“Why do you want to know? Who wants to know?”
Nick winced as his hair was pulled back. His captor right behind him, just staying in the shadows, but this was the closest he’d been to him since he was brought down here. “I’m the one asking questions here. Now, for the last time, tell me where the base is or I’ll have my associates bring your daughter down here for some fun.”
Over his dead body. It wasn’t an empty threat, but his captor would already have his daughter and be using her as leverage if he already had her. Which meant she was staying safe. He had a feeling he knew where. The cabin. His clever girl. Only an idiot would try to take her from there. It was impenetrable. He’d seen to that.
“You would have brought her down here already if you had her. Which means you don’t have shit. You have nothing.” He chuckled. It was only because of the knowledge that his little girl was safe that he could bolster. If Payton were standing in front of him, he feared he would cave. She was the only family he had left. She meant everything to him.
“Oh, but I will,” his captor said with a sinister sneer.
Nick looked at him over his shoulder. Not that he could see much through his swollen eyes. “Do your worst to me.”
His captor sighed in annoyance. “I grow tired of this game, Nick.”
“Then let’s just end it. You aren’t getting anything from me.”
“Then you leave me no choice.”
Nick braced himself for the end. It wasn’t how he wanted his life to end. In the dank basement of a place where no one would ever find his corpse, but hell if he was going to give this asshole what he wanted.
Nick heard a phone being dialed. Really? His captor was making a call now? “Bullseye, I have a target for you. Alex Grant. Shoot to kill.”
Nick felt his heard thudding through his chest. He recognized the name. Bullseye was an ex-marine sniper turned bounty hunter. He always got his target. And he never missed. Fuck.
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk now?” his captor taunted, knowing he’d backed Nick into a corner. “Alex is like a son to you, isn’t he?”
Nick couldn’t stall anymore. He had to make his escape now. “Do what you must, but your sniper still won’t find them.” He hoped not. The cabin may be hard to find, but the property was listed under his wife’s name. It wouldn’t take a genius to find it. When he made it out of this alive, he was changing the name the property was listed under so it was impossible for assholes like this to find.
“He doesn’t have to find her, just kill Alex. Payton’s going to come to me.” Nick heard his captor come up behind him. “When I tell her I’ve found her father’s location.” His enemy chuckled coldly before something slammed into the back of his head and the whole world went dark.
Chapter 24
Payton grabbed her laptop excitedly. She always got this way when she cracked a case. The adrenaline rush of knowing it was almost over. That she’d caught her suspect. Or in this case knew where her father was.
“All the personnel that have been killed at the other bases had property under their name. They all owned old, abandoned buildings. Several of the people killed were in my dad’s phone contact list. I think it was a shell game. A shield if you will. Like the game where someone hides a ball under a cup and moves them all around so you don’t know where it is.”
Alex just stared at her blankly.
“One of those bases had a secret. That’s why all of them got attacked. And the person who had a building specifically was targeted. The attacker was looking for something, and when the person didn’t have it, they were killed. Like lifting the cup and no ball, so they moved on to the next one.”
“And you think your dad is the ball, so to speak,” Alex guessed.
Payton nodded. “And the buildings are the cup. I think my dad is being kept in the building under his name. It’s the perfect place to keep him. His warehouse is at the edge of town. Far away from prying eyes. No one to see anyone come or go.”
“Holy shit,” Alex whispered under his breath. “You’re right. It’s all connected.”
“Whoever is behind the attacks knew whatever they were looking for was in the west but not specifically where. My best guess is the California base was a dummy hit to create a false hit of a base cyberattack. You said yourself nothing was stolen. Next was Nevada, the same thing. I checked Dad’s phone records. He called the next three base attack locations before they were hit. Alaska was hit next, but there was an actual casualty that time. Next there was Texas. After that Arizona.”
“The first two were staged to look like an attack. Then I made the call to your dad, and he reached out to the other bases. It was a ruse to flush your dad out, to find the other bases that could be potentials. This really is my fault.” Alex raked his fingers through his hair. His face pulled in distress. He really did blame himself.
What? How could he think that? Payton set her laptop to the side and hugged Alex. He was stiff at first before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. She took a deep breath of his mint scent, letting it wash over her. “None of this is your fault. They would have kept attacking bases until my dad called them. It wouldn’t have mattered if you called him or not.” Payton pulled back to look up at him. “There’s something else.”
“I hate to ask.”
“Here there are more than just my dad missing. There are actually five personnel missing from base.”
“So they could have found what they were looking for already,” Alex growled.
“Not necessarily. They may have figured whatever it was they were looking for is here, but not exactly where. The people missing are engineers and military contractors.”