Luca? We’re not sure what to address you as.”
“Amato is fine. Who is this?”
“Good, then I have the right guy. You’ll be happy to know we have something of yours, and Daniel doesn’t want it, so you’re free to come get it.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“You don’t…but then…we don’t know if you are either. It’s a gamble for us all, isn’tthatfun.”There’s a jovial tone to his voice that catches my interest. Hopefully, Carter can pull a name from him so I can do more digging…“I suggest coming to get your packages sooner rather than later. As I said, the boss manreally doesn’t want them here—though the boss woman doesn’t seem bothered. It’s better than TV, actually.”
I meet Carter’s eyes and sign, “Got the trace. Same address that Marcus and Antonio’s phones are pinging from, so there’s that at least.”
“Give me an address…” Carter purposefully trails off.
