43. June 23rd

JUNE 23RD

TB

Arriving at Tribe Corporation,TB didn't have the patience to wait for an elevator to go the two floors to the lobby. He slammed through the fire stair door, then took the four landings two steps at a time. As he busted through at the lobby level, Waters came barreling out of his office door. "Conference room," was all he said. As the two men took off down the hallway, they heard the ding of the elevator arriving from one of the upper floors onto their floor. Nemo exited and headed their way.

"Sorry. Had a fight with a dumpster and lost. Needed to change."

A third text came in. Missing girl number two came into view. She was in a similar container.

As they entered the conference room, Midas had a link to TB's watch up on the telescreen so that everyone could see what he was receiving.

"How the hell does this fucknut have my number?" TB growled.

"Don't know, don't care right this second. If he didn't, we wouldn't have this video. We'll worry about that mess later."

A fourth text came up on the screen just as Waters was patching God in through the speaker. Third girl.

"Demon and Steel are with Fleur in the infirmary. She's still unconscious. Demon's doing blood work to see what's in her system," Waters told the room.

Fifth text. Fourth girl.

Sixth text. Tilly Moll.

Soon, he had video footage of all of the missing girls and two empty containers. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who was going in those containers.

None of the footage was good. Now they were able to see slightly more than before because the girls were stirring slightly inside the cells. Each of the girls was next to naked. They were clean and didn't appear to be hurt, but they were not fully awake. And there were digital numbers running above their heads.

"Midas," TB choked out.

"Yeah, man, I see it. The numbers are running backward. Lowest countdown is the first girl who went missing. Jesus, this is live footage." TB heard swearing around him. "The footage has no sound, and it's only broadcasting, not receiving. He can't hear us if we speak."

"But we can't hear him, either."

"Fuck." Midas' expletive was beyond angry. "It's an auction. Just found it on the dark web. The timers match the closing of each auction. Bids are closing on girl number one within ten minutes. But this makes no sense. Waters, why would he hold onto these other women so long just to sell them now?"

"I don't know. Would have thought the danger of getting caught, added to the cost of maintaining them, would have been too great. We need to worry about that later, though."

The texts on the screen shrunk to form a banner across the top of the telescreen. The core of the screen became the timer for girl number one and the auction site. The first woman was currently at a bid of just over two million dollars. The bidders were playing with each other, raising the amounts in small increments with each bid, making her life a game.

God piped in. "Can you shut down the auction, Midas?"

"I can, but if I spend my time doing that, I can't find where the women are."

"Keep looking for the women," TB ordered. No way was he going to allow anything to get in the way of finding Flame, even if it meant those other women were "sold." It might make him an asshole, but they could always go after them once Flame was secure.

All of a sudden, there was shadowy movement in the second to last frame. Light flooded one of the empty cells as its door opened. A man's head came into view from underneath the camera. He had Medusa in his arms, unconscious. He leaned her against the wall, then took the wrist shackles and hooked them around her wrists, the arms stretching to their maximum distance. She was basically hanging from her wrists. When she woke up, she would have room to stand, but not much beyond that.

The shackles must have been attached to the timer because as soon as they clicked into place, her countdown started. Three hours. Not a lot of time. But they didn't need a lot of time. Just a location. This prick couldn't be far away since Medusa and Flame had disappeared less than two hours ago.

Once Medusa was secure, the man slapped her face. Hard. She was slow in responding, still clearly under the effects of being out cold, but it was unclear whether it was because he'd knocked her unconscious or because he'd given her some kind of drug. She had cuts, scrapes, and bruises all over her. She'd obviously been in a scuffle. And there was a jagged, oozing cut along the inside of her left forearm. TB remembered all the broken glass from the ladies' room—the shattered vanity mirror—and realized that Medusa had fought to protect Flame.

Her captor hit her again.

This time, she opened her eyes, clearly trying to blink her vision back into focus. She scrambled to get her feet under her and stand. The man must have said something to her, but because there was no audio, all they had was Medusa's responses to gauge what was going on.

She spit at him.

"Thatta girl," Nemo praised.

TB felt incredibly hopeless. He knew what was going to happen next. Another container was going to be filled, and this one would have Flame in it.

Sure enough, seconds after Gendry left Medusa, he showed up in an open cell with Flame in tow. The difference was that she was awake. She wasn't fighting him. She looked terrified.

"Do whatever he tells you to do, sweetheart," TB whispered.

He watched as Gendry yelled at her to do something. He watched as she put her wrists into the cuffs and locked them shut. The bastard was forcing her to put herself in her own prison. Punishment for running away in the first place.

The timer started.

Then Gendry did something TB would not have imagined. He reached up and tilted the camera inside the box so that it caught his face on camera. He smirked into it. Stepping back, he put his arm around Flame's shoulders and turned her to face the camera head-on. TB could feel her fear through the screen and the revulsion as Gendry kissed her cheekbone, one hand squeezing her chin to hold her in place. He laughed, said something to Flame, and then forced his mouth on hers.

When she struggled and tried to avoid the contact, he used his teeth to bite her lower lip, causing her to cry out in pain. He took advantage of her mouth opening and thrust his tongue into her mouth, clenching her chin tighter so that she couldn't close her teeth on his tongue. When he pulled back from her, he looked straight at the camera, winked, and shoved her away from him. His last act was to refocus the camera away from her and directly on her timer.

Three hours, minus seconds. That's what he was reducing his little Flame's life to. Time. It was a taunt. This is how much time you have, and I'm not even going to let you see her.

"Midas," TB growled.

"I know, big guy, I know. I'm working on it. Triangulating is tricky. He's bouncing this fucker all over the place."

Waters clapped him on the back. "Come on. While Midas dominates the zeroes and ones into submission, let's work on location from another angle. Profile him. We know who this fucker is, so let's use what we know and find him. She's not going anywhere right now. And if he's selling her, he's going to want her in perfect shape for the best price, so exhale, take a step back, and think."

TB nodded. "I know. It's just… she's gotta be so fucking scared."

"She knows you're looking for her."

"Yeah, but her tracker's not working. Why?"

"Midas said something's interfering with the signal. Like she's inside something that's thick metal." Waters clapped his shoulder one more time. "I'll say it again. She knows you're looking for her. And she knows you'll burn down the world to find her. So yes, I'm sure she's scared. But she's also smart. She won't panic."

TB's brain was refusing to process. He needed to get in the correct headspace, but all he could think about was that his woman was locked in a tiny box, about to be auctioned and sent who the fuck knew where, and he couldn't get to her.

His eyes went to the screen and watched the numbers tick down second by second.

An alarm went off. The telescreen reduced all the previous video footage to the lower right of the screen and refocused to show the front of the building. Two men—Loki and Gilgamesh—stood in full view of the camera, clearly knowing they had Tribe's attention.

"Nemo, go let them in," God ordered over the speaker.

"Boss—" Waters started.

"Nemo, do as you're told."

"On it." Before leaving for the front door, Nemo bumped TB's shoulder to get his attention. In his hands, he had several folders. "Midas had me go get this from his cave. It's everything he's got on Gendry, Flame, and her parents." Nemo set the folders down, then took off to let the two strangers inside the sanctum walls.

It was mere moments before the three men were back in the room.

"Your man here says you have a vehicle make, model, and license. If you give it to us, we can work that angle for you."

"Who are you people?" Waters asked. "Why should I give you that info when I have no idea who you are?"

"Because that's our… woman he's got," Loki argued. "And we'll owe you if you help us find her."

TB thought the word choices were off, but he was too borderline panicked to pay it much attention.

"Inject a tracker in them and let them have at it," TB yelled. "At least we'll know where they go if they decide to double-cross us."

"No trackers. We'll take one of your guys with us as insurance for you."

It was a gamble. God's voice bellowed through the speaker. "Steel! Go with them."

Steel considered the two men carefully, then stepped forward. He nodded at Loki and Gilgamesh.

Waters swore. "I don't like this." He hesitated another moment. "Give them earbuds. I want check-ins every five minutes. Miss just one, and I'm coming after Steel with every weapon we possess."

Loki turned on his heel and headed back toward the lobby. Gilgamesh nodded at Waters. "No double-crossing planned. Just need to find our girl and help you get yours back. The other girls getting free is a bonus. C'mon, Steel."

Midas handed earbuds to Steel for the two men, then went back to his computer screens. As Steel left the room on Gilgamesh's heels, he looked to TB and gave a single head nod. Then he was gone.

Nemo was back. He had opened the top folder of intel and started laying items out one by one along the table. TB watched his teammate's face. He was fully concentrating on the task at hand. He wasn't cracking jokes or making lewd remarks. He wasn't cracking his gum or blowing obnoxious bubbles. Hell, he wasn't even chewing gum at all. He wasn't even fully dressed. He'd clearly flown through a shower and thrown on whatever was handy because he was wearing green sweatpants and a navy blue T-shirt, and he had on some sort of dock shoes instead of his normal boots.

Nemo had already started on the second folder. The first one must have been on one of her parents because there was very little there. This second one didn't look like it had much, either.

"Thank you," TB croaked. He cleared his throat. "She's…" He couldn't finish.

Nemo looked up at him. "Yours. I know. I got your back, TB. We'll find her and bring her home." Then he went back to sorting papers.

TB slid the final file folder across the table. It was the thickest one. Gendry. Currently, the dead man walking. Because once TB found him, he would make him dead.