Chapter 29

Like I'd toldSilver when he'd called me out on my behavior several nights earlier, I didn't know how to do the whole family thing. I was used to staying out of the way, remaining silent unless directly spoken to, and accepting the fact that I'd never be treated as a real part of any family I was with whether they were kind or not.

Silver's family was so different than anything I'd ever experienced. Silver and I had finally moved into a guest bedroom in the giant farmhouse so it would be easier for him to interact with his family in slightly larger groups. It was still just his parents, sister, and three older brothers who'd stuck around because their little brother had finally come home. The entire family got together for each meal, even lunch. The first morning when I'd woken up, Silver had been out of bed already. My immediate thought had been that he'd left me, but that had only lasted a few seconds. I'd gotten dressed but when I'd opened the bedroom door, I'd heard multiple voices coming from the kitchen. The smell of food had confirmed they were having breakfast. I'd closed the door and stayed in the room so I could study the strange string of numbers Silver had written down for me.

That had lasted for about five minutes. Then there'd been a knock on the door. I'd assumed it was Silver, but I hadn't been sure why he'd felt the need to knock. I'd gotten my answer when the owner of the knock had turned out to be Silver's mom. She'd heartily insisted that I join the family for breakfast. It had been on my tongue to say I was busy with something but then I'd thought about Silver. When he'd called me out on my cruel behavior the other night, his response had finally hit home for me.

We were going to be together forever. Whether that was with his family, near them or back in my house, it didn't matter. It was like he'd said. We were each other's home and that would never change.

So I'd nervously agreed and by the time I'd reached the table, I'd been a wreck. The table had been filled with a shit ton of all different kinds of food. I couldn't remember a time that I'd had access to so much food at once nor so much company.

Silver had stood as I'd reached the table. He'd kissed me softly as I'd reached the spot on the bench that he'd saved for me. Neither Silver nor I had openly participated in the boisterous conversation but had responded when asked direct questions. The topic of Silver's abduction hadn't come up at all, but it had been strange to hear everyone call him Andrew.

It turned out that Silver's mother wasn't the kind of person who let her guests hide away in their room. On more than one occasion, she'd coaxed me into the kitchen to help prepare a meal or to sit and go through the dozens of scrapbooks she had that showcased her children. The only comments she ever made about the fact that I was in a relationship with her son were positive ones. Day by day, she'd started to make me understand what a real family was. It had been proof that Silver had been right. Family wasn't about a place or about sharing blood. It was about people, and based on his mother's scrapbooks, the Lockwood family had plenty of those.

My attempt to maintain some distance from Silver's family was pretty much impossible. The day after Silver's breakdown on my boat, I'd referred to his parents by their surname. That had lasted all of five seconds before they'd insisted that I call them by their first names, Preston and Eloise.

Thankfully, I'd still been able to spend most of my time with Silver. It turned out that the wealthy Lockwoods were considered old money, meaning much of their wealth had been handed down by their British ancestors on Preston's side of the family. Despite only having spent a few days with them, I'd gotten the impression that they didn't flaunt their wealth. They had nice cars but not the kind that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even their boats, while definitely expensive, hadn't been over the top.

Silver, for his part, was still struggling to find his own place within his family. Since he'd been so young when he'd been abducted, he couldn't remember a lot of the things his family would talk about, but bits and pieces would come to him the more time he spent not only with his siblings and parents but exploring the house, barn, and surrounding property. We'd often walk down the long driveway so we could have some privacy while enjoying the different kinds of trees and flowers that lined it. We spent a considerable amount of time at the koi pond, too. Aggie had shown Silver how to hand feed the fish, which he'd loved. Not surprisingly, he was closest to his twin sister who also happened to be the only daughter in the family. She, like Silver, was also the youngest, which meant her big brothers were as protective of her as they were proving to be of Silver.

Since we'd been spending our nights in the house, Silver hadn't wanted to make love with his parents' room just a few dozen feet away. He hadn't forgotten my comment about him being a screamer when we made love.

Which meant we were mostly limited to my boat when it came to any sexual activity, though as of this morning I'd taught Silver how good fucking against a tree felt. We'd been near the koi pond but still out of sight. Our rendezvous had nearly been discovered when Aggie had come to feed the fish but by then my dick had already been buried deep inside Silver's ass. I'd slapped my hand over Silver's mouth to cover his moans as I'd continued to fuck him slow and deep. By the time Aggie had left, we'd both been too far gone, and I'd driven my cock into him hard, fast, and deep, gliding over his prostate with each stroke. I'd come seconds after he had and by the time I'd pulled free of him and lowered him to his feet, he'd been furious with me for continuing to fuck him while his sister had been nearby. He'd quickly forgiven me when I'd dropped to my knees and sucked his wet dick into my mouth.

I was still caught up in that particular memory when Nick walked into the kitchen to get himself something to drink. I doubted Silver's oldest brother and I would ever be best pals, but he had a few qualities that seemed to run through most of Silver's siblings as well as Silver himself. For one, the Navy Seal didn't hesitate to say what he thought. Silver had proven several times that he carried the same trait, despite the fact that he was a good six inches shorter than his eldest brother and Nick probably outweighed him by at least seventy-five pounds. Nick was protective, too. Another quality he shared with his brother.

"What are you working on?" Nick asked as he plopped down on the bench across from me. The Lockwood's kitchen table was massive but instead of being surrounded by individual chairs, the long sides had rustic benches that looked hand-made with reclaimed wood. I'd admired the design the first time I'd seen it because my dream had been to use that kind of wood on the vintage boats I wanted to restore for a living.

I debated whether or not to tell the man. I'd been studying the long string of numbers that Silver had written down for me for more than a week and still hadn't been able to find any kind of pattern. I'd been tempted to call Jace to see what he could find out, but he and the rest of his big-ass family had been dealing with the outcome of Aleks's abduction. The young man was safe, but things had taken so many twists and turns that I didn't want to take anyone's attention away from the young man's recovery.

Like Silver had said, the numbers were probably just the ramblings of a man whose mind had started to fail, but my gut wouldn't stop gnawing at me about it, just like when we'd been followed by the Mercedes. That and the attempted break-in at my house had never really been something I'd been able to get off my mind.

I looked at Nick for several long seconds and then slid the piece of paper across the table. "I'm trying to find some kind of pattern to these numbers," I admitted.

"Fuck, there's gotta be a couple hundred of them," Nick responded.

"Yeah," I said tiredly.

"Where'd you get it?" Nick asked as he took a long drink from the can of soda he'd taken from the fridge.

I debated how much to tell him because it was Silver's story to tell. But I was also desperate to get some kind of confirmation that the numbers were just gibberish. "The man who took your brother made him memorize this string of numbers. Silver… Andrew, has a very good memory. The man made him write the numbers down every night, sometimes more than once, then he'd burn the paper."

Nick's expression turned downright dangerous when I mentioned Ivan. Silver's family was still in the dark about everything that had occurred during his captivity, including the revealing of Ivan's name. Silver hadn't told them the fucker was dead. I had no doubt that everyone likely knew what kind of cruelty Silver had suffered, but just like me a few weeks earlier, they were trying to pretend their son had been returned to them unharmed, even after his display of fury that morning on the boat.

Nick scanned the long number for several minutes before shaking his head. Then he reached for his phone and snapped a picture of the paper. I could tell by the whooshing sound his phone made that he'd sent the picture to someone.

"Nick—" I began because the last thing I wanted was for other people to see the numbers, especially since I hadn't asked Silver's permission first.

"I've got a friend who works in intelligence for the CIA. We went to school together. I trust him with my life," Nick said as he hit the speed dial on his phone. He surprised me by putting the phone on speaker.

"Dude," said the clearly irritated man on the other end of the line. "I don't hear from you for months and the first thing you do when you pick up the phone is send me this shit?"

"Si," Nick said, his voice hard and serious. "I need to know what the numbers mean."

The man on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment. "I'll get back to you in a few," Si said before disconnecting the call.

"He's a math genius," Nick said as he returned his gaze to the numbers. "If it's some kind of code, he's got the resources to break it."

I nodded and remembered to say, "Thank you." I wasn't someone who knew much about social graces, but I was learning. Even if I had to find a book called Social Graces for Dummies, I would figure it out.

"There's something else," Nick observed. It wasn't a question.

"Shortly after your brother and I met, I was driving him to the—" I stopped abruptly when I realized I'd been about to say bus station. Nick more than likely would have wanted to know why I was driving his little brother to a bus station months before he'd been reunited with his family. "I thought we'd picked up a tail," I said.

Nick didn't call me out on the course change, but he'd definitely noticed it.

"I called a friend who had the ability to run the plates. It turned out to be a rental for a company in DC. It turned off a few minutes later and I never saw it again."

"And?" Nick asked as he folded his hands together and leaned forward. God, the guy could read people like a book.

"There was an attempted break-in at my house one night. Silv—Andrew scared whoever it was off by setting the alarm on my car off."

"And where the fuck were you?" Nick asked, his voice low and dangerous.

Fuck, this was not the direction I'd wanted this conversation to go in. "I'm an alcoholic… and an addict. Opioids. An IED took out my team and left shrapnel in my back. One prescription led to another and then another," I admitted. "I was passed out in my bedroom."

"So you left my little brother alone to fend for himself while you were passed out in your room. What's the point of carrying that Glock around with you if you can't be trusted to use it when the time comes?"

I sighed. Of course Nick would have picked up on the fact that I kept my gun tucked into the back of my waistband on a daily basis.

"I'm sober now. Thirty days."

I doubted Nick would give a shit about that, but he didn't respond. Instead, he glanced at the numbers again. He finally said, "You're carrying because you still aren't sure he's safe."

It was exactly why I was still carrying the gun. "There hasn't been any proof of anything, and some friends of mine arranged for half a dozen men to have eyes on Andrew the entire time that I was detoxing and being treated for the IED injury. They never found any proof of tracks or debris. No leaves were disturbed except by wildlife."

Nick let out a heavy breath. "What else can you tell me without violating my brother's privacy?"

"Not much," I admitted. "I have friends who don't always follow the rules when it comes to the legal system. They're the ones who saved your brother. When they found him, they were able to kill most of the men guarding the complex, but there's no way to know if any escaped."

"And the fucker who hurt him?"

"Dead," I said simply.

Nick nodded, though I could see his frustration. Like me, he wanted to resurrect Ivan just so he could kill him all over again.

A good fifteen minutes passed before Nick's phone rang. We'd spent the silence mulling over what little we knew.

"Yeah," Nick said when he put the phone on speaker again.

"Go check your fax," Si said.

"Simon, can't you just—" Nick began.

"Damn it, Nick, just go check it."

We both stood. His friend remained on the line. I followed Nick to what I assumed was his father's home office. Nick snatched the piece of paper off the machine and put it on the desk so we could both see it. There were slashes between many of the individual numbers.

"What are we looking at, Simon?" Nick asked.

"They're international bank codes, Nick. Dozens of them from all over the world. Most are in countries that don't monitor the movement of money."

The information had Nick and me looking at each other, likely thinking the same thing. Why had Ivan made Silver memorize the numbers? It would have been just as easy to put them on a hard drive or some other kind of medium.

"Look at the first number," Si explained. "The first two numbers are the country code. The routing and account numbers are next."

"And the last set of numbers?" Nick asked.

"Probably a password of some kind. Owners usually set them up so only they can access the money. Not even the banks know the passcode."

"Jesus," I whispered. "Ivan kept burning the paper after he made Silver write the numbers down. Silver said Ivan was becoming more and more paranoid, but he didn't know about the accounts."

"The fucker turned my brother into his own personal thumb drive that no one could access," Nick said.

"Judging by how many accounts there are, we're probably talking about a shit ton of money. I'd need more time to hack the accounts and figure out how much is in each one."

"Do it," Nick said before hanging up.

"Ivan, the man who kept your brother all those years, started to get sick near the end. Dementia or something. Silver said he'd have lucid moments now and then but most times he didn't remember things. When Silver saved my friend's infant niece and got her to her uncle after Ivan murdered her mother, Ivan's men showed up and Silver led them away. He told my friend that Ivan would never kill him," I explained even as I began walking through the massive house, calling Silver's name as I went.

"Ivan only trusted Silver by then. He kept saying his brother, Dmitri, couldn't know about the numbers and that he was sure the men who worked for him were all secret spies for Dmitri. When Ronan's men—that's the friend I mentioned—killed Ivan and saved Silver, they brought him back to the US. There was no record of him leaving Germany and no record of him entering the States," I explained in a rush. Fear for Silver kept going up a notch when he didn't answer me.

"Do you know where he is?" I asked.

"No," Nick said. The cool calm that he'd always seemed to be wearing as a mantle was gone. In its place was the protective older brother who was just beginning to understand that his little brother could be in danger. Very serious danger. "My folks had this charity lunch to go to at the country club, and Brady and Spence went to see our aunt and uncle to give them an update on Andrew and when they might be able to come over to see him. Everyone wants to see Andrew, but they also want to give him space."

"What about Aggie?" I asked.

Nick reached for his cell phone at the same time I reached for mine. Neither Silver nor Aggie picked up.

"Fuck!" I snapped. How had I not seen this? Silver had mentioned that Ivan had wanted to make sure Dmitri never got his hands on the numbers Ivan had forced him to memorize, but I hadn't made the connection.

"The koi pond," Nick said and then we were both running in that direction. By the time we reached it, it was obvious that we were too late. One of the heavy wooden benches was overturned, there were at least half a dozen prints of what looked like the soles of boots, and there was a small puddle of blood near the path that led to the docks. My heart was in my throat as I followed the trail of blood along the path. A shiny object beneath the edge of a bush caught my attention.

"Silver's locket," I said grimly. "Ivan gave it to him when he was a kid and said the pictures inside were of his parents. He never took it off, not even after he was brought to the US." I fumbled with the closure and then ripped the pictures off. My heart nearly stopped when I saw the tiny flashing light that had been hidden beneath one of the pictures. "A tracker," I said in disbelief. "They've known where Silver has been this whole time."

Nick snatched the locket from me.

"Fuck!" I shouted. "Okay, Dalton, fucking think," I muttered as different scenarios kept running through my head. A loud bark interrupted my thoughts. "Sadie," I said and then I was tearing over the uneven path that led to the dock. Sadie was standing in front of an empty boat slip. Blood covered her left shoulder and slid down her leg. She continued to bark even when I reached her. "They took one of your boats!" I called to Nick as soon as he caught up to me. I quickly checked Sadie's wound to make sure it wasn't life threatening. As soon as I assured myself it wasn't, I turned to Nick. "Where would they take them?" I asked.

The question was directed at Nick, but I was thinking about it myself.

"Dmitri and his men had the patience to wait until Silver was unprotected. Once they saw all the firepower at my house, they backed off because they had the tracker to keep tabs on Silver. They've been waiting for a chance to grab him when he was unprotected," I growled.

"Okay, they must have had cars, so why take one of the boats?" Nick asked.

It took me several long seconds to make the connection. "Claremont Airport," I said without hesitation.

"Why that?—"

"I know this bay like the back of my hand. Claremont is near my house and it's close to the water." I immediately headed for one of the smaller, less flashy speedboats.

"Dalton, the one over there"—Nick pointed to a larger boat with twin engines— "is faster."

"Just trust me, Nick," I said as I began untying the smaller boat. I grabbed my phone and sent a text as I turned the key to start the boat's single engine. I was glad when Nick jumped in without question.

The small boat might not have been as flashy or even as fast, but what the people who'd taken Silver and Aggie hadn't considered was that it was low tide. That meant they'd have to remain in deeper waters. The boat I'd selected was made of a lighter material so even with the weight of two people on it, it could fly over the shallower waters, which meant a shorter path to our destination. Even if we couldn't overtake the other boat, we'd be docked behind it within a matter of minutes.

"God, please let me be right," I whispered. I had no proof that they'd even taken Silver and Aggie north instead of south. All I had was my gut.

That gut I'd ignored even though it had been right about the first two attempts to get to Silver.

I wouldn't make that mistake a third time.