Page 72 of Over the Top

Gunner heard the shrug in Drago’s voice. “Ol’ Yuzio may not believe in giving in to extortion, even if Poppy is his own blood. It may not be about love. It may be purely about the principle of the thing.”

Spencer added, “J. Paul Getty refused to pay ransom for his grandson’s return after a kidnapping. He said he had a bunch of other grandkids, and if he gave in on one of them, they all would be in terrible danger.”

“Didn’t Getty end up coughing up a couple million bucks for the kid?”

Spencer snorted. “Only after the grandson’s ear was sent to a newspaper.”

“That’s cold, man,” Gunner commented.

“There’s a wrinkle to all of this,” Spencer said grimly.

“Which is?” Gunner asked when Spencer didn’t continue right away.

“Kenji Tanaka told me he got a ransom demand five days ago, and his people thought it came from the Oshiro gang. But other Oshiros had already contacted Kenji’s father with different demands. Sounds to me like the two branches of the Oshiro gang are working at cross purposes with each other. And possibly, they each have different plans for Poppy.”

Gunner frowned. “Either way, that doesn’t bode well for her. Clearly we need to smack down whatever Oshiro gang members try to come after her until we can hand her off to her daddy.”

“Exactly,” Spencer replied.

Chas gasped beside him. Yeah. Gunner felt the kick in the gut too. Their kiddo was caught up in the middle of a nasty and dangerous mess. Any time money and power were involved, bad people would be prepared to do terrible things.

Spencer continued, “A friend of Drago’s at the agency collected a DNA swab from Kenji yesterday and is personally flying it to the US to be compared to the swab we took from Poppy. We should have results on that in a couple of days.”

Chas looked ready to puke, which Gunner totally related to. The idea of losing Poppy, of having to hand her over to a stranger, made him feel faintly ill as well.

“I don’t want to do anything too dramatic until we have the results of the DNA test,” Spencer said. “Once we know she’s the right kid, I’d like to draw together both factions of the Oshiro gang and eliminate them both or least give them a good spanking, before we hand her back to Kenji Tanaka. I’d hate to return her only to have something bad happen to her because his family’s enemies are embarrassed.”

“Where’s the Oshiro prisoner now?” Chas asked curiously.

Spencer chuckled. “He’s comfortably ensconced in Chez Barn at the back of our property. He’s not going anywhere.”

“What are you going to do to him?” Chas blurted.

“Nothing for now. We’ll be putting him on a hook and dangling him for the rest of the Oshiro boys to come and get shortly. We still have a few things to arrange before we let them know where their guy is.”

Chas frowned. “I don’t mean to tell you guys how to do your job, but should we be luring the bad guys there when Poppy’s just across the street?”

Spencer grinned. “If you were the bad guys, would you look for her there? It’s the last place anyone will think we stashed her. Plus, we’re very close if we need to get to her to protect her.”

Chas frowned doubtfully.

“Will the Oshiros come for their guy?” Gunner asked.

“Don’t know,” Drago answered. “It’ll depend on who he knows and how much they value whatever criminal activities he’s engaging in here in the States. If he’s a low-level thug, maybe not. If he’s a little higher up the chain of command, I expect they will want him back.”

“If nothing else, it’s lousy for morale not to recover your guy. I think the odds are better than not that they’ll come after him. Particularly if we dangle Poppy in front of them too,” Spencer added.

“You wouldn’t!” Chas exclaimed.

“Not the real Poppy, of course,” Spencer said quickly.

Gunner noted how protective Chas had sounded. He’d gotten pretty attached to the munchkin. Unfortunately, he knew the feeling. The little cutie was irresistible. Made a guy think about rug rats of his own someday.

“What do you want us to do in the meantime?” he asked.

“Stick to the plan,” Spencer replied. “Keep playing hide-and-seek with whatever Oshiro guys are following you while we try to figure out which faction is chasing you and how to draw out both factions at the same time.”

Gunner concurred. Aloud he asked, “How’s Poppy?”

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