Page 42 of Clay

He couldn’t, wouldn’t let his thoughts circle to what Hamilton could be doing to her, because that brought the rage again, and a hollowness in his chest he’d only felt once before, when he’d lost his grandmother. He wouldn’t lose Ivy. They had a lifetime together.

The thought staggered him. Even though he’d been moving in that direction this morning, before she’d been abducted, now it seemed so very crystal clear.

Katie made a noise, and he turned to see that the tears that had glossed her eyes had eased out, were streaking her face.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. Everyone always gave him shit about having them, but Nonna had taught him to be a gentleman. And a gentleman always had a hankie.

“She’s my best friend,” Katie said brokenly, as she accepted the cloth. “I should have known she’d try to find me, that she’d move heaven and earth to make sure I was okay.”

“I understand completely.” He lowered his voice so none of the others could hear. “I think she’s the love of my life,” he confessed, watched as her eyes rounded. “I’ve known her less than a week and I can’t imagine my life without her in it.”

“She has that effect,” Katie replied wanly. “After this is all over, you and I are going to have a long talk about what’s best for Ivy. If she gets to butt into my life, then turnabout is fair play.”

That brought a smile Clay hadn’t thought possible. “We’ll get her back, Katie, without sacrificing your safety.”

Chapter Eleven

The trilling of a cell phone stopped all of them in their tracks. Clay looked down at the display on his phone. It was an unfamiliar number, but he'd bet it was Ivy. Or Hamilton. He nodded at Dev and accepted the call and put it on speaker.

“Ivy, are you all right?”

“She’s fine, asshole,” Hamilton’s voice boomed. “And she’ll stay that way as long as you bring Katie to me.”

Dev was working on tracing the call, so Clay drew it out, forcing himself to sound flustered even as fury pulsed through him. “Don’t hurt her,” he said. “I need to know she’s okay before I agree to anything.”

“Fucking flyboy whiners,” Hamilton muttered, and a second later Ivy came on the line.

“Clay,” she said, her voice just a bit thready before she firmed it up. “I’m fine, but whatever you do, do not trade me for Katie—” her voice broke off and the sound of flesh hitting flesh slapped over the line.

Everything in Clay went icy cold.

“Bitch,” Hamilton said. “Butting into a man’s business. Bring Katie to this address in one hour. Come alone, no fucking cops. I’ll know if they’re there.” He rattled off an address. Dev nodded and motioned for Clay to wrap it up.

“We’ll be there,” Clay said, not even bothering to mask the menace in his tone. Hamilton had laid hands on Ivy. He was a dead man.

He disconnected and fixed his attention on Dev, who’d combined the multiple panels into one big one, displaying a map.

“He’s already there, left the tagging on the phone on long enough for me to get him, but now it’s off.”

With a few taps of his fingers, the screen split in two, showing the map on the left and a series of photos on the other.

“This is the Boss Mine, about thirty miles out of Vegas. Riddled with mine shafts and a great big pain in the ass. Lots of hobbyists roll around in those ruins, as you can see by the photos here. We don’t have time for on-the-ground intel, so this is the best we can do. His coordinates are at the base of the mountain, but he could be anywhere.” He turned his head to Clay. “What do you think?”

Clay scrutinized each of the photos, the map, well aware that the clock was ticking. He walked to the screen.

“Deploy Tate here,” he pointed to an unassuming hillock half a mile to the south. “That’s inside your range, correct?”

Tate nodded, and Clay was never so thankful that his friend had honed his expert marksman skills on the battlefield all those years ago.

“Cali and I come in from the ground. He’s expecting me, knows who I am,” he said when Dev would have protested. “Jordan and LVMPD on the ground five minutes behind us, staged here.” He pointed to a rock outcropping not visible fromanywhere at the base of the mountain, or higher up, where the mine shafts pocked the mountain.

At the table, Jordan was frantically texting, probably her boss. She'd volunteered to go in Cali's place. As a cop, it made more sense, but she was also an active officer in the LVMPD, and while she could moonlight all she wanted doing PI-type stuff, this was a whole different ballgame with the potential for massive conflicts of interest. Cali was so close to the end of her storied career that she could do pretty much anything she wanted and get away with it.

“Back it up, please,” Clay asked.

Dev complied, zooming the map out.

“There,” Clay pointed. “We’ll put Warren and Katie in Jean, at the world’s largest Chevron. Gives them plenty of people around if Hamilton decides to do an end run around us, and we know truckers will support a damsel in distress.” He looked at Katie. “If push comes to shove, you need to own that part. Get other people involved.”

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