Page 100 of Lethal Abduction

“Let’s see what they do,” I mutter, ignoring him. There’s no doubt in my mind, after the last forty-eight hours, that Paddy is a lethal prick, not to mention a mad bastard, which never hurts in these kinds of situations.

He’s also a smart-mouthed pain in the ass.

The men enter the first bar Pete went to. It’s open fronted, so we get a clear view as they go talk to the girl he approached. They ask her a few questions, then, without warning, hit her hard across the face. I wince.

“They’re supposed to be knocking Pete around,” I say to Luke. “Not the girls.”

“Not much we can do, unfortunately.” He looks as grim as I feel. “Not without tipping our hand.”

I know he’s right.

I still don’t like it.

The triads leave the bar and go into the second one, heading straight for the trans girls who approached Pete. I watch as they pull her away from a customer and start asking questions.

Shit.We’re running out of time. “Any idea who these fuckers belong to?” I ask Paddy.

“Yep.” He nods. “I know the ink, at least. It belongs to Bangkok’s most powerful triad. They’re the main powder dealer in the city. We’ve definitely found our problem.”

Fuck.

“I’m looking for my daughter,” Pete is saying in my earpiece to another bar girl. “She disappeared in Thailand a few years ago. I was hoping you might have seen her?” He holds up his phone with Abby’s picture, which has by now been circulated among hundreds of bar girls without so much as a glimmer of recognition.

The girl is already shaking her head. “I just start working here last month,” she says. Then she looks closer at the photograph and frowns. “I don’t know about long time ago,” she says. “But this girl, I see her maybe half hour ago, on my way to work.”

My heart lurches to a complete stop, then starts beatingagain, slowly. I’m already rising from my seat when Luke puts a hand on my arm. “Wait,” he murmurs.

“She go in hotel,” the girl says. “Quiet place.”

Pete slips her a roll of cash, and she gives him the hotel’s name and location.

“Who was she with?” Pete sounds increasingly urgent as he peels off more money, offering it to the girl, who’s starting to look uneasy. “How many?”

“I don’t know...” Her trails off, and I can see her looking around nervously as the triads walk down the sidewalk toward the open-air bar.

“Get him out of there,” I say, standing up, only to find Paddy already crossing the road.

“The hotel is half an hour from here, according to Google Maps.” I straddle my scooter as Luke climbs onto his. “We need to go now, before the triad guys clock that we’re with Pete.”

“Copy that.”

Luke and I turn into traffic.

Pete’s voice crackles indignantly in my ear. “Don’t you fucking dare go without me.”

“The triads have made you,” I snap. “Paddy will get you out of there. Just do what he says.”

“What are we looking at, Paddy?” Luke asks the question as we floor the scooters in between traffic.

“I dunno.” His Irish accent is calm over the comms. “But you’ll have barely a five-minute start once these fuckers talk to that bar girl.”

“Can you stall them?” I ask.

“Already on it,” he says agreeably.

A moment later, a deafening bang echoes down the street, followed by an enormous cloud of smoke and the sound of people screaming.

“Nice.” Luke’s voice crackles in my ear, and when I turn my head, the fucker is actually grinning.

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