Page 87 of Belonging to Them
“Well, we lost them on the traffic cams as they were leaving the Old Thirty-Three.”
Sebastian clenches his fists.“Fuck, does that mean we lost her?”
“No, not yet.We’ve been trying to track down who’s behind this from the beginning,” Jaxon says.“But we never had any luck, until Keith made his move.”
“What does that mean?”Sebastian asks.
“What do you know of Max Ruberetta?”Ryder asks me.
“Ruberetta?Tyler Analytics manages his accounts.”He’s a pill; nobody likes him.He’s been giving Kristin a headache from the beginning.
“Tyler Analytics doesn’t manage all of his money or accounts,” Jaxon says, dropping a file on the table.“Turns out, he’s been running an illegal gambling ring and lending out money with less-than-savory terms.”
No wonder I always got a slimy vibe off the guy.“Hetook Ella?Holy fuck, he…he probably loaned money to her brother.”
“And he’s the reason we hired Keith Mayberry,” Ryder continues.“Ruberetta was our client, too.Mayberry was one of his own personal bodyguards, is what Ruberetta told us in the beginning.”Ryder pulls up a headshot of a blond guy with a short, military-style haircut.“Ruberetta wanted us to train him up.We did the requisite background checks and Mayberry passed without a single red flag.When Ruberetta said he wanted to cut the hours he was being guarded, Mayberry needed more hours, and…here we are.Shit.”
“There’s nothing you could’ve done,” a huge, red-haired guard says.I recognize him—he goes by Squid.
I point to Olivia, Jaxon and Ryder’s fiancée, who’s just come into the room with a tray of coffees from the shop down the street.“Would you have put Mayberry in charge of watching her?”
“Without any hesitation,” Jaxon says.“The past four months, Mayberry has been one of us.”
“It’s true,” another guard says, nodding a thanks as he takes a coffee from Olivia.“I thought Keith was good people.He was like a brother—he was even invited to my wedding.”
I’ve heard enough about how great Keith Mayberry used to be.“So now what’s the plan?”
“We’re looking into every asset of Ruberetta’s that we can get our hands on,” Jaxon says.“Properties, buildings, anything that could signal where he might take Ella, would be the most helpful.”
I’m already taking my phone back from the Ironwood tech.“I have some of those.”
I call Kristin, because there’s a better chance of her hearing a call than a text.
“Kingston,” she says groggily, “what’s up?”
“Emergency,” I say.“I need access to Ruberetta’s accounts, immediately.”
“I’ll forward the most recent files,” she says.“Is there anything else I can do to help?”
We aren’t a bank, so we can’t just freeze his access to everything he owns.All we can do is analyze what he has and advise him on how to make the most of it.But we can also look at what he owns.
“There’s nothing to do right now,” I say, “but don’t bother working on his profile any further.He’s no longer a client.”
“Let me know if you need anything else,” Kristin says.
“I will, thanks.”
The call is over, and I immediately download and convert Ruberetta’s files into universal files that don’t rely on Tyler Analytics software to read.
“Where should I send these?”I say to Jaxon.
We get the files up on the Ironwood system and I give my phone back to the tech for monitoring.The list of Ruberetta’s property assets is astounding, so Jaxon and Ryder quickly divide their people into teams to start evaluating which ones Ruberetta’s people be most likely to take Ella to.
“We can’t discount the idea he might take her to a motel or something,” Ryder says.“Somewhere he doesn’t own.”
I nod.“It’s possible, but I think he’s too controlling.He’d want them to be in a place with fewer variables.”
“Makes sense,” Ryder says.“We’ll focus on his property for now.”
