by Lori Ryan
Then again, Damon might have taken Lyra and the twins with him up to Dartmouth. He’d also said something about leaving the country. If he fled with any of the women or the girls . . . hell, Luke didn’t want to think about it.
He needed to think strategically. “Let’s get to the recording studio and see if we can spot anyone. If we get eyes on them and they’re safe, we can hold off until Logan and Zach are in position.” In position? They didn’t even have any idea where Naomi might be held.
Chad nodded and turned to Sam. Chad was Samantha’s boss at Sutton Capital, so the two were used to working together. “Keep looking and let us know as soon as you find something.”
Samantha nodded but didn’t look up. “If we could get ahold of Damon’s credit card information—a statement maybe from his apartment—I can try to get into his accounts.” Now she glanced up. “Just saying.” She was pulling double duty, looking for any properties or clues to where Damon might have taken Naomi while trying to break into the cache of data Damon was holding for the auction. If she could, she’d secure the data somehow and see if she could shut down the auction remotely.
A knock on the door told them Jack Sutton had arrived. He’d be sitting with Samantha and Billy to be sure Billy didn’t pull any shit and try to take off. Luke doubted he would try anything. He looked miserable sitting on the couch across from Samantha, answering occasional questions from her as she worked.
Who knew what he might try if it was just him and Samantha left, though. The guy was motivated by greed and a drive for easy money. It would be easy to see him trying to take off if he thought he could get out from under this by running.
Chad spoke in low tones to Jack after he’d shaken everyone’s hands and been introduced to Luke.
When he’d been an operator on the teams, Luke had relied on the cold, steady calm that came over him as they went into an op. If you were ready, if your team was ready, if your plan had been vetted, you could achieve that calm. And it was a calm that served you well when you went into a battle and shit went sideways in a heartbeat. It was what let you think on your feet, move swiftly and decisively to a backup plan, or the backup to the backup plan. It was what kept you alive.
As he and Chad walked to the car, all he could picture was Lyra’s beautiful face. He saw her looking up at him, those soft lips parted for him, eyes soft and accepting of everything about him. He saw the twins running down the hallway to him, ready to climb onto his shoulders or swing around on his arms. He could feel their trusting hands clinging to him, and he wanted for all the world to be the superhero they thought he was.
He could see Naomi as she’d waved to him when he’d dropped her at Dartmouth. He’d worried about her there, being far away from him and Zach. Never in a million years had he imagined something he would get involved in would follow her there and put her life in danger. The girl had been through more than enough in her young life. This was the very last thing she deserved.
As Chad drove, Luke clamped down on the swirling emotions that weren’t serving him and swiped clean the images in his mind. He needed to shut off all emotion, to see the op from a strategic standpoint only. Get in, get the girls and Lyra, get out.
Two deep breaths and he was ready. Hands steady, heart and mind focused only on the job. When this was over, he could fall apart. For now, he was a SEAL again.
All in.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
They parked a block down from the recording studio and approached from three different directions. Luke didn’t want to know why Chad had comms for all of them, but he did.
“I’m not seeing any movement.” Chad’s voice came over the earpiece. “You guys?”
“Not a damned thing,” Luke said.
“Nothing here,” Jax confirmed.
Luke moved forward. “Watch the front. I’m moving closer.” He moved in on the building, keeping an eye out all around him, but the area seemed completely deserted. Of course, there could be a basement or interior room they were holding Lyra and the girls in.
There were no cars in the small lot at the back of the squat building. No signs of light or life coming from inside. He had a bad feeling they were in the wrong place. He moved smoothly to the back door. The windows were all dark and covered. There was no way he was getting a peek at what was inside from out here.
“Any windows?” Luke spoke quietly, but knew the men would understand what he was asking. Negative responses came from both of them.
Luke wanted eyes on Lyra and the girls and he wanted them now. He checked the knob of the back door. Locked.
“I’m gonna take a peek inside.” He didn’t wait for an answer from the others. He set about picking the lock on the back door and was inside a dark back hallway before either man objected.
He immediately wished Chad had night vision goggles in his little bag of tricks, but the man didn’t strike Luke as a geardo—the term they’d used in the teams for guys who spent personal money on gadgets and gear they didn’t have any tactical need for. Chad likely had the occasional need for comms in his work, but Luke doubted that need extended so far as to need night vision.
He flicked on the small flashlight he had in his pocket, then began to move silently down the hallway, using the angles to see into and clear rooms, weapon at the ready. He heard Chad announce his arrival in the front hall through his comms and grunted an acknowledgement.
Luke cleared a small bathroom and a closet, then bounced his flashlight over Chad’s quiet form as the latter entered the hallway from the opposite end. They worked together toward the only other doorway in the space. It opened to an empty control room that held only two chairs and an old panel of controls and dials, presumably for adjusting volumes and sounds and whatever else they did when recording music. They could see the recording studio itself through a viewing window. It sat empty.
Luke eyed the foam on the walls of the recording studio and the control room and a new rage coursed through him. Sound proofing. Fury licked through his body. The assholes that had Lyra and the girls better not have had any damned need for that soundproofing. He’d shred the hell out of them if he found they had.
One door remained off the back of the room. With a nod, Chad and Luke approached and Chad put his hand on the knob. Luke nodded again, weapon raised as Chad swung the door wide. Luke’s flashlight quickly bounced off the walls, checking all corners of the room. Nothing. An empty bed. Not the fierce brunette and smiling girls he’d hoped to find.
“They were here.” Chad nodded to the scraps of sandwiches and bottled water that littered the floor.
“The question is,” Luke growled, “where the hell are they now?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Lyra held the girls tight as the van rocked into a turn. They’d been moving along a rutted road for the past few minutes. She knew that meant they were headed someplace remote, and the feeling didn’t offer her any comfort at all. Murphy had suddenly entered the room and shoved them out the door and into a van without telling her what they were doing or why they were being moved.
The girls seemed to be shut down. They had to be exhausted and terrified, but both of their faces held an almost blank look that worried her more than when they were crying.
They were in the back of a cargo van with no seats or anything to keep them off the cold dirty metal floor. A few times, the van turned a corner at such high speed, they be dumped into one side or the other of the van. Lyra had hoped Murphy might be pulled over by the police for his driving, leading to the chance for them to get help, but that hadn’t happened.
The van came to a stop and Lyra heard the driver’s door open and shut, followed a moment later by the van door opening.
“Get out.” Murphy barked the order and Lyra expected the girls to jump in fright. They didn’t and she didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. They slid out and so did she. They were in the woods. An old cabin stood nearby, but there seemed to be nothing else around them. It was dark, with lit
tle light breaking through the woods, so she supposed it was possible there was another cabin right next door.
Somehow, she doubted it. The place felt isolated, lonely.
Murphy walked behind them as they moved toward the small building. Lyra held the girls’ hands and barely processed the small squeeze Prentiss gave her hand. She felt the squeeze one minute, and the next Prentiss broke free and was running straight toward the edge of the woods.
Murphy cursed and raised his gun toward the fleeing figure. Lyra didn’t have time to think. She screamed and launched herself, shoving as hard as she could, but he was too strong for her. He stumbled rather than falling, but turned the weapon on her and Alyssa, who had scrambled to clutch Lyra’s arm.
Lyra backed up and turned to shield Alyssa, waiting for a blow, a shot, something to hit her. It never came. She turned to see Murphy swing his weapon back to where Prentiss had disappeared into the woods and Lyra grabbed for him again. This time, he struck her with a back-handed crack to the side of her head and her head swam as she went down.
“Fuck! Fuck!” Murphy watched the woods where Prentiss had disappeared and looked back at Lyra and cursed again. “You better pray she doesn’t go far. Move it.” He shoved Lyra toward the cabin.
Lyra’s heart pounded and dread swamped her again. Everything in her wanted to race after Prentiss, to hold her tight and protect her. She was four years old and she was running blindly through strange woods in the dark. She looked down and saw Alyssa looking up at her.
Alyssa squeezed Lyra’s hand just as Prentiss had done immediately before she ran. Lyra knew then the girls had somehow planned the move. She forced a shaky smile for Alyssa as Murphy pushed them through the front door of the cabin, but her heart was cracking and she’d never felt such a strong urge to fall to her knees and weep. She wouldn’t, couldn’t in front of her daughter.
Murphy continued to push and shove her as he moved through the cabin. She only realized as they entered the building that he’d grabbed a bag from the cab of the van when they got out. A backpack he now hung over his shoulders, switching the gun from one hand to the other as he did so.
“Up.” He growled the words and Lyra saw the ladder in front of them leading to a loft.
“You go first, baby.” Lyra moved to let Alyssa up the ladder, but Murphy grabbed Alyssa’s arm and her daughter cried out in pain, before clamping down on the sound.
“Hell no. She’ll climb with me. You first.” His eyes were hard and the rage at losing Prentiss was apparent. But beneath it was something else. Fear. He was afraid.
Lyra guessed he was afraid of Damon. She climbed the ladder to find a small loft, hearing Alyssa and Murphy making their way up behind her.
“Try anything else and I’ll shoot you both. I’ll make sure I don’t shoot you dead, though. I’ll make it hurt and I’ll make you suffer.” His threats came at her the entire time he worked his way with Alyssa up the ladder.
Lyra thought fleetingly of trying to hit him and knock him down the ladder, but the thought left as soon as it came. She couldn’t risk that with Alyssa so close to him.
The pair crested the top of the ladder and Murphy thrust Alyssa to one corner of the room, pointing his weapon at Lyra. “Stay where you are.”
Lyra raised her hands up and nodded, but her eyes flew to Alyssa. “Stay there, baby.”
Murphy opened the bag and pulled out ropes and duct tape. “You better hope like hell I can find your other brat.” He didn’t say what would happen if he didn’t, but he seemed to be unravelling a bit at a time. Each time he spoke, she sensed more tension in his tone wasn’t. Maybe he’d screw up and she’d find an opening to get them out of there.
She winced as he pulled the ropes tight around her wrists, then bound the ropes to the leg of a low bed in the loft. The bed was anchored right to the floor. She guessed that was a safety measure and almost wanted to laugh. It wasn’t turning out to be safe for her.
Murphy finished tying her up, put duct tape over her mouth, then went for Alyssa. Lyra couldn’t stop the automatic response to seeing him near her child. She wrenched at the ropes, but he’d tied her to the leg of the bed without any slack in the rope. As she tried fruitlessly to pull free, she did nothing more than make her wrists raw.
Murphy pulled Alyssa over to the bed and Lyra’s heart slammed in her chest. God, if he hurt Alyssa. Tears broke loose and streamed down her face, but he gave her a look that told her to sit still, and she did.
To her relief, he tied Alyssa to another leg of the bed and turned back toward the ladder.
“Don’t try to get out of here. I’m going after your brat. You’d better pray I find her before Damon gets here. He’ll do a lot more than tie you up if he finds out she ran.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The walls were closing in on Luke as he paced the apartment. They were back at Zach’s place. Zach and Logan were now four hours north. They’d be closing in on Dartmouth soon, but they still had no idea where Damon would have taken Naomi.
Damon still seemed to have no idea Luke had infiltrated the group of buyers ready to bid on the Brain Trust’s information the minute Damon pulled the trigger on the auction. Luke had received an alert to his fake account twenty minutes ago that the auction would be live in the next few hours and he need to be on standby if he wanted to bid.
They didn’t have much time to mess around now. Samantha needed to turn her attention to trying to get into the account Damon had locked Billy out of so they could try to lock down the information before it could be auctioned off.
Luke suspected there would also be copies, likely a backup on a physical drive in Damon’s possession. They’d need to get that, too, but first they needed to locate everyone.
He stopped pacing and sat across from Billy. “You’ve known Damon for years, right?” He kept his voice calm, even though he really wanted to wring the guy’s neck. Billy had sat numb and useless since they’d gotten back from the recording studio.
“Uh huh. Since freshman year of college.”
Luke nodded and rested his elbows on his knees as he leaned toward Billy. “All right. Let’s walk through things bit by bit.”
Billy winced. “Yeah. Okay.”
“You guys went to school in Boston?”
Billy answered with another, “uh huh.”
“Where did Damon grow up?”
“On the west coast. California. His dad raised him.”
“Okay, good.” Luke thought for a minute. They already knew Damon lived a few minutes from here in an apartment. They’d gone there after the recording studio and found it empty. Joel didn’t own any more properties in the area other than the recording studio, and his office and home had been empty. Damon had no properties listed in his name.
“So, during the summer, did Damon stick around campus or did he go back to the coast?”
“He stayed in Boston. He worked. His dad didn’t have a lot of money and he had to work to pay for his books and shit.”
“What about someplace he might go with the girls? Would he take Lyra and the girls to someone in Boston? Maybe a place you guys used to stay? Or a friend’s house?”
It was entirely possible Damon had taken Lyra and the twins with him to grab Naomi, but Luke had a feeling he wouldn’t’ want to do that. It was too unpredictable, too hard to control them while he snatched Naomi. Chances were, he and whoever was working with him had split up. They would stash Lyra and the girls with one or two of them while Damon went after Naomi.
Billy shook his head slowly. “No. I mean, I don’t think any of our friends would keep quiet if he showed up with Lyra and the twins and was keeping them against their will. People liked him but . . . ”
Luke waited as Billy seemed to chew on the idea for a minute. “Our friend Jeff has a place in Boston that he doesn’t stay at very much. Jeff travels for work. He isn’t married or anything, so his place might be empty. We’ve stayed in it before when we visit, even if he isn’t around.”
&
nbsp; Luke looked at Samantha. She was watching them, waiting.
“Where is it Billy? What is Jeff’s last name?” Jesus, it was like pulling teeth with this kid, Luke thought.
“Uh, Jeff Silver. I think the place is in Boston. Or right outside there. The street is something like Pineridge, Oak . . . something.”
Samantha was clicking the keys. “I’ve got a few. Hang on.” She clicked through more screens and hit the keys a few more times before looking up. “Pine Way in Newton, Massachusetts?”
“Yeah.” Billy pointed at Samantha and nodded. “That’s it. That’s it.”
“You got the guy’s number?” Luke asked, tossing Billy his cell phone. When he got a nod from Billy he continued. “Text him. Tell him you’re in the area and want to know if he’s around to hang out.”
They waited several minutes, and again, Luke thought those walls were getting closer and closer. The room seemed smaller with each tick of the clock. He needed to remind his brother to get rid of the damned clock on the wall. Who had a clock with actual ticking hands anymore?
Minutes later, a text sounded and Billy read from the screen. “Sorry, bro, out of town. Back in a week if you’re still around?”
Chad and Luke exchanged a look. “It’s the best lead we’ve got,” Chad said.
“It’s not much.” Luke couldn’t stand the idea of sitting still waiting, but he also hated the idea of getting further away from Lyra if she and the girls were still here. “Jax, can you stay here in case we’re wrong?”
“Yeah. And I’ve got buddies in that area we can call if we need more people.”
Luke gave him a grim nod.
“Billy, do you have a key to Damon’s apartment?”
“No.”
Jax stepped forward. “We don’t need a key. I’ll get us in.” Billy looked up at him and Jax flicked his head at the door. “Come on. You’re coming with me. We’ll see what we can find in his apartment.”