33. Nicholas

33

NICHOLAS

"Raven!" I pounded on the door again, but got no answer.

Rafe slid a keycard from his pocket and into the reader.

"Where did you get that?"

"From the cleaning cart. They always leave those things unattended."

The door opened and I rushed inside, looking all around. It was exactly as I left it earlier in the night. Not a thing was out of place, and I would know if it was because Raven always left her room spotless.

"All of her things are still here. The only thing missing is her purse."

"Let's check downstairs. Someone must have seen her," Rafe suggested.

I was just about to leave when I saw something laying on the table beside her bed. It was my St. Christopher medal. I had dropped it somewhere and couldn't find it, but she had it all along. Snatching it off the table, I pulled it over my head and followed Rafe out the door. I walked up to the first person at reception, showing them a picture of Raven I had on my phone.

"Have you seen this woman? She's staying in room 318."

The woman shook her head. "No, but I just came on shift. Margaret might have seen her." The woman looked around and then waved her hand. I turned and hurried over to the woman she'd signaled.

"Have you seen this woman?"

She frowned, then nodded. "Yes, she was down here earlier in the restaurant."

"Do you know where she went when she was done?"

"No, I'm afraid I didn't see her leave."

"What about restaurant staff? Is there anyone I can talk to?"

"Um…I think Mike is still here. He would have been one of the servers."

"Would he have waited on her?"

"I really don't know. The restaurant isn't run by the hotel. I only see inside and occasionally get dinner there."

"Where can I find Mike?"

"If he's here, he'll be in the back of the restaurant, but the doors are locked."

"Then find someone who can open them," I snapped.

"No need," I heard Rafe say as he walked over to the doors and kicked them in.

The woman gasped, saying something about calling the police, but I was already running through the doors in search of this guy. When I shoved open the door to the kitchen, the cook shouted at me.

"You can't be in here."

"Where's Mike?"

"Get the hell out of here!"

"Mike, where is he!"

Rafe grabbed a knife laying on the table and stalked toward the man as I rounded the corner on the other side of the counter. The cook looked between the two of us, knowing there was no way out for him.

"Where is Mike?"

"The kid? He went home."

"When?"

"A few minutes ago. He was?—"

The door opened and a kid walked through, maybe nineteen years old by the looks of it. "Hey, Chef, I forgot my—" He looked up and stopped immediately as he took in the scene. "What's going on?"

"Are you Mike?"

"Yeah."

"Did you serve this woman earlier tonight?" I held out my phone for him to see.

He squinted, then nodded. "Yeah, she was here."

"Did you see where she went after dinner?"

"She left with some guy." He shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled something out. "This was on the table."

I took it from him and stared at the Z on the tie clip. "Who was with her?"

"Not sure. He was a scary-looking dude."

I nodded and motioned for Rafe to follow me. Hurrying out of the restaurant, the hotel staff gave us a wide berth as we exited the hotel.

"Zavala," I hissed as we got in his car. "He's got her."

"Then we go after him."

"How? I doubt he gives his name."

"He can't have gone far. Either he's taken her somewhere else in the city or they're going back to San Francisco."

"Great, so they're either here or not here. That's fucking clear as mud."

He pulled out his phone and dialed a number. "Find out if there's any movement by Zavala's boat."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You know where Zavala is docked?"

"He docked in San Francisco two days ago."

"You fucking knew he was here and didn't try to warn us?"

"I'm here, aren't I?"

"Too fucking late. He already has her."

"Do you want to fucking yell at me or find out where he took her?"

There was more going on that I didn't know about, but in order to find that out, I'd have to go along with whatever Rafe had planned. The only thing that mattered right now was getting Raven back, consequences be damned. If I hadn't left her earlier, she would still be with me. Maybe we would have evaded Zavala and made it back to OPS.

Then again, it was likely that Zavala came with the intention of taking Raven. If we didn't get her back, and soon, I didn't want to think about what would happen to her.

The phone rang just seconds later. "Talk to me."

I couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but I was sure it wasn't good by the look on Rafe's face.

"Dammit! If he gets away, it was all for nothing! Stall them. Don't let them leave!"

He hung up and tossed his phone on the dash. "What's really going on?"

Rafe shook his head slightly. "We can't let her get on that boat."

"I know why I don't want her on that boat, but what's your reasoning?"

"Same as you."

"Bullshit," I snapped. "You don't give a shit about anyone. In fact, I'd bet my left nut that you didn't come here because you were worried about Raven. This has to do with something else and you're going to fucking tell me what that is."

His grip tightened on the steering wheel as we raced down the road. "It would be very bad if she got on that boat. It's a one- way ticket to an island that we would never be able to rescue her from."

"How do you know this?"

"Because I've tried. FNG was sent there. I have no fucking clue how he escaped and lived to tell about it."

"Why do you want to get on that island so desperately?"

"It's not about getting on the island. It's about getting off the island."

"What does that mean?"

"It means we need to get there before the boat leaves."

"You're talking in circles. Whatever this is about, just fucking tell me!"

He looked over at me, his lips pulled tight. "You'll know soon enough."

"Let's get this bird in the air!" Edu shouted.

"It's not a fucking helicopter," Scottie retorted. "And put up my plastic!"

I left Scottie to his devices and stormed to the back of the plane. Lock was loading up the rest of the cargo with Brock, while Patrick and Chase were discussing something with Rafe. Most likely, it was about Asher. I couldn't blame them for still being pissed about the shit Rafe pulled that got their team broken up, but I had my own shit to worry about at the moment.

"How much more?" I asked Lock.

"This is the last of it. We're just waiting for Cash to arrive."

I didn't want to wait for him, even though it was his plane. I had to get to Raven, and since Zavala already had a head start, we couldn't afford to allow him any more time. I turned and stormed back to the front of the plane, ready to tell Scottie to put us in the air, when Cash appeared in the doorway.

"About fucking time," I snapped, unable to help myself. Just looking at him was difficult. He looked just like Rafe, and therefore, pissed me off on principle alone.

"Where is he?"

I jerked my head to the back and he nearly shoved me aside to get to his brother. Jack, Johnny, and Jason stepped onto the plane, each of them looking me over.

I grabbed Jack's arm and pulled him aside. The other two followed without question. "Tell me what his endgame is."

Jack shook his head slightly. "I haven't been in contact with Rafe since?—"

"I'm talking about all of this shit. He needs someone to get on that island. He as much as said so. Why?"

"He never told us his plans," Jack answered slowly. "This is Rafe we're talking about. Whatever he's up to, I'm not even sure Libby knows about it."

I scoffed at the ridiculousness of what he was saying. "How can that be? He worked with you for years. You're really fucking telling me that not a single person knows what his endgame is?"

"No one wishes they knew what the fuck was going on inside Rafe's head more than me," he hissed in a low voice. "After all the shit he's pulled, I nearly paid with my life. This all centers around taking down the Pike Crime Syndicate. I don't know what his obsession is with it, and neither does anyone else."

"So, you were just good soldiers the whole time," I scoffed.

At my words, he stiffened considerably. "Maybe we were, but that all changed. You can't trust him, no matter what he tells you. There is always another agenda, and he will always put that agenda before anyone else. Even his own brother."

His words echoed in my ears as he shoved past me and took a seat. Johnny's gaze slowly roamed over me before he nodded and took his own seat. It was Jason who stayed behind.

"Isabelle," he hissed.

"What?"

"Don't know what it means. But if you can figure that out, you might find out what this whole fucking thing is about."

I ran the name over and over in my head as he took his seat. It meant nothing to me. I'd never heard it before, and I couldn't think of a single person with the name. Had Rafe been married before Libby came along?

"Take your seat," Cash said as Scottie announced we were taking off.

I looked at him a second time, just to make sure it was him. They looked exactly alike. I had to make sure I was speaking to the right brother. I slid into one aisle, not complaining when Cash joined me.

"What did you find out?"

"Not much," he sighed. "Libby's in San Francisco, which surprised the hell out of me."

"Why?"

"Last I heard, she was going undercover."

"As what?"

He slowly turned to face me. "As a slave at an auction."

"A what?"

He nodded. "Part of the Syndicate deals in the trade of women. Sex slaves mostly. Although, I hear some of the men want the women for other things."

"Why would she go undercover—why would he allow that?"

Cash's lips quirked up at the side. "You'll learn pretty fucking fast that Libby is just as cunning as Rafe. The two of them were meant for each other. Before they even met, Libby was working her own angles at getting into the Syndicate. I don't know what the fuck draws them to each other, but they both have just as much at stake in this."

That was a hell of a lot to unpack, but all I could worry about right now was Raven's part in all this. "What does it mean that Libby's in San Francisco?"

"That she's working with Rafe again. Either she couldn't work her way into the trade, or he had to pull her out. Whatever the reason, they're now working together on this."

"Their objective is the island."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded. "I asked him why he wanted someone to get on the island. He said it wasn't getting on the island, but off that was the problem. So, what does Zavala have that Rafe needs to get to the island so badly?"

"You don't go to the island without an escape route," Cash said thoughtfully. "If it was just Zavala he wanted, he's got his chance now."

"Take down Zavala and another sector of the Syndicate crumbles," I added. "I thought that was what this was all about."

"So did I."

He glanced behind him at Rafe, then back to me. "We need to focus on getting Raven back. Everything else comes secondary. And watch your back with Rafe. He's a loose cannon."

"I've already figured that out. What's the plan?"

"Find Zavala, go in guns blazing, rescue Raven…that's about it. Oh, and don't get dead."

"That's your brilliant plan?"

"That's all I've got. Without any other details, there's not much we can plan."

"What about Zavala? Are we taking him alive?"

"I'd like to say yes, but I don't know if that's even an option."

I thought about it a moment, knowing what we were walking into was basically a death trap. "Zavala will have a lot of men with him. He's going to be prepared."

"I know." He glanced behind him. "We'll have to wait until we land. I have a feeling that Rafe has something else in the works, and we won't know until it happens."

"That's a fucking horrible way to plan a mission."

"Unfortunately, that's all we have to go on."

"And you trust him?" I asked.

"Not really, but through everything, he's always had our backs in his own way. We're just going to have to believe that the same is true this time around."

I didn't like it, but what choice did I have? I needed Raven back, and this might be our only chance to get her before Zavala disappeared again.

"I guess we're going in blind."

"And may we not die in the process."