Page 136 of No Good Fight

I watch her reverse out of the garage without headlights, wait until she clears the driveway, and disappear from view.

My phone is already in my hand when the footage loops back to an empty garage.

Remy answers on the second ring with none of the sleepiness a normal person should have at this hour. “Ryder?”

“Preston has Mrs. Vance, and Alex went to him.”

There’s movement on his end before I finish the sentence. I hear a drawer open, then a door, followed by the unmistakable sound of someone pulling on clothes while walking.

“Tell me where.”

“Old Mason Ridge maintenance building. Service road. She had until dawn.” I put him on speaker and go back to the messages while I drag a shirt over my head. “It’s already morning, Remy. Whatever deadline he gave her is gone. He told her no phone, no police, no me. She left her phone open beside me and took my truck.”

Remy doesn’t waste time asking why she would do it. He has spent enough time around Alex now to understand exactly why Mrs. Vance would get her through every defense the rest of us built. I hear movement on his end before he asks, “How long has she been gone?”

I give him the timestamp from the garage footage, and the silence that follows lasts just long enough to tell me he’s doing the same calculation I already did.

She should already be there.

“Don’t leave yet.”

“I’m already leaving.”

“Then stop.”

My hand freezes on the deadbolt.

Remy keeps moving on the other end of the call, voice clipped but controlled. “You have a location. That means we get one chance to approach without telling Preston we’re coming. If you barrel straight down the service road in whatever vehicle you find first, he sees you before you see him, and Alex pays for it.”

Every part of me wants to ignore him. The urge is so strong that my hand closes around the lock anyway, but I don’t turn it.

“What if he moves her?”

“Then we adjust, but you don’t hand him another hostage because you’re scared.”

I close my eyes.

He’s right, and I hate him for it.

“Josh needs to know.”

“He will. I’m calling Logan and Carter too. Call Josh yourself. You’re the one he’ll want to hear it from.”

Remy hangs up before I can argue about how many people he intends to drag into this.

Josh answers before the first ring finishes.

“What happened?”

There’s no hello. He knows from the time alone that this isn’t a social call, and the strain in his voice tells me he was probably barely asleep after leaving here.

“Alex is gone.” I rip off the bandaid.

Silence fills the line while I cross to the security tablet again and pull up the garage footage.

“What do you mean, gone?”

“Preston took Mrs. Vance. He sent Alex a trade demand while all of us were here. She hid it from us. She waited until I fell asleep, snoozed the security alerts, took my truck, and went to Mason Ridge.”