“I’m getting there.”The faster the better.“Ellie’s old boss convinced her to return to Tacoma for the guy’s trial. From what I found, she was the prosecutor in Knowles’ original trial, but that was thrown out on a technicality. When they were able to make a case that would stick, she went back and retried the piece of shit.” He ran a hand over his weary jaw. “Ellie gave closing arguments just last week.”
“And?” Van prodded.
Lucky met his teammate’s gaze. “Leonard Knowles was convicted and sentenced to a long damn time behind bars.”
A low whistle sounded as Chase linked his hands together and rested them on the top of his head. “That’s definitely motive.”
“And if the siblings were close, it stands to reason the younger would want revenge on those he blames for his brother’s conviction.
“Exactly.” Lucky nodded. “Now I just need to wait on my other program to—”
He couldn’t even finish the words before the other program he’d been referring to also pinged him with a hit.
No way, he could be this lucky. Could he?
I mean, it is your nickname, dumbass.
Point well taken, Lucky decided to put his luck to the test. Fingers moving at lightning speed, he brought up theinformation the system had just alerted him to. When he did, his faith that he would find Ellie erupted tenfold.
Holy fuck, it worked!
“Guys, it’s him.” He said it as fact because, well, it was the only answer that made sense. “Knowles is definitely our guy.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Here.” He pointed to a box on the screen. “Look at his last known place of employment.” The other two men leaned closer.
“Son of a…”
“That’s the same satellite company as the one on the van.”
Lucky nodded excitedly. “And guess which company reported one of their vans stolen two days ago?”
“Okay, this is obviously a great lead,” Chase began, “but we still have to figure out where this Knowles jerkoff took Ellie.”
“Patience, my young sniper friend.” Lucky was totally in his element as he continued searching for what he prayed would lead them to her. “Okay, here it is.” He read the screen. “Okay, so the company has GPS on all of their vehicles, but of course, assholes like Knowles are smart enough to disable that shit first thing. What he didn’t do was disable the GPS on his phone.”
“You’re kidding?”
Lucky’s lips curled into a sinister grin. “I’d never kid about this, Boyer.” Not when they were talking about Ellie’s well-being. “Cocky bastard thought he was in the clear by unplugging the tracker on the van, and he probably figured his connection to El was so ambiguous, no one would ever make the connection.” A few more clicks and—
His heart kicked itself back to life.
“Holy hell, you did it.” Chase’s excitement was obvious. “You did do it, right? That’s where Knowles is right now?”
Lucky jumped to his feet and grabbed his phone and tablet from the desk. “He’s there.” He studied the map, quicklyentering the address into his tablet. “Come on.” He spun on his heels and ran. “I’ll drive,” he announced, skipping three whole steps as he leaped from the platform. “Van, you call Logan and fill him in. Boyer, can you put a call into Detective Knox, and let him know to meet us—”
“On it.” The team’s lead sniper was already grabbing his phone.
Bypassing the elevator, Lucky hit the stairwell and raced down the stairs. The GPS on Larry Knowles’ phone showed him at a private estate seven minutes from where they were. He hadn’t had a chance to look up the owner’s name, but he’d talk Van through that on the drive there.
Most of the time, in situations such as these, Lucky would sit in either the back seat or the passenger’s. Easier to work his magic on the tablet that way.
But he was too keyed up just to sit and stare at a flashing dot on a screen, praying the damn thing didn’t vanish before his very eyes. More than that, Lucky was too anxious. He was too fuckingafraid.
He was scared they’d get to their destination, and she wouldn’t be there. Or worse, he was terrified they’d arrive too late, and she’d already be…God, he could barely eventhinkit…
Dead.