Page 68 of Billion-Dollar Ransom
“No,” Nicky said. “I’m staying.”
Mike’s expression was a blend of empathy and confusion.Why doesn’t she want to leave? Yeah, there’s being strong in front of your team. But this is her kid.
Mike leaned in close and whispered, “Youreallydon’t need to be here right now.”
But there was no way Nicky was leaving the Sandbox. Not now—not at the most crucial part of this investigation. Everything was in flux, and she believed the kidnappers had engineered it that way.
She turned to her assistant, Hope. “Has there been any communication from the kidnappers? Any suggestion that these same people have taken my daughter?”
Hope shook her head. “This is the first we’re all hearing of it.”
“Then maybe it’s nothing, and Kaitlin left the movie early for a good reason,” Nicky said. “Or if they did take her, it’s meant to be a distraction. And I’m not going to let it become one.”
What Nicky Gordon didn’t want to say out loud:
The very idea of her daughter in the hands of a well-financed, highly organized band of criminals terrified her to her core. As it would any mother.
But Nicky knew that that same band of criminals had a mole on her task force, and that individual was most likely sitting in the room right now. If she left or showed any kind of weakness, that person could effectively steer the investigation any way the kidnappers wished.
And that definitely was not going to happen.
“Hardy, keep me posted on what your detective learns,” Nicky said. “Everyone else, back to work. Let’s find these sons of bitches.”
CHAPTER 76
Thursday, 10:29 p.m.
THREE HAD JUST proposed one final round of Mastermind (and he meant it this time, even though the children were refusing to go to bed until Four was back home) when there was a frenziedknock-knock-knockat the door.
At first, relief flooded Three’s veins, because he thought Four had finally returned. But why on earth would his wife knock on the door of their secret kidnapping hideout?
Cal and Finney Schraeder were obviously thinking the same thing. Both eyed the door nervously. Who could be visiting at this late hour? And then the two of them exchanged glances. Maybe it was the police coming to rescue them. But… what would that mean for Three?
“Stay right here, guys,” Three said, and he moved slowly toward the door. He almost wished he were the kind of professional criminal who carried a firearm. He’d actually never helda gun, and they’d dumped their only weapon, the Taser, not long after they’d scooped up Cal and Finney. So he was defenseless against whoever had decided it was cool to show up late at night.
Maybe he should duck back into the kitchen and look for a butcher knife… but what good would that do? Was Three supposed to get into a knife fight with a professional who was here to kill him and his wife?
Because that’s where Three’s mind was going now. Someone had been watching them. Someone saw Four leave. Someone called One and told him that Three and Four had broken the rules. One then called someone else, maybe one of the other numbers, maybe someone outside their little group, and told that person to kill whoever answered the door and then take the children.
Then it came again, even more rapid this time:knock-knock-knock-knock.
Would professional killers do this? Wasn’t their whole thing slipping inside undetected and using guns with silencers to murder their sleeping victims? They didn’t usually roll up, knock on the door, and announce,Hit men here! Open up!
Three was relieved but confused when he opened the door to find his trembling wife.
“We have to leave,” Four said. “Right now.”
“And go where, exactly? What happened? How’s our girl?”
“She’s outside in the car waiting for us.”
Three’s eyes widened in shock. “She’swhere? You gotta be kidding.”
Four quickly recapped the call from the woman claiming tobe Six, a supposed coconspirator. The most important part of that brief conversation was the revelation that One had intended to double-cross them all along. Three shook his head furiously, not believing it.
“Doesn’t make sense,” he said. “There’s no way One would risk losing all that money. I mean, what’s to stop us from taking the kids with us?”
“What’s to stop him from killing us the moment Cal and Finney are gone? One knows everything about us. We know nothing about him!”
