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I follow the blood trail to where it divides in front of the fridge.
Good. Looks like Hadley put up a fight.
The thought is enough to make me swell with pride as I look at the pictures on the fridge for anything that doesn’t belong. Felix is the kind of man who likes to play games. Leaving the answer to where he took Hadley would be part of his game.
After looking through all the pictures, I finally find one hidden behind a grocery list. The picture has a bloody fingerprint on the corner and in the center is a boat at one of the local marinas.
“Fuck,” I say, taking the picture off the fridge and folding it to fit in my pocket.
The last thing I want to do is meet him out on the water. There are too many unknowns about what he could do. There is no escape if he decides to ambush us.
I’m fucked.
As I leave the apartment, I hope the helicopter brings Rio back fast. I’m going to need him if I hope to get this done.
At least Alessio is in town too.
I pull out my phone and call him, listening to the rings and feeling more and more like the worst is happening to Hadley.
“Hey,” Alessio says. “We’ve just finished looking through some of the buildings Felix’s family used to own. No sign of him there.”
“No. There wouldn’t be,” I say, my voice sounding choked. “He’s got Hadley, Alessio. He took her and I have to go get her back.”
“Whatever you need, Jovan,” Alessio says as I hear something shuffling in the background. “I’m getting into my car now. Where is he taking her?”
“The marina. I can’t go there. He’s waiting for me.”
Alessio chuckles. “Don’t you worry. I’ll get there and we’ll keep an eye out for her.”
“Don’t move until I send you a message later with the plan. Just keep an eye on him for now.” My heart is hammering in my chest as I get in my car. I need to make sure that nothing is going to happen to Hadley. I can’t risk anyone getting too close before Felix is ready.
“Don’t worry, Jovan. We’re going to make sure that she is safe and everything is alright with her. He isn’t going to do anything to her. I promise.”
I swallow the lump in my throat. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Alessio.”
“Nothing is going to happen to her.”
“I hope you’re right,” I say before thanking him, ending the call, and starting the engine.
Please let Alessio be right. I don’t know how to keep going on in life if anything happens to Hadley or our baby.
“Sorry I took so long, boss,” Rio says, two hours later when he meets me in my kitchen. “Why are we meeting here and not going straight to the marina? Isn’t that where Felix has her?”
“He does but he has a meeting time set for us. He said that if he saw us before then, he would kill her without a second thought. I’m not willing to take the risk when Hadley’s life is hanging in the balance.”
Rio nods and takes a seat at my kitchen island. “Alright, so how are we going to do this? There is no way to sneak up on him in the water if he decides to lead us out there. We’re going to have to pull alongside him and get on.”
There is no doubt in my mind that Felix is going to lead us out in the water. It’s what makes the most sense. Getting us out where nobody can see what is going to happen is the only way to keep the coast guard from arriving before the job is done.
I’m going to kill that fucker for what he’s done to my family.
I sigh as I look at Rio. “Though he says he wants to meet in the marina, you know as well as I do that he is going to want as few witnesses as possible.”
“What do you want to do when that happens?” Rio drums his fingers on the counter. “There won’t be any way to avoid going out to him if that’s what he’s going to do.”
“I don’t want to tie our boat to his. If we do that, then we’re going to lose our only method of escape short of commandeering his boat. We won’t know what kind of traps he has rigged and where. We could risk setting something off that could kill all of us if we take his boat. I don’t want to do that. We’re going to destroy that boat and everyone on it, which means that we need ours as the getaway.”
“What do you want to do, then?”
