“You don’t have to worry about that. Yourprincessis still fast asleep. Well she was as of thirty minutes ago, anyway. That was the last time I actually saw her.”
“Where the fuck is she?”Brody’s voice boomed inside his kitchen. Because yeah, he was starting to lose his shit.
“Three years, and that’s all you have to say to me? No, ‘Hey, Mike. How you been?’ Or… ‘What have you been up to since I got you kicked out of the Navy?’”
His entire team looked his way, but remained quiet.
“You gotyourselfkicked out of the Navy, Michael. That shit wasn’t on me, and you fucking know it.”
“Still feeding yourself the same bullshit, I see. That what helps you sleep at night?” Another rage-inducing chuckle. “I bet that’s the same story you told your girl, too, huh? Make yourself look like the big, bad Navy SEAL all-American hero?”
“I sleep just fine, asshole,” Brody seethed. “As for my conversations with Ro, your name’s never even come up.”
A stretch of silence passed, and for a minute, he thought he’d fucked up and the asshole on the other end of the line had hung up. But then…
“Sorry to hear that.” Another pause. “Guess there’s still time, though.”
“Time for what?”
“To share with your woman thewholetruth about the man you really are. I would have told her myself, but sadly she didn’t wake up in time.”
In time?
“The fuck you mean, ‘in time’?”
“Oh, that’s right!” Ainsworth’s voice became animated. “We’ve been so busy catching up, I almost forgot to send the picture. I hope you don’t mind. I only took a couple. To remember the occasion, of course.”
More than done with the asshole’s twisted game of cat and mouse, Brody got straight to the point. “You want me? You’ve got me. Tell me where you are right now, and I will come to you. Just…let Ro go. Please, Michael. She has nothing to do with this.”
“She haseverythingto do with this!” The other man lost his cool composure. “I’ve been watching you for a while now, King. Not that you’ve noticed.” A sarcastic huff. “Some security expert you are. Can’t spot a tail if your life depended on it. Although in this case, your life isn’t the one on the line.”
“Goddamn it, Mike—”
“Tell you what.” The deranged man interrupted. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll send you a clue, and if you and your new team can find her…you can have her. Although if this really is going to be a fair game, you should probably know that your girl’s only got about two-and-half,maybethree hours of oxygen left. After that…”
Brody’s stomach filled with a sense of dread like none he’d ever felt. “What are you talking about, Mike? What did…” His voice cracked, but he cleared it enough to go on. “What did you do to her?”
Seconds that felt like days passed before the other man spoke again. When he did, it was only to leave him with a taunting, “Clock’s tickin’ for your girl, King. Better hurry.”
It was the last thing Ainsworth said before ending the call.
“Fuck!” Brody slammed his hands down onto the counter.
“Who the hell is Michael Ainsworth?” Cade asked. “And why does he think you got him kicked out of the Navy?”
“It’s a long story.” One he didn’t really want to go into now.
“Well I hate to be the one to point this out”—Jagger spoke up again—“but until we have something more to go on than a phone call, there’s not a whole lot we can do but wait.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Liam reached an arm between where Brody and Christian were standing. “Let me take a look. People buy these pay-as-you-go phones thinking they’re impossible to trace, but that’s not always the case.”
“What good is a trace going to do?” Rocky joined in. “We already know the name of the person who took Ro.”
“I may be able to use the phone’s serial number to access its SIM card,” Liam informed them all. “If I can, my system may allow for a trace of the incoming call’s location.”
“Okay, then.” Jagger pulled out a chair and plopped down at Brody’s kitchen table. “While we’re waiting for Cutler to get his geek on, you can fill us in on exactly who it is we’re dealing with.”
Brody felt like he was going mad with the need to be out there looking for Ro. The fear he felt for her was so complete…so absolute…he felt as though his heart was physically being torn from his body.