She dropped into a chair and propped up her camera. Her fingers flew over the keyboard, and she leaned forward. “Let’s see here. Matteo did some time for attempting to bribe a judge in a prostitution case. Not for himself, but the prostitute who was facing time. Otherwise his sheet is clear. Now, his brother Luka has a long list of charges, but nothing stuck. Human trafficking. Drugs. Money laundering. Counterfeiting. Even two instances of murder.”
Dev gritted his teeth. “How does a guy get off on so many charges?”
“He has his flunkies do the dirty work for him, and they’re too afraid to testify that he’s the brains behind the crimes.” She leaned closer to the screen. “I’d heard that in one of the murder cases, there was actually a witness willing to come forward, but he disappeared. They found his remains dissolved in a barrel.”
Brooklyn’s turn to shudder. “Not someone we want to have anything to do with.”
A pounding sounded on the door, and Brooklyn’s gaze shot to it, while her pulse kicked up.
Colin touched her arm. “Relax it has to be someone who works here. I’ll get it.”
He strode down the hall. Brooklyn couldn’t relax. She had to know who it was, so she followed him to see Nick enter, his laptop under his arm.
“You learn something about Matteo?” Colin asked.
“No.” Nick brushed straight past Colin and took Brooklyn’s hand to lead her to a dining room chair, Colin keeping up with them. “You’ll want to be sitting when you see this.”
“You’re scaring me.” Her heart dropped as she sat, and Colin stood beside her.
“Sorry, but itisscary, and I can’t sugarcoat it for you.” Nick opened his laptop.
“What’s going on?” Abby asked. “Show me.”
“Sheriff Day is on the iPad,” Dev said to Nick, then got up with his tablet, and he and Reid came to stand behind Brooklyn.
Nick clicked a button, and pictures of her family flooded the screen. Her mother. Father. All recent pictures of them going about their day.
Her gaze flew to Nick. “Where did you find these?”
“Dark web. Posted by Typhon.”
“Kane? Kane posted pictures of my family on the dark web? But why? Why?”
Colin rested his hand on her shoulder, and the warmth from his touch was the only thing keeping her from losing it.
Nick clicked to a message board and opened a posting from Typhon.
I know you’re monitoring this, B. If you don’t contact me by midnight, I’ll be releasing biotoxins into the water supply for their little town, and there’s no way they can stop me. I’m monitoring all communications, so don’t try to warn them or anyone else.
Contact me and they live.
Don’t and they die.
If Colin could take the pain from Brooklyn, he would. She sat staring ahead in the same chair as if she’d lost everything. If he could make the decision of whether to contact Tarver or not for her, he would. If he could hold her in his arms, he would. But he could do none of these things.
Maybe holding her in his arms was an option, but would it bring her comfort or more stress? Probably stress.
Nick peered at her from his chair by the still-open laptop screen displaying the offensive message. “What do you want me to say to him, if anything?”
“Not so fast,” Colin said. “Can you even reply without him being able to track the transmission? Because unless things have changed since I left the FBI, that’s not possible.”
“You’re right.” Nick shifted uneasily on his chair. “Not one hundred percent, but I can route it through so many hubs it will take him a lifetime to track.”
“Then I’d like to ask him what he wants from me,” Brooklyn said. “But not in this public forum.”
“No worries,” Nick said. “I’ll set up a private message board using the data he provided.”
Brooklyn glanced between Nick and Colin. “Do you think he’s going to ask me to meet with him?”
