Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

JJ

So Four basically told us there was a tracker on his person, and all hell broke loose. When we'd tried to contact him before talking to Four, Gabe had said it wasn't a good time, that there were too many people nearby, but now it couldn't be avoided. Mason called Gabe, who growled a lot, unable to shout in the hospital corridor. Angel did, in fact, yell a lot—there were some colorful words coming out of that man. Nick and Noel immediately began discussing protocols for what to do should the evil overlord consortium (which I thought was a better name for them personally, and I didn't even know them) and then it turned into, "We need to remove it."

That was where I was like, no. "Angel, when you get back, you can cut into him. None of us is equipped for that. How I see it, is they haven't come yet, and I think we're okay for a bit. We'll take extra precautions and be vigilant. When you get here, you can play doctor."

"Can we maybe just assume they already know where Four is? He's been gone for over two weeks. What's to say they aren't monitoring him daily?" Mason made a good point. "We need to address the fact that as soon as we remove the tracker, we could be starting a war we aren't ready for."

"True." Shep hummed. "So we don't destroy it. We remove it, drive to another location, and toss it there. When it comes time to retrieve Four, they'll go there."

"Unless the tracker is attached to him in a way that removing it disables it. They'll for sure go to the last location it pinged, ie: our home," Angel countered in all his smartiness.

"Will you know that once you're inside and can see it?" I had to wonder.

"Maybe, but there's no guarantee."

"I got it!" Nick shouted, and the excitement on his face as I stared at him on the monitor was contagious. "We take him somewhere else to remove it."

Everyone was silent for a beat until Angel spoke. "That's not a bad idea. And I think that's what we'll do. But also, we need to plan for them going to any and all locations the history of the tracker tells them."

"Our place and the shop." I nodded. "But it could buy us time at least, and we can watch from a distance at the location we remove the tracker."

"It's a plan. I gotta go, doctors are talking near me again and looking at me like I'm crazy," Gabe whispered.

"Okay, go. We don't want to have to break you out of another psych ward." Noel snorted, and Gabe's phone disconnected.

I whipped my head in Shep's direction. "Another one?"

He waved me off. "I'll tell you later."

"It might not be a bad idea to entertain Plan B, just in case," Noel said.

Mason scratched his head. "If it comes to that, we know how to leave the property undetected, and get to our safe house."

Yep, we had a safe house. It wasn't as awesome as the one we lived in now. It was a decent size, about an hour from here and in the woods…but we were so cool that we had it.

"I think Noel's right," Shep huffed. "We pack go bags tonight, get them ready just in case. We'll make sure all of yours and Gabe's are set too." He gestured to the screen.

"Sounds good. We'll see you in the morning." Angel shut down the call, and the five of us stared at each other.…Well, not Four—he was currently focused on the table.

"So, what now?" Maxwell asked.

"I'll start getting the bags packed." Shep stood.

"I'll get mine and Gabe's." Mason left the kitchen, and I grabbed Shep's arm before he did too.

"What should I do?"

"Keep an eye on them." He jerked his chin in the direction of Max and Four.

"Okay."

Four wasn't talking, so I focused on Max. He was fidgeting, and I could tell he was nervous.

"Can I ask you a question?"

His eyes darted to me, and he shrugged.

"Did you ever find out who kidnapped your daughter?"

"No. The…" He eyed Four from across the table and lowered his voice. "The Alabastrine Consortium only told me that they were mercenaries and that they were gone. I took that to mean they were dead."

I pursed my lips. "And what do you do for a living?"

"I'm the VP for a mortgage recruiting firm."

Weird . "Why would mercenaries kidnap the daughter of a mortgage recruiter, and does that pay as well as the lifestyle you're living?"

"I don't know why they took her, but money seemed to be a good enough reason. It's the root of all evil, isn't it? And yes. I created the firm with a friend as teenagers in the basement of my parents' house. We went to college, and it grew and grew. Now it's one of the largest mortgage recruiting firms in the country."

I jerked my head back. "Your dream as a teenager was to have a recruiting firm?"

Max snorted. "No. It was to be successful. Look, do you want me to get into my childhood?"

I shook my head. "Okay, I'm trying to piece this together, because it's making zero sense. Your daughter for money and that's it? Mercenaries? It's so odd."

"I don't understand. Most kidnappings are either done for money or something worth a lot of money."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I get that, but why you? Do you draw a lot of attention with your career?"

He lifted a shoulder. "Not really. It's not a glamourous job, there aren't paparazzi following me or anything like that."

"Then why you?"

"Perhaps it's the fact that I wasn't in the limelight that they liked?"

That was likely the only scenario that made sense. But something wasn't sitting well with me.

"Perhaps, but Max, I'm going to be honest. I have suspicions."

"About what?"

I got up, moved to the fridge, and brought over three bottles of water. Four didn't even twitch once I placed them in front of him. I'd found out that if you gave Four something to eat or drink, he would consume it.

"The whole thing. You paid them the money where they told you to, right?" He nodded. "They didn't return her, but you made a deal with the consortium, and not long after that she was found. And you owe them two million—however, they don't seem to care if they get it, because they ordered your death. So they ended up doing it for nothing?"

Max blinked at me, but as I said the words out loud a lightbulb went off in my mind.

"Holy shit! Do you remember where or how you were supposed to deliver the money to the kidnappers?"

"Of course, why?"

"I assume you had to wire it?"

"Correct."

I slapped my hands together. "I may have figured it out, but it'll need to wait until the twins are home. They're the computer geniuses."

"Are you going to tell me?"

I drank down half my bottle of water. "Nope, let's wait to see if I'm right. If I am, I will do the most epic butt dance the world has ever seen!"

Of course Max looked at me like I was crazy. Perhaps I was, but I had a feeling I might have found a way to locate this consortium.