Page 57 of Keys

“Our fucking father is involved in some shady shit, Aubrey. I’m not discussing it over the phone. Get your ass here now, or I will send someone to retrieve you. Never mind. Stay put. That’s a better plan anyway. I’ll send you information on the people who are coming to pick you up. Go with them, and don’t give them any trouble.”

I could hear Aubrey kicking up a fuss on the other end of the line before Keys clicked off the call and slammed my phone into my chest. I took it, but also grabbed her hand before she could pull away. “I planned on telling you.”

Keys chuckled before turning away and grabbing something off the desk. A legal pad and pen in hand, she moved to a chair and started writing vigorously on the pad. Then, she turned to the lawyer again and started asking questions.

“Where would he go?”

“How should I know,” he answered.

“What kind of funds does he have immediate access to?”

The man tipped his head to the side. “Enough to get lost with, if that’s what he wanted.”

“How many properties does he own in this county and all the surrounding ones?”

“I can get you a list.”

“Do that. Now.” Her tone told him she wouldn’t take any shit, and that she expected him to follow through. I watched in awe as she took charge and continued to write things down.

“A trace came through on his cell phone. We know where it’s pinging from.”

“I know that.” Keys told me as she continued to write. “I also know that despite the shit he’s pulling right now, he’s not an idiot. It would be easy to allow us to find his cell phone pinging somewhere, all the while, giving himself time to disappear. I want options just in case we have to check multiple places.”

“I’m setting up our priority list now.” She tapped the pen to the paper before writing once more and double checking what she had on the paper against the property list the lawyer gave her. “I didn’t know about these two,” she finally said before drawing a circle around both. “I’m betting they’re the most likely places for him to hide until he can get away clean, especially if he’s waiting for me to be snatched up before he slips away.”

I had been wondering why her dad seemed so confused that Sarah was in the lawyer’s office earlier when they talked. She was already one step ahead as usual though. Her father never planned to trade her for her mother. He wanted to orchestrate where she showed up – at her old home – so that someone could be there to take her out. The sick bastard was selling his daughter out to the trafficking ring – or trying to.

~*~

Two hours later we had a solid plan about how we were going to track and handle Senator Cassidy. Paul showed up again with an apologetic MiMi by his side along with an angry Aubrey and worried Dane.

“We grabbed Dane along the way. They’re using drones for surveillance on the place where that woman led the team,” Paul offered before Keys could question what his friend was doing there.

When she and I both glanced at MiMi, who should have been in the hospital, having or recovering from surgery, she chuckled nervously.

“Damn that mountain cell service,” she insisted before explaining why she was here and not in the hospital. “I sent Paul a text about Garth, my pug, telling him that I thought he might be hurt.”

“I never received that text,” Paul interjected.

“Then I sent another that I was headed to the ER because it looked like emergency surgery was needed, but it’s after hours.” I was panicked and didn’t realize he never got the first text, so I didn’t expand on the fact that it was a vet ER or that it was Garth going in and not me.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“Is he okay?” I asked after her pup – who had been a rescue when she found him limping along the side of the road one day.

“He pulled through. The vet is keeping him overnight, so I told Paul I’d come along in case you needed another set of eyes, hands, or whatever.”

“You will not get involved physically!” Dane demanded.

“Hush,” she told him without even blinking an eye in his direction.

“MiMi, you just recovered from the last run in you had with these assholes.”

Her narrowed eyes pinned the giant of a man in place. “Yeah, they got the drop on me because I was stupid enough to think I could take them on my own in a moment of weakness. That won’t happen here. If I can be a help, I will.”

“MiMi? Paul?” Grady asked, his eyes widened in shock at seeing his missing niece and nephew. They both openly stared at their uncle who teared up upon seeing them and began sobbing uncontrollably.

“Uncle G?” MiMi asked. She didn’t waste any time going over and wrapping the man in the hug that he so desperately needed.

“Uncle Grady,” Paul stated clearly as he too closed the distance and wrapped the man up in a hug that too.

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