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“What do you have?” Andrei asked as he stood and came close. He leaned over Quinn’s shoulder to look at the computer.
“His face! That’s what was nagging me because he looked familiar, yet he didn’t.” Quinn pointed at a face on the screen that vaguely looked like Kody. “He colored his hair and got a fucking nose job, but it’s him all right.”
“Who?” Sven growled.
“Nathan McDonald.”
“Oh,” Gidget breathed. “Wow.”
“Who’s Nathan McDonald?” Sven watched as Quinn pulled up an article from Wired. He skimmed it, reading something about an app called Seeking Romeo and how Nathan McDonald had been poised to be next in the young millionaires’ club—although he was a good ten years older than most who first succeeded in earning enough to be included.
Quinn continued. “He was a developer like Geoffrey and he got famous—”
“Infamous, really,” Gidget broke in.
Quinn nodded. “She’s right. Infamous because it turned out he was batshit crazy. He designed a program very similar to Matinee. He mortgaged and sold everything he owned to put together a team to develop it. But before he could sell it, Geoffrey swooped in, an impressive one-man show, and snagged the fattest, juiciest apple.”
Gidget rolled her eyes at the pun.
“McDonald went crazy. He fired everyone, burned down the building and disappeared. I guess we know where he went now.” Quinn chewed on his lip again. “I hate that someone like him has Geoffrey. If he’s still that unhinged, and he’d have to be after pulling this plan off for so long, he’ll do a lot worse than that video and that video made me sick.”
Sven briefly shut his eyes, then glared at Quinn.
“Way to go, Brainiac,” Gidget breathed. She stood and came over to put her hand on Sven’s shoulder. “This is good news, Sven. We know who has him and we know the likeliest place where.” She looked at Quinn. “Right?”
Quinn, looking contrite, said softly. “I think we do. And maybe we can get to him before anything happens.” He typed briefly on the keyboard and then pointed at a spot on one of the large monitors hanging on the wall. He zoomed as close as he could. “Google Earth. Nobody has taken any pictures of this small road, so I can’t get a street view, but this is the only property that we can link to McDonald. It’s an old farmhouse. It’s the only thing he had left. Probably didn’t sell it because it isn’t worth much.”
“Where is that?” Andrei demanded as he stepped closer to the screen, his arms folded over his chest.
“It’s Steep Creek Road. Listed as part of Independence, Kentucky.”
“I know it,” Royce said, drawing everyone’s eyes to him. “It’s real middle of nowhere. Just north of Visalia. Not far from old White’s Tower.”
“Give us a rundown of the terrain.”
Sven couldn’t help but notice that Royce looked uncomfortable being the focus of everyone’s attention as he stepped up to the monitor. The man preferred the shadows over being the center of attention.
“Zoom out a bit, squirt,” Royce said. Quinn muttered something under his breath but did as Royce instructed. “Steep Creek is a narrow, single-lane road that runs east to west. Old, broken asphalt. There are hills and steep drop-offs in spots on either side of the road, but there are also breaks of semi-flat ground of a few acres where people have built farms. The homes are widely spaced. You’d barely be able to see the lights of your neighbor’s house and never during the summer. What’s not flat ground is completely covered in trees.”
“Going in, we’re going to have cover,” Dominic said from where he leaned his hip against the table.
“Likely up until the last hundred yards or so to the house. Maybe even more if he hasn’t used this house. The brush surrounding the area close to the house could be thick.”
“How long has it been since you were last down this road?” Andrei asked.
“Years.” Royce shook his head, frowning. “But this area, there’s nothing there. Ain’t never going to be anything there. Just a black fucking hole in the earth. It hasn’t changed.”
“Geoffrey’s there,” Sven said. He knew it. That lonely house in the middle of nowhere. It was the perfect hiding place.
“It’ll take about forty-five minutes to get there,” Royce said.
Even less time from Geoffrey’s place.
Which meant Nathan would’ve already had hours to hurt Geoffrey.
Acid boiled in Sven’s throat as he jumped into motion. He stormed out of the room and down the stairs to the room where Ward stored all the weapons and gadgets, Andrei at his heels. Dominic and Royce followed close behind them. No words were spoken as each man grabbed a duffle and began gathering supplies. Sven began checking weapons, while Dominic handed out earpieces for easy communication.
They all trained for this with Rowe and Noah. Their job was simple protection, but the former Rangers saw that they had the skills for much bigger operations, things that weren’t in the usual job description for bodyguards. Sven never argued or questioned. He welcomed the new skills, thinking that he’d never actually use them.
