Page 76 of Blood Money

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CARMEN

Cyrus moves the phone from his face and puts it on speaker so I can hear.

“We have a problem.” Bradley’s voice pours from the speaker. “I pinged the address you gave me and made sure a satellite I could access would pick up its activity so I could keep an eye on it while I tried to dig for other shit, and it just lit the fuck up.”

“Break it down, Bradley. This isn’t our forte,” I comment.

“Basically, that place is nothing but a hive. This Ghost guy has a routing system in place so all his emails, calls, texts, everything goes through that location, making him virtually untraceable anywhere else, but I found a hole. A few minutes ago, another system that was connected to the hive system popped online, and I was able to hack into it to see the actual location of where everything is being rerouted from. I haven’t gotten through the firewalls in place to see files, but I can see their IP address.”

“And?” Cyrus asks, thinking exactly what I am. There has to be more.

“And it’s your house, Carmen.”

I feel the blood drain from my face, and my limbs turn to stone. My voice is nonexistent as my mouth opens to say words I can’t even formulate.

“Bradley, shut everything down. We don’t need anything else.”

“I can keep digging an—”

“I said shut it down,” Cyrus booms. “And make sure to cover your tracks. This was stupid and reckless, and I’m sorry you got dragged into it.” He ends the call and shoves his phone back into his pocket.

Picking his gun back up, he grabs me by the arm and starts to drag me from the office. “We need to get out of here.”

I plant my heels on the floor and jerk from his hold. “No. We can’t just leave when we’re so close to figuring it all out.”

He turns to me. “Carmen, this is something we weren’t expecting. It’s not as simple as getting the money and finding Ghost now.”

“Yes it is,” I argue, my voice coming back louder than before. “We didn’t just go through all this bullshit to drop it now because it won’t end unless we put an end to it. What are we going to do, run forever? He’ll find us, and you know it. Right now, Alexander has information we need, and I intend to get it.”

“At what cost? Your life? Because if shit is coming from here, that means Alexander is a lot closer to Ghost than we think. He’s probably already told him we’re here, which means he’ll know the chip is gone.”

“We can’t just walk away. If this is what I have to do to get answers and live a normal life where I don’t have to look over my shoulder, then I’m doing it. This shit ends tonight.”

He shakes his head and opens his mouth but doesn’t get the chance to reply. His phone rings again, cutting off whatever he was going to say. “I’m not going to argue with you, Bradley. Do as I said!” His face softens as whoever on the other end replies. “Hatcher?”

I step closer, hoping I can hear something from the other side of the conversation, but I’m not so lucky. Cyrus holds up his finger, stopping me.

“Just clean it up and get back here.” He ends the call.

“What happened?” If Hatcher is calling, it’s something bad, right? Because he’s supposed to be long gone by now, keeping Ghost off our trail.

“Michael found him. Ghost knows the tracker isn’t on you. Maybe that’s why he sent your dad to Lydia’s.”

I feel cold sweats break out over my body, making my skin feel sticky and clammy. The muscles in my legs tighten, like they’re getting ready to run, but I can’t move. How can I? If I leave now, there will be no fixing this. Not only would Cyrus be on the losing end, but I would too.

“We have to find William and get out of here,” I say, starting toward the door. “Just long enough to come up with a new plan.”

He stops me, grabbing my arm. “Carmen, I think it’s too late for a new plan. Hatcher took care of Michael, which will only let Ghost know we’re onto him—that we know what he knows.”

I shake my head and pull out of his hold. “We have to do something. We can’t just sit around and wait. So, you’re either with me or you’re not.”

I level my eyes with his, waiting for him to protest, but he doesn’t. “You know I won’t let you do this alone.”

“Then let’s go.” I exit the office and make my way back down the steps. On my way to the kitchen, I look around, making sure William hasn’t happened to come home. When I don’t see any sign of him, I go straight to the garage.

“Where are you going?” Cyrus calls behind me.

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