21

Jager

It wasn’t five o’clock yet, but I could hear the shuffling of bags and coats as employees started packing up for the day. I sent Bianca another text; it was the third one this afternoon.

“Hey, I know you’re busy, but drop me a checkmark to let me know you’re alright.”

I stared at the screen, waiting for the dots to appear, but nothing happened. She hadn’t even read my previous texts yet.

Perhaps her phone was stuffed in her purse in a corner of the reception room. Maybe I should try calling one of her team members to make sure everything was okay.

My fingers hesitated to open the file with the employees’ contact information. What if calling one of her employees embarrassed Bianca?

Fuck it. I’d take that chance and make it up to her if she was upset. We had a situation on our hands, and it was unlike her not to text me back. So, I looked up Jackson’s number and called him.

“Hello?” his voice was hesitant.

“Jackson, it’s Jager Payne. I’m calling to confirm that everything is alright at the hotel.”

“Oh, Jager. Hey. Yeah, everything’s fine.”

I exhaled a huge breath. Damn, I was getting worked up about nothing.

“Great. Thank you. Can you let Bianca know that I called and needed to speak with her? I’ve tried texting—”

“Bianca’s not here.”

“She’s not?”

“No. She left about an hour ago.”

“Do you know where she went?”

“Back to the office.”

I turned around, thinking she would somehow appear behind me. But there were only people filing down the hallway toward the elevators.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Walsh drove her back for the interview with the New Yorker. She’s probably in Towers’ office right now.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

I hung up the phone and nearly raced down the corridor to Towers’ office. The CEO sat at his desk, but looked up when I stormed in.

“Have you seen Bianca recently?”

“No.”

“Did the New Yorker interview you yet?”

“No. Were they supposed to?”

“That’s what Jackson just told me.”

“I haven’t heard anything about that. You should speak to Bianca. She'll know.”

“I’ve been trying all afternoon.”

A sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach grew and this time I raced down the corridor towards the large boardroom where I had set up my temporary base. I opened one of the apps on my laptop and located Bianca’s phone. Her blue pin popped up immediately, pinging here at the office. Was she in the building, but I somehow missed her?

I called Dave downstairs. “Hey, boss. What can I do for you?”

“Have you seen Bianca this afternoon?”

“Not since she left a few hours ago.”

“And she hasn’t returned?”

“No.”

“What about Mr. Walsh?”

“I haven’t seen him since he left, either.”

“Thanks, Dave.”

“Is everything Ok?”

“I don’t know.”

I hung up the phone and tore down every corridor, and knocked on every closed door, even shouting into the women’s washroom. When no one hollered back, I went inside to check all the stalls. They were empty.

A thought popped into my head, and I ran toward her office. My eyes scanned the room quickly, but I didn’t see her purse. I checked the desk and the floor, but it wasn’t there. Then my eyes caught something on a chair. Pulling it out, I discovered her black leather bag, and nestled inside one of the pockets was her phone.

I exhaled, relieved that I’d found it and knew that it explained why she hadn’t gotten back to me all afternoon. But that relief only lasted for a second because I realized if she didn’t have her phone with her, I had no way of tracking where she was.

Don’t panic .

She wasn’t missing. I just didn’t know where she was exactly. Jackson had said he’d last seen her with Walsh. I rushed back to my laptop and pulled up Walsh’s number. I punched in the digits and waited while the phone rang.

And rang.

Shit .

Walsh wasn’t picking up.

Jeremy .

The thought that he had anything to do with this made my shoulders tense. I called him next, and he answered after the third ring.

“Hello?”

“Is Bianca with you?”

“No. She should be at the office.”

“Well, she’s not. She and Walsh never came back here.”

“Then I have no idea where she is.”

There was something in his voice that made me question the validity of that statement. He said it too quickly.

“Where are you right now?”

“In my car, heading back to the office.”

“Call me if you hear from either of them.”

“Aye, aye, captain.”

I hung up the phone and immediately opened a different app on my computer. This one allowed me to track phone numbers from cell towers. I keyed in Jeremy’s number and waited as the program searched where he was.

Come on .

There. The green light pinged, and I located Jeremy near Glendale and Morning streets. Those streets were on the way from the event space to the office. So far, Jeremy was telling the truth about coming back here.

I gripped the mouse tightly in my fist as I tried to clear my head. Images of Bianca, hurt and scared, popped into my thoughts and I couldn’t shake them off.

Without thinking, I dialed Will’s number.

“Hey, Jager. What’s going on?”

“I think Bianca’s missing, and I can’t think clearly, so I need someone to help me navigate this.”

“Okay, I’ve got you. Tell me what you know so far.”

“She left shortly before noon this morning to the X Hotel. Her team was there with her. At some point, Walsh was there too, and he was supposed to drive her back to the office for an interview with the New Yorker. They left at 4 p.m. and it’s now,” I checked my watch, “5:20 p.m.”

“Have you tried tracking her phone?”

“Yes. But she left it in the office. I have it here with me.”

“Shit. Okay. What about Walsh’s phone? Have you tracked his yet?”

“No. Fuck. This is what I mean. I’m not thinking straight.”

“It’s all right. Do it now.”

I’d always been the calm one, and I was panicking.

I pulled up Walsh’s number and waited as the program located his cell phone. “There,” I said. “He’s coming up on the East side of the city. Nowhere close to the office or the hotel.”

“Could they have made a stop someplace else and are now stuck in traffic?”

“Maybe.”

But my gut told me it wasn’t that easy. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach I hadn’t felt since the day in special ops when the plan all went to shit.

When we lost Jordan.

“I’m coming there, and we’ll find them together. Just wait for me.”

“All right. I’ll check on some things in the meantime.”

Will hung up the phone, and I immediately called the nearest hospital. “I need to know if anyone by the name of Bianca Rimoli has been admitted.”

The man on the other end of the line asked me to hold. “I’m sorry, sir. We don’t have any patients with that name.”

I exhaled loudly. Then, I called the next hospital, and two more after that one. Each one told me the same thing. Bianca wasn’t there.

My chest didn’t lighten at the news. Instead, the stress of not knowing where she was and if she was hurt weighed heavily on me. When Will messaged me that he was waiting outside, my legs felt like two barrels of lead walking to the elevator.

Shake it off, soldier. You have work to do.

Will sat in his black truck in front of the building. A cold breeze hit my face as I opened the front doors, but I welcomed it as I needed to cool off.

“Where are we headed?” asked Will.

“Take Third all the way to the pier. I’ve tracked his phone to one of those towers.”

I opened my laptop and clicked on a different program. This one would pinpoint exactly where Walsh was headed. “He was moving more quickly in the last five minutes. I think they’re out of traffic.”

“Don’t worry, Jager. I’m sure there’s a perfectly rational explanation why Walsh and Bianca are there instead of the office. Maybe the reporter wanted to speak to Walsh instead.”

“And hold the interview at the pier? Why?”

Will didn’t answer. He didn’t have to because there was no good explanation. I just prayed to God that we got to her in time because if anyone hurt her, there would be hell to pay.

When I looked up and saw the sea of cars in front of us, I cursed under my breath. “We need to move.”

“I know that. But there’s nowhere for me to go.”

“Take the emergency lane and then the next exit.”

Will hesitated.

“Go.”

He yanked the steering wheel to the right and merged onto the shoulder. “Don’t stop even if you hear sirens.”

Will sighed, but nodded.

Once we were out of the downtown core, the traffic lightened. “They’re not moving anymore,” I said.

“That’s good.”

“Is it?”

“At least we’ll be able to catch up to them.”

I rocked back and forth in my seat, willing the car to move faster. “Turn right here.”

The tires screeched as Will made the sharp turn. “They should be no more than a mile up this road.”

Looking around, there were warehouses to our left and shipping containers lined up along the dock on the right. The smell of salt and sea creatures crept through the vents. I spotted a car in the distance. “Over there.”

“I see it.”

Will pressed the gas and as we grew nearer, I noticed a man’s legs sticking out of the car. Will must have seen them too, because he sped up.

The truck skidded to a halt, and I jumped out before Will came to a complete stop.

Mr. Walsh lay in the backseat with his hands and feet tied up. His clothes were torn and dirty. He startled when I approached and covered his face with his arms in defense. “I’m not going to hurt you. It’s me, Jager.”

“Oh…oh…Jager,” he cried. “Thank God you’re here.” Then he sat up and looked around, his eyes wild. “Are they… are they gone?”

“Who?”

“Those men. The ones who carjacked us.”

I looked over to the front seat, but it was empty. “Where’s Bianca?”

He blinked and stared at me, then looked away. “I don’t know.”

My heart hammered in my chest. “What do you mean you don’t know? What happened to her?”

“These men pulled us over. I thought they were cops, but they jumped in the car and threw us into the backseat. Then they drove here and told us they were going to ship us to some island.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Some island?”

“I don’t know. I think that’s what they said.”

“Then what happened?”

“When we got here, they tied Bianca up and gagged her while they held me down. I tried to stop them, but the one holding me was a lot stronger.”

My heart stopped at his description. “Why you two?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why didn’t they do the same to you?”

“They… they received a phone call and said they only wanted the girl. That I could go.”

“Just like that, they let you go?”

“They cut holes in my tires and put a blindfold over me. But I managed to take it off.”

“Where would they go if the car is here?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Did you see where they took her?”

He shook his head.

“Think, man!” I shouted, and Will put his hand on my shoulder.

“Can you tell us anything else? Any small details that you can remember? It’s important.”

Walsh looked down and away. “I think they may have said something about a shipping container. But I’m not sure.”

I turned around and stared at the rows of brown and white containers behind me. There were hundreds of them.

“Which one?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

I pushed past Will and pounded on the first container in front of me. “Bianca!” Bang! Bang! “Bianca!”

“I think I have a crowbar in the truck.” Will ran back to his truck and came back, holding the bar a few seconds later.

“Here.”

I took the bar from him and shimmied it through the crack in the door. The metal creaked but barely budged. “I think I have another.”

My muscles strained under the pressure of the metal door, unflinching, unmoving. I grunted as sweat dripped down my brow. “Arrrr,” I groaned as my arms burned from the pressure.

Will’s footfalls pounded on the pavement as he ran toward me. I stepped back to give him space to work alongside me. The metal door creaked and groaned. We groaned along with it. “ Fuck !” I cried as sweat poured down my face. Finally, the latch broke and Will and I fell backwards from the momentum. The door creaked as it hung open. I ran inside and stopped. There were boxes everywhere—small ones—too small to fit a human inside. I looked around, but there was nowhere to hide. “She’s not here.”

I ran out the door, grabbing the crowbar from the ground, and started on the next container. Will stood with his hands on his hips. “It will take days to open all of these,” he said. “There has to be another way.”

“I have an infrared device at home. It can tell us if someone is inside one of these containers. But I don’t want to leave here. It’s the last place she was seen.”

“I’ll call Christian and Jake. They’ll bring it over.”

Will stepped away to make the phone call, and I picked up the bar again and started prying at the door.

By the time Christian and Jake arrived, my arms were aching from the strain, but it wasn’t enough to make me stop. Only the possibility of finding her quicker with the device made me put down the crowbar.

Christian jumped out of the car with Jake next to him. “Here. It was exactly where you said it would be.”

“Thank you.”

I took the device and turned it on. A black-and-white image appeared on the screen as I held it up to one of the shipping containers.

Christian looked back at the car and then at me. “Shouldn’t we bring him to the hospital or something?”

“He doesn’t have a scratch on him, and I don’t want him out of our sight. I’ve called the detectives on the case. They’ll be here shortly to question him.”

“Will, call this number. Make sure Mr. Towers stays put wherever he is.”

“I’ll call,” said Jake. “Give me the number.”

I recited the number to him and moved on to the next container as I scanned its contents. The next one was empty as well. There were hundreds of containers, and it could take all night to check them all, but I wasn’t going to stop until I found her, and no shipping container was leaving here until I made sure she was not inside.

“Towers is at the office. He’s all right.”

“Tell him to stay put until we get there,” I shouted.

Jake relayed the message, and I moved onto the next container.

“Come on,” I whispered as the machine whirled but found nothing warm inside. “She’s got to be here. I’ve got to find her.”

“There aren't any boats or ships docked,” said Christian, looking around the pier. “There’s no one else we can question if they’d even seen a woman. How do we know he didn’t take her somewhere else?”

“Walsh was still driving when Jager tracked him,” said Will. “He didn’t have a lot of time to hide her. It’s got to be one of these containers closest to the car.”

A little while later, Khan and Chaudhary’s car pulled up next to Walsh’s. They spoke to him while I continued my search for Bianca.

The sun began to set, and darkness was only minutes away. I imagined Bianca stuck inside one of these containers, terrified and alone. Did she know I was looking for her? I hoped she knew I wouldn’t stop until I found her. How could she not be frightened when she was tied up and gagged inside some filthy box?

My chest ached at the thought, and I moved faster from one box to the next.

I went on and on until I thought we would never find her.

And then the device beeped.

A tiny sound that punched a hole in my chest.

“Did you find something?” Will asked next to me.

“I think so.” I was too scared to be hopeful. I moved closer to the container, and the device beeped louder. The object was small, but not as small as a rat. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at, but there was heat, that much I knew. Something was inside this container.

Bianca!

I threw the device at Will and ran back to grab the crowbar. Christian followed me and picked up the second bar and raced back alongside me.

Despite my tired muscles, new strength pumped through my veins, and I believed I could open this container with my bare hands if I had to.

“On the count of three,” I said.

“One…”

“Jager. Stop!” Will shouted behind us. “It’s not—”

“Two…”

“Get back!”

Christian dropped the bar, but I didn’t let go. She was in there, and I didn’t care if a caged tiger was about to jump out at me. I was opening this door.

“Three—” Will grabbed my arm and pulled me back, then he threw himself toward my waist and pushed me several feet away.

“What the fuck, man?” I screamed as he dragged me across the pier. “I need to get—”

“There’s a bomb!” he shouted.

“A what?” I heard his words, but my mind wouldn’t process them. How could there be a bomb inside that container if Bianca was inside?

He was mistaken. There couldn’t be a bomb.

“Let me go!”

Christian and Will both pulled me away from the container as Jake ran to warn Walsh and the detectives. I shook my head, confused, until a loud explosion blasted through the deathly quiet pier. The door flew open, and black smoke seeped from the container.

My mind slowly processed the scene before me as though I were watching it in slow motion on repeat.

There was a bomb.

Inside the container.

Where Bianca had been.

There was a bomb…

Inside the container…

Where Bianca had been…

“No!”