Page 55 of Tactically Acquired

Thumper leaned over and whispered, “So, why are we fighting so hard to get her back when it’s clear that Craig wants the honors?”

“Because I fucked up. It’s my fault she was taken.”

“Well, technically, it was on all of us.”

“Yeah, but I was close protection. It falls on my shoulders.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I know. I just wanted to make you feel better.”

I quirked an eyebrow at him. “You’re kind of an asshole.”

That got a laugh out of him. “Yeah, but you already knew that. Come on. Let’s get moving. We have a lot of work to do.”

As Thumper walked away, IRIS came to stand beside me. “You just say the word and I’ll plant a bomb under their SUV.”

Darkness fell and we were no closer to catching the assholes who’d kidnapped Audrey. Craig and Alec were of little use since they were barely functioning. I couldn’t be too hard on them. After all, Craig was Audrey’s friend. He was only trying to help her.

And he wasn’t the one who lost her on a job.

That honor rested on my shoulders. As Rae scrolled through footage and Thumper called every contact OPS had to track down leads, IRIS and I grilled the director about every single person who might have a grudge against Spencer and Audrey. So far, we’d come up with nothing.

“There has to be something,” I snapped at Woody, her director. “Fan mail. A fucking phone call she received recently. A stalker. Fucking anything that would give us some hint about who would go after her.”

“Like I said, her assistant handled all that stuff, and she said there was nothing recently.”

“Then why don’t you put her on the fucking phone so I can talk directly to her.”

“I’m afraid she’s not around.”

“Then give me her number,” I growled.

“Why don’t you do the job you were hired to do?” he shouted. “You were supposed to take her on a live-action shoot. Not get her kidnapped.”

“She was kidnapped before we ever took her into our protection.”

“And yet, somehow, she went missing again.” The accusation in his tone had me clenching my phone to the point of cracking the case. I already knew we’d fucked up. I didn’t need the reminder. But this wasn’t about my mistakes at the moment. This was about finding out who wanted her to begin with.

“Give me her address so I can send someone over to comb through every inch of it.”

“And invade her privacy? I can’t give you that. I have no authority.”

“I can guarantee that she won’t care when she comes back alive,” I bit out.

“That’s not my choice to make.”

“Listen here, asshole?—”

The phone was torn out of my hands, and Rae quickly ended the call, raising her brow at me. “You’re not gonna get anywhere with him. This isn’t about getting her back. He cares about getting sued. Everything for him is about his bottom line.”

I fucking knew that, but what else was I supposed to do? I couldn’t sit around here with my thumbs up my ass while she was out there with God knows who did all kinds of shit to her. She was in the same fucking accident as Craig and Alec. We had no idea what kind of condition she was in or if she was even still alive.

“You need to relax. We’ll get her back. I know you feel responsible here, but this is not solely on your shoulders.”

“She was in my care,” I bit out. “Have you ever lost someone?”

Her lips tightened in a thin line. “I almost lost Duke.”

“He knew what he was doing. Hell, he did that on purpose.”

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