Page 30 of Freeing Savannah

“Haley.”

“Hey, Voodoo,” she replied, her tone clipped but alert. “You’re not due for check-in until morning. Something wrong?”

“Put me on with Flint. Now.”

There was a pause, the faint clicking of keys. Then another voice came online, gravelly and direct. Flynn “Flint” Condor had been his SEAL commander and was now his boss at Condor’s Overwatch. To his surprise, Flint was a billionaire through old family money. He’d decided to use his billions to help others, hence his elite security company. Voodoo had jumped at the chance to join him as a founding member.

“Voodoo. Talk to me.”

“We had an incident tonight,” Voodoo said, voice low. “At the reception. Savannah was locked in a bathroom. Lights went out. Door jammed from the outside. Took me two tries to break it down.”

“Two tries,” Cormac “Hoot” Shibley, one of his teammates who apparently had also joined the call, interjected. “You’re slipping.”

“These old buildings are built stronger,” Voodoo defended.

“How is she,” Flint, ever the voice of reason, asked.

“She was panicked, traumatized. This wasn’t a fluke, Flint. It was deliberate.”

“Deliberate?” Sparks asked.

“Damn right,” Voodoo growled. “Savannah has past trauma from her asshole stepfather locking her in a closet when she disappointed him.” Several choice swear words rang over the line as his teammates absorbed that bit of information. “Someone knew exactly how to hit her. This wasn’t random.”

He could hear clicking as Haley’s fingers flew across her keyboard. “I’m in the venue’s system. Checking hallway footage now.” It never ceased to amaze him how quickly she could hack through firewalls and gather the information they needed. Of course, now with SYBIL’s help, results would be in even quicker.

After a beat of tense silence, she continued. “Got movement. Twenty-two hundred hours. Someone approaches the bathroom door. Hooded. Jeez, is that one of those old opera cloaks? Wearing gloves. Can’t get a read on the face. They avoid all light angles. They knew where the cameras were.”

Voodoo felt his phone vibrate. He activated his earpiece to remain in contact with his team as he lowered the phone to look at the screenshot Haley texted him. She was right, the person was wearing a hooded cloak. There was no way they could get an angle for facial recognition.

Lost in contemplation, he pondered the implications and details of that event. He’d stood at the end of the hall. Only one or two people had passed him, heading to the bathrooms. All men. Could one of them have been the guy in the opera cloak? He didn’t recall seeing anyone wearing such a garment. So, where had he stashed it? Voodoo had been focused on who was coming and going into the hall. He hadn’t been watching the bathroom door itself. If he had, he would have seen the figure tampering with the door.

Fuck. He was an idiot. And because of his fuckup, Savannah had been harmed.

“So we’re looking at someone with some skills,” Flint muttered.

“I’ll pull the logs for the electrical system too,” Haley added. “If the lights were remotely killed, it should leave a trail.”

“You think this is linked to the Senator?” Hoot asked. “Or someone else with a grudge?”

“Too soon to say,” Voodoo replied. “This feels more personal. Someone wanted to scare her.”

“Why?” Sparks wondered.

“I don’t know, but we can’t take chances.”

“Agreed,” Flint said. “Could also be someone’s testing you.” Flint’s voice came through hard and steady. “Consider yoursecurity protocol elevated. We’ll run deeper scans on everyone in your proximity. Halestorm,” their boss said, using Haley’s online persona name. “run the staff. Cross-reference facial geometry from the footage with guest and personnel rosters.”

“And look into what Savannah’s life was like living with the Senator,” he added.

“On it.”

Sawyer looked down at Savannah, still asleep on the couch. Her fingers twitched, the subtle movement hinting at a melody only she could hear, a silent sonata she was playing in her dreams.

He turned back to the phone, jaw tight.

“Whoever did this wanted to rattle her. It worked. But they made one mistake.”

“Yeah?” Hoot asked.

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