Page 84 of Right With You
“You okay?” Bruce asked, hauling me into a hug I readily accepted, right as Kenny walked up and did the same thing right when Bruce released me. Stone stood stalwart behind him, eyes sliding over the stairwell and propped open door like they might provide answers.
“I don’t know. I keep thinking maybe she’s out with someone but… I don’t think so.”
Bruce’s hand patted my shoulder. “If your gut says something’s off, we don’t ignore it.”
Everyone agreed. How often had one of us had a feeling that proved to be mission-saving or even life-saving? More than occasionally, that was certain.
“Thanks. I hope I’m wrong. Maybe she’s?—”
“Found a smart watch, and we’ve got her phone here. No clear evidence of foul play, but the bed’s unmade and seems like enough people are concerned, we can start some paperwork,” an officer from Silver Ridge PD said, holding out Elise’s watch.
The sight of her watch confirmed it in my mind. She wouldn’t have run without it, nor would she have left without her phone. I couldn’t be certain about the unmade bed, but so far as I’d noticed, she tended to make the one we shared at my house if I was already up and out.
A sharp ache flared in my chest.
Bruce patted my back again but spoke to the officer, holding out his hand and flashing his toothpaste commercial smile, as we’d all come to call it.
“Mind if we get started?”
The officer accepted his handshake, and after one aggressive pump up and down, agreed. “Chief says you guys are good to go. Just keep us looped in if you find anything.”
“Will do, Officer. Thanks for getting here so quickly.” Bruce smiled again, then turned back to our small group as the two men left Elise’s apartment.
Left alone, he whipped out his phone but started talking to us. “We need to set up a CP. We’ll get Beast in, and I want you to?—”
My phone rang obnoxiously loudly with an unknown number. I’d taken it off silent so I wouldn’t risk missing Elise if she called, but this… this raised the hair on the back of my neck.
Bruce’s eyes narrowed, and Kenny stiffened. Stone’s energy crested and he huffed, then stepped up to the balcony of the open floor to look out at the parking lot.
“Go ahead,” Bruce said, already hanging up his call.
Kenny popped his phone up and hit record, then I answered the call on speaker.
“Who is this?” I asked, knowing this wasn’t another spam call.
“We have her. If you want her back, you follow our instructions.” The voice came out distorted so of course we couldn’t ID the person that way—at least not yet.
“What do you want?”
Despite the heartbeat rushing in my ears, I kept calm. The years of training, despite never touching me this close, had clicked into place.
“Twenty million dollars transferred to an account of our choice by the end of the day, or she’s dead.”
I grit my teeth, but Bruce gripped my shoulder to steady me, and I pressed on, knowing what we needed. “I need proof of life first. Put her on the phone.”
“Not about to do that, sorry.”
“How do I know she’s not already dead? I don’t know you.”
But clearly, they knew me well enough to know I could pay twenty million dollars’ worth of ransom without much struggle—at least if I had my trust. Maybe they assumed I’d simply ask my grandfather for it. Logistically, I wasn’t sure I could move that kind of money on such short notice even if Grand-père immediately released the trust to me, but them asking for it so far gave us the hint they likely didn’t know either.
“She’s not. Why would we kill her before we get what we want?”
Some swearing in the background had my ears perking up. Was it a group of kidnappers?
“I’ll need proof before this goes any further.”
We waited, all staring at the phone, my heart pounding out of my chest. We needed more from these fools, and this might be the way we got it.
