And, most importantly, save Tess—nothing else was an option.
“Listen to me.” He gripped Andy’s shoulder and kept his voice low and steady. “You are not doing anything for him. You are not touching that crypto account. You are not logging into anything. You understand?”
Andy’s eyes flicked to his. “But Tess?—”
“We’ll get her back—unharmed,” he cut in, sharper than he meant, then reined in his temper. “Diego thinks he’s got you backed into a corner. He doesn’t. You did one stupid thing for him—okay. That’s done. We’ll deal with that fallout later. Right now, the only thing that matters is getting Tess back in one piece.”
“But she said—” Andy’s voice cracked again. “She said not to call the police. That’s the first thing she said. ‘Do what they say, don’t call the police.’ But she stressed the word don’t, so that means do the opposite, right?”
“Yeah. That means someone was standing over her,” Brian said, feeling his teeth grind. “She said it because they told her to. That’s not the same as her not wanting you to get help.”
He believed that down to his bones.
Tess trusted the system more than most. She’d spent her adult life helping turn hard truths into something that couldn’t be erased. She wouldn’t suddenly decide, unprompted, that notifying the police was off the table.
Glancing at the phone in Andy’s hand, a thought came to him. “Do you and Tess have an app or setting that lets you see where each other’s phones are?”
His hope died when the teen’s shoulders slumped and he hung his head. “I already tried that. The last place her phone pinged was the M.E.’s office, a few minutes after she texted me. According to the app, it’s off now.”
“Damn.” He set his hands on his hips, took a deep breath, and stared at the ceiling, trying to think of what to do next.
“Could they know you were coming here?” Andy whispered. “Diego said not to tell the cops, especially you—my sister’s detective boyfriend. He said that. Could they be watching the house?”
He stepped over to the back window and scanned the beach—low dunes, packed sand, and the glistening water beyond. Nothing and no one looked out of place.
“They’re not watching from out there,” he said. “At least not in a way that sticks out. When I pulled in, I didn’t see any occupied vehicles parked nearby, and I wasn’t followed from headquarters.”
He trusted his instincts when it came to patterns and anomalies—nothing on the drive to the house had set them off. That made surveillance unlikely. Possible, but unlikely. He didn’t voice the other scenarios that flickered through his mind. Paranoia spread fast, and he needed Andy to be functional.
Brian checked his watch. 6:42.
If Tess had been grabbed at the end of her shift, Diego knew exactly what he was doing. Crypto didn’t close. There were no business hours, no overnight pause, and no safety net. That was the point. He’d picked something that could be done day or night and couldn’t be quietly undone later.
Brian handed Andy his phone back. “I need you to do something for me, okay? Two things, actually.”
Andy swallowed. “Okay.”
“First, you’re going to forward both of those unknown numbers to me. And any texts Diego sends from this point on. Don’t reply to anything without me telling you what to say. Not one word. I want him to think you’re sitting here scared and obedient and ready to jump when he says jump.”
“I—I don’t have the old stuff. From the IP thing. I deleted it and blocked the number. Damn! I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”
If they really needed it, they could contact Tess’s phone provider, but they would need a warrant to do so. “All right. No worries. We’ll deal with that later. For now, send those two unknown numbers to me.” He rattled off his own phone number.
Andy’s fingers moved at lightning speed across his screen.
“Second,” Brian continued, “after I make a couple of calls, you’re going to walk me through everything you remember about that first job. The one with the IP. What he asked for, what you did, and when you did it. Dates, times—anything that sticks.”
The teen’s hands stilled. “Am I... am I in trouble for that?”
He didn’t hesitate. “No. What you did then was a gray area. Dumb, yeah—but not something anyone will arrest you over. They took Tess to get to you. That makes you the target right now, not the problem. And you’re also a witness.”
A hard swallow worked its way down Andy’s throat as his gaze dropped. His shoulders hitched once. “Okay. I’ll tell you everything.”
“Good.”
Brian’s instincts screamed at him to call it in. To light up every channel he had and start pulling resources. But Diego had made his expectations painfully clear, and Brian didn’t yet know how tight the leash was—or how closely Andy was being watched.
The gang held all the cards at the moment. Even if Brian knew where Tess was, charging in blind could get her killed. But doing nothing could do the same. He needed to walk a narrow path through the middle.
