Page 113 of Double the Redemption

“I’m going to want to know more about that,” Glitch muttered. “Alright, so it’s safe to say that the building he went into has a secret stash house or location that’s close enough for him to get to without anyone seeing him.”

“Wouldn’t the Feds have figured out it was in there already?”

“He’s good at hiding shit, so it wouldn’t surprise me that he can hide that too without them finding it,” Glitch said. She glanced at Naomi. “Unless you know how he’s doing it?”

Naomi nodded. “There’s a special compound a scientist in Romania created. The cartel purchased it for a pretty penny and has used it to coat the inside of walls while also using lead on the other side of the wall to block out any scanning equipment and distort animal scents. If dogs sniff it for too long, they’ll get sick and possibly die, so they don’t use enough to make law enforcement suspicious. Mostly, it will make the dogs lethargic, but most cops take that as they were working too hard and not question it.”

“Fuck, these assholes are getting smarter,” Code muttered, shaking his head.

“We’ll put that on the back burner to look into later. If that shit is being sold on the black market, Simba is going to want to know about it. It could be used to hide people when they’re trying to traffic them.”

“If my father is in that building, they won’t find him. But he won’t want to stay there too long. How long ago was it that they saw him there?”

“Two weeks ago now,” Glitch said after checking the report. “How long does he stay in one spot.”

“No more than a day. Can you pinpoint the locations on the map that the Feds have spotted him since I escaped?”

“Might take me a minute, but yep, I can do that.”

Silence filled the room as she worked, and Naomi was impressed. Her fingers flew over the keys in a blur of speed, and Code beamed at her, not even trying to interfere. This was a man who was comfortable being happy with how good his woman was.

When she finally finished, Glitch had over twenty locations pinned on the digital map. “I don’t see a pattern, but I’ll number them for you just in case.” After a few more taps of the keys, Naomi had what she needed.

Grabbing her pen and the notepad, she set to work.

Ignoring Glitch and Code as they talked until they finally left her to work. Tuning them out when they eventually came back to check on her. She was so close to figuring it out, but still something was missing.

One coordinate was missing. So where was it? What could it mean.

“Alright, babe, talk to me, you look like you’re going to lose your shit,” Glitch urged. “I’m not as smart as you, but I’m sure we can figure it out.”

Naomi blinked at her, trying to drag herself out of the myriad of thoughts rushing around in her head. “He’s deviated from his pattern, but not enough that I can’t figure it out. Instead of doing his normal, he switched the orientations for east and west. He’s moving through the states, but he’s still doing them in ways that you can mostly track them. North, south, north, west, south, east. That’s the new pattern. Austin is the southern part, and that means he’ll be heading north again if he sticks to the pattern.”

“And do you think he’s done that already, or he’s still in Texas planning his next move?”

Naomi shrugged. “It’s hard to know until I can figure out what I’m missing. Because I’m missing something.”

She looked at the map again, but it still eluded her.

What was it? What couldn’t she see?

“To me, it looks like a bunch of dots, but I can see what you mean when you say that he’s moving around. Why is he moving through so many states? I mean, wouldn’t he want to stay near the base of operations if he’s running things for Diego?”

“Or he’s looking to shore up his claim by visiting other factions and getting men in place in case of more raids. He’ll have to answer to the home base and Diego if he manages to see him in prison.” Code looked at her. “Would he get any kind of plastic surgery to make sure no one would recognize him if he was that worried about it? Texas has some big surgeons, especially ones that will do anything for a price.”

She shook her head. “Nah, he’s always prided himself on his looks. And he won’t risk people questioning him if he thought they might doubt who he was.”

“What about the places he hasn’t been?” Glitch wondered. “I mean, you can see that he’s been a bit sporadic, but what would make him avoid those states?”

“He won’t want to stay in one spot too long. Going many states over will increase the distance between him and anyone who might be following him or looking for him.”

“What about Mexico?” Code asked, eyes narrowing. “I mean, you said that he’s staying with someone who could possibly smuggle him over and no one would be the wiser. If he’s not overseeing Diego’s area, or maybe it’s looking to assert his control of it, he’d need to make an appearance to the powers that be in Mexico, right?”

“He wouldn’t dare do that until after Diego was sentenced and out of commission,” Naomi stated. “He might be behind bars, but he has plenty of ways to get things out to his men and order a hit if he thought my father would dare to try and take his place so quickly. Running it for Diego and taking it over are two very different things.”

“Do you think the men would support that takeover?”

“Some might, but far too many are scared of Diego. He’s brutal, and he kept brutal men around him for a reason. He wanted them to fear him. He never gave second chances, and his men will act on his behalf.”