Page 38 of Hidden Obsession

Chapter Seventeen

Mason thoughthe was about to burst with the gnawing fear churning in his gut, but when Emme’s phone started ringing, the entire team shifted in unison.

Emme immediately took the call—the conversation was brief and he saw her shoulders relax. “Thank you. Please, Mrs. Darwin, stay with your friend until members of our protective team arrive.” More silence in which Emme glanced at Mason. “No, we don’t have news of your granddaughter yet, but as soon as we have, you’ll be the first one to know.”

When his boss hung up, she encompassed the entire team. “Cleo’s grandmother is safe and will be staying with her friend until we arrive. I need at least three of you to go to Mesa now. Whatever threat Spears may have come up with for Cleo, it was false. Mrs. Darwin is alive and well, and we need to keep her that way.”

Mercy stepped forward. “I have a friend who owes me a favor. I should be able to have his plane ready in an hour, which will be better than a commercial flight.”

Shane stepped in. “Wolf and Caitlin will go with you. Go now and stay on guard until we get that son of a bitch and retrieve Cleo. I want you to get Mrs. Darwin to a safehouse if possible, outside Mesa preferably. Or even better, convince her to come here.”

And in an instant, Mercy, Caitlin, and Wolf were gone. With them dispatched, only six remained to search for Cleo.

Mason tried hard to get a grip on his impatience, but he knew they had to tread carefully and not leave any stone unturned. “We’ve checked the burner phone, and it’s a dead end.”

Everyone crowded closer, ready to offer their input and experience to find their friend. Malco was sitting at Cleo’s desk, typing away. From the moment she had disappeared, there wasn’t a nook or cranny of the agency they hadn’t checked and that included the computer system.

“Cleo disabled the security system. She did it from her computer here. I have the confirmation in front of me.”

Mason shook his head. “It’s proof she wasn’t taken. Spears coerced her to leave but how?”

Deep in thought, Malco sighed. “When someone is in a panic, the abductor can lie or make them believe something has happened when it hasn’t and the victim will believe it to be the truth. Until we find Cleo, I suggest we focus on where she is.”

“Anybody check on the cameras in the neighborhoods?”

James nodded. “Yeah, we could hack into a couple of them to the north and west, but nothing. We should have the others in a minute. That may give us an indication of the direction.”

Raking his fingers through his hair in frustration, Mason couldn’t believe the mess they were in. His brain tried to retrace his steps from the moment he’d last seen Cleo. “She was worried. I think this has taken more of a toll on her than she’s let on. She was quiet when I left her this morning, which is unlike her, but I thought it was everything that was going on. I was planning to talk to her when I got back.”

Malco stood. “Think back before that. You’ve been with her most of the time. Did something happen or did she say something? Was she acting strangely?”

Thinking was the last thing he wanted to do, but Malco had experience in kidnapping and hostage situations, so he got a grip on his emotions. “When she left the conference room, she said it was because she didn’t want to hear about the cult anymore. She asked if she could use my office while I was gone.”

As he was talking, he saw Nick frown and head to his office. Two minutes later he was back waving a piece of paper. “I think I have the address.”

Alex blinked. “What did you do? Summon the spirits of the building and ask them where Cleo had disappeared to?”

Nicholas rolled his eyes as he showed them the paper in his hand. “No, stupid. I went to check the obvious. Mason said Cleo had been in his office, but his computer hadn’t been turned on. If she’s been lured by Spears somewhere, he had to give her an address. Mason is a tidy kind of guy, and there’s only one notepad on his desk. The pen was out of place too, meaning she wrote something down, and with the amount of stress she was under, she pressed pretty hard on the paper, meaning that the sheet underneath caught it too.”

He showed the page where he had shadowed the bottom of it with a pencil, and there it was, Cleo’s pretty looped writing: 4 Grove Isle Dr

Mason opened his mouth to ask what that address was, but Malco was quicker and already sitting behind Cleo’s desk.

Mason started to pace as they waited for Malco to bring up the details and he tried his best not to punch a hole in the freshly painted wall. “Just tell me it’s not an airport, and I’ll be happy.”

Shane shook his head. “We found her IDs here, so unless they use fakes, she can’t fly.”

“It’s a marina and boat storage place.” Malco continued typing, and Mason felt a ball of ice form in the pit of his stomach. Disappearing by boat was even worse.

Mason ignored his fears for the woman he loved and welcomed the empty sensation in his chest, the ice flowing through his veins. He needed to be sharp and ruthless for the next part of the plan.

“Any of you know anything about that neighborhood?”

With the collective negative, Mason knew what to do. “Gear up. I know someone who can get me a satellite view. Once we know the setup, we can take the fucker down and have Cleo back home safe.”

* * *

It tookway too long to get on-site, but Mason knew it couldn’t be helped. As the team took their positions, circling the building and gathering intel on possible occupants, the sun was setting over the city, a warm orange glow that was still too bright for an attack. They needed the cover of night to act on the plans he got from Travis.