She glanced at the photos, again. “Ask me again once I’ve destroyed whoever was behind it.”
Buck chuckled. “Nothing like a little bloodlust to bring out the operative in you. Should I invest in Kevlar boxers now, or…”
She swatted his chest. “If you’re nice, I might let you blow them up.”
“I love it when you talk dirty to me, sweetheart.” He glanced at his watch. “Where the hell is Wade?”
Bodie looked up from a file. “He’s been pushing the rehab hard since his final operation. Probably bullied the therapist into an extra set.”
Nick snorted. “Or he’s hitting on that new blonde tech at the clinic, again. The guy’s got a type.”
Buck nodded, but Tierney noticed the slight furrow in his brow. The way he slipped out his phone, shot Wade a text. She knocked his shoulder, arched a brow, but he waved it off, ushering her back to the seat when Avery and Greer breezed in, bringing a swirl of cool air with them.
Avery accepted the coffee Dalton offered her, taking a sip before exhaling, the lines under her eyes more pronounced than usual. “I wanted to let you guys know that cyber traced Pike’s dark-web clients through the server Sloane hacked into, but they’d scattered the second Pike’s feed dropped. And with the level of encryption, we might never uncover any names.”
Bodie groaned. “Fantastic. I don’t suppose you have any good news?”
Avery raked her fingers through her hair, pulling some of the blonde mass out of the clip. “Not sure it’s good, but… First, my Interpol contact in Washington confirmed all our hostages from Pike’s hunt were kidnapped during an aid mission to Colombia six weeks ago. Interpol will be working with local authorities to clean up Pike’s bases. Second, those bones we retrieved from the cave? Our techs were able to get a useable DNA sample from them, and we’ve matched them to three, high-profile missing person cases out of Seattle and Los Angeles, all of which are a year old.”
“Which matches the time frame Pike gave us for Grieves getting killed by a cartel and him taking possession of the company.”
She nodded. “And it gave closure to three families. Not necessarily the kind you want, but in the end, it beats not knowing.” She took another sip, handed the coffee back to Dalton. “This isn’t over. We’ll keep digging. And Interpol has updated their records — will flag anything that looks like it could be connected to hunting rings…” She paused when her phone rang, glancing at the screen before holding up a finger. “Hold that thought, I need to take this.”
She turned and walked toward the door, voice low. She nodded at something the other person said before her shoulders shot back, her muscles tensing. She glanced over at them, eyes wide, mouth pressed into a fine line before she ended the conversation — waiting until her cell chimed before swiping the screen, muttering something under her breath.
Dalton pushed off the desk, crossed over to her. “Everything okay?”
She stared at her phone, enlarging whatever was on the screen before shaking her head. “I…”
He placed his hand on the small of Avery’s back, much like Buck did to Tierney, gaining her attention. “Obviously, that wasn’t good news, so, just spit it out.”
Avery glanced over at Sloane. “How do I put a photo up on your screen?”
Sloane motioned to Avery’s cell. “Text it to me, and I’ll do it for you.”
Sloane’s cell chimed a second later, and she typed something on her keyboard, had the image plastered on the monitor a moment later.
Avery stalked over. “That was Washington State Patrol. They just found Wade’s truck abandoned on the shoulder of I-5, twenty miles north of the border.”
Buck surged forward, focus centered on the blue Ford sitting kitty corner on the shoulder in the image. “What? Is he okay? And why the hell is he in Washington State?”
Avery held up her hand. “They don’t have much intel. The driver’s door was open, keys in the ignition with the engine still running. His cane was behind the vehicle in a ditch, and there were scuff marks in the gravel, but no blood. No note. They contacted Oregon State Patrol. And when they realized who the truck belonged to, that he was part of Raven’s Security, they called me.” She shoved the errant strands of hair out of her face. “It’s no secret I work with Greer a lot. That I know all of you. That we’re friends.”
The lighter burned white-hot in Tierney’s pocket, the weight nearly taking her to her knees. Memories of the ambush surfaced, the truth settling unforgivingly in her gut.
Buck squeezed her hand, eyes narrowed, brow furrowed, when Sloane’s screen flickered, static blasting through the room before an IP address materialized out of the lines.
Sloane tapped her keyboard, swearing under her breath as she shook her head. “Some asshole just hacked our internet feed. Wants us to click on that link. It looks like it’s a live stream. I can probably override it, but…”
Bodie stepped forward. “Hit it.”
The monitor went dark, nothing but a blank, black screen showing for a few moments before the feed cut in. Tierney stiffened.
Wade Stone.
Bound to a steel chair in the center of a cavernous, industrial room flanked by concrete pillars, rusted catwalks, and massive empty vats. Water dripped in the background, gulls crying in the distance.
The camera zoomed in on Wade’s face. His left eye was swollen shut, his split lip crusted with blood that had dried down the front of his shirt. He looked wrecked, but the one eye still open held a feral gleam that screamed defiance.
