Chapter Twenty-One
“Where the hell is he, Finn?” Maddie demanded, lacing her fingers behind her neck as she paced in the tight space of the mobile command center Finn had called up from the Detroit office, her patience officially at an end. They’d been at it for hours now. God knew what Jack had to be going through—if he was even still alive.
She shook her head and pushed that thought away. No. Not possible. He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be. Life couldn’t be that cruel. They’d finally found their way back to each other, had finally realized their love for each other. How could he be taken from hernow? Likethis?
Finn’s eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the map on his laptop screen. “Still in Detroit,” he announced, cutting into her thoughts. “I guess that’s a plus. But, shit, Maddie, he could be anywhere. They could be holing up in any of the buildings within this radius.” He dropped a pin on the map and zoomed in on the several square blocks that he’d highlighted.
“Where would you take a prisoner to interrogate him?” she asked of no one in particular.
“Somewhere secluded.”
She glanced over to where Adam had been sitting silently since they’d arrived at their current location. He’d taken Eva to their brethren in Detroit, leaving her under guard until they could figure out a more permanent solution to her situation.
“Preferably in a building with thick concrete walls,” he continued. When she frowned at him, he added, “So no one can hear him scream.”
Maddie sank back against the wall of the van, clutching her stomach to keep from hurling. She wasn’t an idiot. Her gut told her what they’d be doing to Jack, but hearing it put into words made it all so much worse.
“Nice, brah,” Finn chastised. “Show a little compassion, for chrissake.”
Adam sent an uncharacteristically apologetic look Maddie’s way. “My apologies. My English doesn’t always allow me to be subtle. I did not mean to upset you.”
She shook her head slightly. “It’s okay. What else? What else would you look for in a location?” She didn’t know a lot about Adam—hell, no one seemed to. But she did know that when her father had been shot and her nephew nearly abducted, it was Adam that Will had brought in to interrogate her father’s bodyguards. And they hadn’t been the same since.
“I would want somewhere that was intimidating, unnerving. Either stark and sterile or dark and derelict. In this case, I suspect they’d use an abandoned building—a factory or hospital.”
Finn grunted. “Shit, dude—you just described half of Detroit. There’s abandoned factories all over the damned place.”
Adam inclined his head slightly, acknowledging Finn’s point. “Then I would search for one that has very thick walls and few broken windows. And no security.”
Finn turned his attention back to his keyboard, typing so fast Maddie couldn’t even guess what he’d typed. A few seconds later, his brows shot up and he turned the command center monitor around for them to see. “How ’bout this one?”
Adam leaned forward from his chair to get a closer look and slowly nodded. “Yes. That would be perfect.”
“Where is it?” Maddie asked, studying the photos on the screen.
“About three blocks from where I got a ping from the cell towers.” He typed again and another website came up, showing more pictures of the structure. “God bless urban bloggers. This guy has all kinds of pictures of the inside, taken just a couple of months ago.”
Maddie glanced through the pictures, taking in all the information she could. “Looks like they have three floors and a basement.” She pointed to one of the photos. “There’s barbed wire around the perimeter, though.”
“Not all the way around,” Finn pointed out, indicating another photo. “The front gates are gone. And the blogger says they pulled security off the building last fall and are letting the building fall to ruin. Look at all the graffiti. Those are gang tags.”
“What kind of entry options do we have?” Maddie asked. “Any more pics of the exterior?”
Finn brought up a dozen others a moment later from the satellite feeds. “Looks like we’ve got a main exit on each side plus an old loading dock and fire escapes. I don’t know that I’d trust those, though—they look like they’re one stray cat away from falling off the building.”
“How many men?” she asked, her eyes still on the photos, wondering in which of the dozens of rooms Kozlov might be holding Jack.
“There were only a handful on the footage from when Jack was taken, but there are half a dozen cars near the building. Hard to say how many goons Kozlov has stationed around the building at this point.”
“What’s the ETA on Will and the rest of the team getting here?” she asked.
“Sixty minutes, tops,” Finn told her. “And the guys from the Detroit team are ready to go. They’re just waiting for our orders.”
She nodded. “Then let’s gear up and go get our boy. Will is just going to have to catch up.”
Finn and Adam traded a glance, but it was Adam who cautioned, “If we go in without sufficient backup, we could endanger Jack’s life.”
She straightened and crossed her arms, glaring down at him. “They’ve had him for hours. What do you think they’ve been doing to him all this time? What wouldyouhave been doing to him? You’re the one who reminded me that these bastards wouldn’t want anyone hearing him scream, Adam.”
