Page 88 of Soaring Free
“That’s not realistic though, eventually you will have to go to work, to court, to see your clients.” Or maybe meet new clients when you’re in jail for kidnapping me. “And Shane will obviously notice when I’m missing, and he needs to take care of my girls.”
“I’ve prepared for those contingencies, and Shane isn’t going to be in the picture anymore, so the girls will just stay with their aunt for a bit until we can bring them to us.” Kyle waves his handas though dismissing my concerns about if it’s going to rain very hard tonight.
“What do you mean Shane isn’t going to be in the picture? Even though our divorce is settled, he’s still going to be in my daughters’ lives.” My gut is screaming at me to shut the hell up, but maybe Theo’s nickname for me is accurate. After all, as the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat.
“You won’t have to worry about any of that. We will have to take care of some legal stuff with his estate, but after how he treated you at Cider Fest, and the way he spoke about you”— Kyle slams his fist on the table in anger—“I could not let that stand. I have watched him take advantage of you for years, and he was supposed to just agree to make the divorce easy and go on his merry way. When he chose to disrespect you in such a public manner and embarrass you? I’m sorry, Angel. It was the last straw for me and he had to be removed.”
Did Kyle just insinuate that he … what? Killed the father of my children? I thought they were friends! Who the hell is this guy?
“It was pretty awful what he tried to do, but how was he removed?” My voice quivers but I need to know.
“Do you remember a few years ago when those women on the East Coast were arrested for poisoning their husbands? No? There were some crime documentaries on them at the time, fascinating stuff, really. Anyway, in the right volume—and this really shocked me—the ingredients in Visine eye drops can actually poison someone. Smaller amounts can make someone pretty sick, but large enough doses can be lethal. It’s odorless, tasteless, and colorless, which makes adding it to say, coffee, quite straight forward.”
Shane drinks coffee throughout the day, even decaf at night and has for years. Holy shit.Is Shane dead?!
He takes a large drink before continuing as though this is all normal dinner conversation. “As far as work goes, I’ve been moving my practice to mostly virtual, so it won’t surprise anyone when I announce that I’m working remote. If I do need to go infor something, I have safeguards in place to keep you safe in my absence.”
“I don’t know that I want to know what that means.”
“It’s not that big of a deal, your movements will just be restricted to the primary suite area.”
“How?”
“I’ll just adjust the settings to keep the door locked. But dear, you don’t need to worry about all of this right now. You should focus on resting, unless you’re feeling up to some other activity?” He leans his face down next to mine, nuzzling his nose into my neck, and groaning in delight.
“Hopefully the pain medicine will kick in soon, but I’m sure I’ll feel better in a day or two.”And hopefully be far the hell away from you.But with him controlling the locks, and not knowing where we are, I’m not sure I even have a chance of escape, let alone any options to consider.
Chapter fifty-seven
I knew this part was going to take some time, but I am so far beyond being patient.
Once we knew where Savannah was physically, assuming she is still wearing her necklace, we had to figure out what we were dealing with. Liam’s secret team of badasses did reconnaissance, which was difficult in itself because Kyle, or The Federalist, or who the fuck ever, set up a high-tech signal jammer that blocks any signal within one thousand feet of the cabin structure we now know is on his land. Their drones were able to fly close enough to zoom in and assess what we’re working with. The head badass, Ace, said it was good enough to let them form a plan.
Working with Sophia and Liam, they determined the best route would be to cut the power completely from the structure prior to breaching it. I was concerned about a generator, but one was identified along one of the exterior walls, so it will also be neutralized, which hopefully means blown the fuck up. Heat signatures from the drone indicated only two individuals in the cabin, and while the images indicated the two were extremely physically close together, the odds were in our favor.
I’m trying to keep my mind focused on getting Savannah out of there, but I can’t help but worry what has been happening to her in the last almost-twenty-four hours. Has he hurt her? Has he drugged her? We know that’s possible after a team of Liam’s people cleared Savannah’s house and tested her favorite mug on the patio, along with the mug I had drank from. They both tested positive for traces of Rohypnol. There were no other drugs orsuspicious body fluids found at her house, but if he assaults her in anyway, I will repay his transgressions tenfold.
Liam dispatched some other people to pick up The Federalist and he’s being kept in some undisclosed location. Sophia has requested to have access to his electronics prior to handing him over to the authorities. I would request that I have five minutes alone with the guy, no electronics required, just my fists.
“Theo, you will stay back until we tell you it’s okay to advance toward us, do you understand? We want to incapacitate the offender as quickly as possible and try to avoid a hostage situation. Our best bet at that is the element of surprise,” Ace is informing, not asking me.
Sophia jumps out of the backseat of one of the SUVs. “Boys, I had a hunch and you’re going to be glad that I did.” She sets a laptop on the hood of the vehicle, and with a few keystrokes, I can see Savannah on the screen.
“What are we looking at, Soph? Is this live?” Liam asks.
“Yes, once the team confirmed The Federalist was offline, I took it upon myself to send another worm to his network, this time giving me an open backdoor to access whatever I wanted. I doubt I even need the physical access to his electronics at this point. But this dumb fuck is paranoid and has twice as many cameras as necessary.” She quickly scans through camera angles on the lower half of the screen. “This should help in your plans, right?” She knows it will.
“Well, hot damn, where can we get one of you for our team, lady?” one of Ace’s teammates says behind him in a thick Kentucky accent. He is tall and lean, but from what Liam said, if he’s on this team, he is a dangerous man to go up against.
“I know, I know. Too bad I can’t be poached. Damn loyalty to that guy.” She nods over to Liam.
“This is actually perfect. And he has no way of knowing you’re watching him right now?” Ace asks Sophia.
“None. It might have sent some kind of alert on the backend of things, but it looks like this network isn’t even connected to it, so I bet J.J. is the tech guy and Kyle is the creep guy.”
Ace has Sophia show him every angle that includes an exterior entrance and window. In the process, she also comes across coding to indicate that the doors and windows are all linked to a biometric key. The asshole literally locked her in the house, but by being on the network, Sophia is able to disable the entire key, thus unlocking every window and door.
“Sophia, on my signal, I want you to clear the biometrics so all entrances are accessible, then immediately cut all power to the entire structure. Will that knock out whatever jammer they’re using?” Ace asks.
