“And she did what any of us would’ve done with that threat. She went.”
“I need Schroder’s address.”
“I’ll bring it with me.”
“Give me the damn address, Gray.”
“No. You need to stand down until I get there. You know it.”
“We need to call the police,” her father said.
Cooper shook his head. “No.”
“Who’s that? Her father?”
“Yeah. How fast can you get here?” It was going to kill him to wait, but his brother was right. Going in half-cocked meant mission failure nine times out of ten.
“The plane is ready to go as soon as I get there, so two hours max.”
“I’ll wait, but only that long.” It was going to be two hours of torture. “Text me Schroder’s address so I can put it in my GPS.”
“Sending it to you now. I’ll call Jules from the plane and have him start searching for any other properties Schroder owns or leases.”
“Good.” Jules was a hacker they used in extreme cases, and if there ever was one, this was it. “I’ll be at the airport waiting for you.” He disconnected.
“Why aren’t we calling the police?” Frank asked.
“Because my partner and I are not only the best at what we do, but we’re not bound by the restrictions the police have. They’ll need a warrant unless they actually see Kendall in his house, which they won’t. He’ll have her hidden. I don’t care what laws I have to break to rescue her. If she’s not at the house where he lives, which she probably isn’t, we have resources who my partner already has searching for any properties he owns or rents.”
“But you are going to find her, right?”
“Frank, if I have to, I’ll tear the town apart with my bare hands until I find her. I mean to bring my daughter’s mother home.” Unharmed he prayed.
“About that—”
“Yes, we need to talk about that, but right now, the priority is planning this mission.” His phone pinged with an incoming text. “That’s the text with Schroder’s home address. I’m going out to my truck to put it in my GPS, then grab my laptop. Back in a minute. Stay by the phone in case she manages to call.”
Outside, he put his hands on the roof of his truck and dropped his chin to his chest. Every mission he’d ever planned had been meticulously prepared, and during his time in the military, all but two had been successful. Not one of them had been personal. This one was, but he had to take his emotions out of it and bring back the skilled operative he once was. The cold, calculating soldier.
Kendall’s life depended on him making the right decisions. Failure was not an option.
He wasn’t a churchgoing man, but he believed in God. He’d always said a short prayer before each mission. Tonight, his prayer was longer. When he lifted his head, he looked up at the sky.I’ll find you, Kendall. I promise.
Once he was back inside, he sat at the dining room table, opened his laptop and brought up several satellite images of Schroder’s house and the surrounding streets. “Do you know this area?” he asked.
Frank had taken a seat next to him and leaned over to view the screen. “Sandy Springs. Yeah, it’s a nice suburb of Atlanta. It’s about thirty minutes from here.”
Cooper’s phone chimed, and he glanced at the screen. “It’s my partner, Grayson.” He put it on speaker. “Gray, I’m here with Frank, Kendall’s father, and you’re on speaker. That okay?” He wanted to include the man as much as possible. If it was his daughter, he’d insist on it.
“Sure. Hello, Frank. Listen, Jules just sent me another address for a cabin Schroder owns outside of Cleveland, Georgia. It’s actually not in his name, but an LLC owns it. Jules traced the LLC back to Schroder.”
“That’s in the mountains,” Frank said. “About an hour and a half from here.”
“So, he’s hiding that cabin’s his. My gut says that’s where he’s taking her. He took Kendall only thirty minutes ago, so he’ll have another hour before he gets there.”
“It’s a long way to go only to find she isn’t there,” Grayson said. “We just took off, so I expect to land in an hour and a half.”
“Here’s what I’m going to do. I have time to go to Schroder’s Sandy Springs house before you land. If it’s unoccupied, then it has to be the cabin, and we’ll go there. If it is occupied, I’ll come get you and we’ll go back to his house.”