Page 73 of Soaring Free
“I want to be able to have the option to track her if we need to. It’s not a scenario I like to think about, but with the way this person is escalating, I can’t trust that they won’t directly put her in danger. And if she’s in danger? We need to be able to get to her as soon as possible, and we can’t do that if we don’t know where she is.”
“Are you like, sticking something in her skin?” I almost expect him to say yes.
“I thought about it.” What the hell? But also … why am I not more alarmed by that? “But there’s no way to do that without her knowing, or without putting her under, and I don’t want to go that far, not yet at least,” Liam explains conversationally, as though we’re talking about the weather, not covertly tracking his sister and the love of my life.
“So, where do the trackers go?” Ryan asks.
“One is going to go on Mama’s ring that she wears every day, and one is going on the necklace with the girls’ birthstones.”
“She also wears that necklace daily.” I realize his plan.
“Yep, and without her knowing about it, she won’t fiddle with it or look at it if someone is watching her.”
It’s not a bad plan. It’s actually a smart plan, and while I don’t like keeping it from Savannah, it’s not for long term, it’s just until we stop whoever is behind all of this. Not that I won’t want to keep tracking her, but I would at least want her to be aware of it. Probably. More than likely. Maybe.
I don’t want to think of something happening to her, but Liam is right—if something does happen and she is put in a dangerous situation, we won’t be able to help her if we don’t know where she is. My stomach churns at the thought. I can’t wait until we figure out who is behind this and I can get my hands on that asshole or assholes. And if it turns out to be Shane? I hope he knows agood plastic surgeon because his face won’t be the same when I’m through with him.
I consider Liam’s plan, and really only have one question, but Ryan asks it before I can. “Who would have access to tracking her?”
“I’m thinking just Theo and me for now, but we can reassess, if necessary,” Liam answers Ryan before looking back to me. “And for now, let’s keep this between the three of us. We don’t need to broadcast our crazy.” Ryan and I nod in agreement. “Does this all sound like a plan you’re comfortable with?”
I reach over and clap him on the back. “Yeah, man. Let’s just hope this plan is overkill.” And I hope with my entire being it’s a plan we never need to use.
Chapter forty-four
“Where the hell is it?” I pick up another picture frame off a dresser and examine it closely, but even with my reading glasses on, I can’t see a place where a camera could be hidden. Finn is setting up a ladder to search an air vent in the corner of Savannah’s bedroom while Liam uses some device he has to check her room again for a recording device. Two hours ago, Savannah received an anonymous email that included four photos attached. The body of the email was only two words: You’re mine. The attached photos included one of Savannah and me cuddling in our sleep together, a photo of us kissing with her naked back to the camera and my arms wrapped around her waist as I carried her to the bed after we showered in her bathroom, and two photos of her naked riding me. They were somehow taken when I spent the night two nights ago and the threat will not go unanswered.
“Explain it to me again like I’m five why this wasn’t caught the first time you checked her room for bugs?” Ryan asks as he puts a framed photo back on the far wall of her bedroom.
“The only explanation is that the device either wasn’t installed when I checked the room, or it has a remote power activation, so it wasn’t sending any signals when I scanned the room.”
“That’s possible?” Finn asks as he removes the cover of the air vent.
“Brother, you have no idea the things that are possible, and even though I know a lot, there’s probably things that even I don’t know out there,” Liam answers.
“That’s a disturbing thought,” Jack says as he pushes the bed frame back in place.
“Is this what we’re looking for?” Finn opens his hand to show a small, maybe one inch in diameter, device in his palm. “It was attached to the inside of the return air vent.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” Liam all but jumps up to snatch it out of his hand. He’s taking this personal that he didn’t prevent this, but like he already said, we don’t know when the device was installed.
“If y’all are good in here, I’m going to check every other air vent in the house.” Finn starts picking up his ladder to check the air vents in the bathroom.
“Do you have an extra ladder in your truck?” Ryan asks.
Finn nods. “Yeah, and I keep one in Savannah’s garage too.”
“I’ll go grab them with you, Ryan.” I need to be able to do something physically because wanting to punch an unknown person isn’t helpful right now. The glaring fact that six months ago, Shane threatened Savannah with revenge porn and now private images were sent to her in an anonymous email is not lost on me, and I don’t believe in coincidences.
“Keep your cool, man. You know losing it isn’t going to help in the big picture,” Ryan tells me as we pull the ladder down from the storage area in Savannah’s garage.
“Yeah, but punching the asshole in the jaw would make me feel better for about thirty-two seconds,” I reply.
“I get that, but we aren’t going to let him get away with this. I promise you; he doesn’t get to do this to my sister and get away with it.” Ryan is always cool, calm, and collected.
Or so I assumed.
As the Chief Financial Officer at the local hospital, I always assumed Ryan was the logical and practical brother, but the more I get to know him, the more I see he and Liam have more similarities than I initially noticed. Whether it’s in regard to something in his own life or about situations that are affecting the people in his life, he craves control, and his composure is closely related to the amount of it he has at any given time. Butevery person has a breaking point and the throbbing vein in his neck is the only physical sign that he is really fucking pissed off.
