“We will always put Addi first, Tori,” he replies, and I nod.
“As it should be, my father was the same, but I could have helped.”
“I don’t know how. Not even all my skills have been able to uncover where she is or where they are holding your dad and aunt,” Colton points out, and I scoff. They are too close to the situation and allow their emotions to rule their decisions. Until recently, emotions were never a problem for me.
“Hmm. You would be surprised by my resourcefulness,” I hedge. Do I want to tell them about the address and the mysterious person who keeps sharing shit with me? I think I’m going to hold onto that information for the moment. I want to have Mickey check it out before I tell them. I don’t want to get their hopes up in case it leads to a dead end.
I frown as something occurs to me. “I thought you saw my father. Didn’t you imply you had been questioning him?” I ask with a heavy amount of sarcasm.
Tristan scowls. “Yeah, but they always blindfolded me whenever we went. I don’t think they are anywhere close by. We always traveled for a few hours.”
“What else do you remember?” I push, feeling a little eager. “Did you go by car? Do you remember any particular sounds or smells? How long was the drive?” One of the things Gio and I learned during all the training my dad first put us through was to identify or narrow down a location if we were blindfolded.
He nods. “About four hours by car.”
I stand up, go over to the computer, and fire it up with my thumbprint. I sit down to pull up some maps so I can narrow down the search parameters. A hand on my shoulder has me looking up after I pull up a map of the West Coast.
“Let me do it.” Colton smiles, and I huff out an annoyed breath but move, knowing he’s going to be faster and better than I am.
His fingers run across the keyboard and mouse as he starts to speak. “Okay, if you did an average speed of sixty-five miles per hour…” He looks at Tristan for confirmation.
“Yeah, we were definitely on a highway most of the way.”
“Alright, then that puts us in this circle here.” Everyone crowds around the computer to look at the red circle Colton put over the area, and I groan.
“Great, they could be anywhere between San Diego, Fresno, and Vegas. I look up at Tristan who is hanging over my shoulder. He isn’t quite touching me, but I can feel his body heat.
“What else do you remember? Smells? Could you smell the ocean?”
He wrinkles his brow while he considers my words but slowly shakes his head. “No, definitely not the ocean, the opposite. Itwas dusty, and I remember thinking it was hot and dry when we got out. After the AC in the car, it felt like stepping into an oven.”
“That helps,” Colton says, running his fingers over the keyboard again. “When was the last time you went there?”
“About a month ago. I don’t know why, but I think Mario wanted to intimidate them by having his pet torturer along, but it didn’t seem to bother your dad at all. I think he knew Mario wasn’t going to do any damage, since he was leverage and you wouldn’t cooperate if he was treated badly.”
“Mario’s biggest issue is he’s a weenie, a poser playing mobster. My dad wouldn’t have hesitated to hurt him to make you comply,” I point out, and Vienna shudders.
“Your family is messed up.”
“My dad is the sweetest man ever to those in his inner circle, you just don’t want to fuck with him,” I argue, and she looks doubtful. “Wait and see. I’m sure you will meet him eventually.”
She looks terrified by the prospect. I guess I would be too if I betrayed his daughter so badly.
“Okay, so here’s where it would have been hot and dry a month ago.” There are a couple of areas highlighted on the map. “Everywhere else would have been cooler.”
Death Valley, the Mojave Desert, and Las Vegas are still highlighted. I groan. “That doesn’t narrow it down very much for us. There are still miles of places to search.”
“What can you tell us about the place you were taken?” Xavier prompts, and Tristan rubs a hand across his jaw where a slight shadow of stubble shows.
“We went downstairs. It sounded like an old door opening, definitely creaked and shuddered, and the stairs were metal. It smelled damp and dusty inside, and sounds echoed.”
I start to feel a little bit excited. “So not a basement, but maybe an underground bunker?” I ask, and he nods.
“Yes. Although the area I was in could have been a basement, it had fully lined walls and a ceiling, and the apartment is nicely furnished, but it could be a bunker. We went down a few levels, so definitely too deep for a basement.”
Colton nods. “Okay, we are starting to get somewhere. There are plenty of abandoned Cold War missile silos scattered between here and Nevada. Now I just need to do some digging. Leave it to me, and I will comb through all of Mario’s shell companies and see if he ever purchased one. There have to be records, but I haven’t known to look for something like that before.”
I heave out a sigh of relief, but it also narrows something else down for me—the address I was given is in Suncity, which means that whatever is there isn’t my father and Carla. I’m guessing it’s where Addison is being held, and I’m going to send Mickey to check it out. The others move away from the desk, and I stand up and go over to one of the cabinets built into the wall of the safe room. Most of them don’t have locks, they only contain food and supplies for an extended stay, but two of them have keypads. One is a normal-sized double door cabinet, and when I press my finger to it, it pops open.
