Remi’s response was a quickening of her pace toward the war room.
Britt’s hopes were trashed. Had the guys come too late? Was Lachlan already a captive of her father’s cartel?
Pushing the wide door open, Remi barreled into the room. “I found Britt. Paloma’s sleeping in the suite. What’s the update on Lachlan?” She made a beeline toward far corner of the room.The opposite direction of where her husband, Bobby, sat at the large conference table dominating the space.
Bobby stared at his wife with unveiled resentment as a handsome Palmchatter with deep dimples looked back and forth between them. Britt knew his name was Adonis, even if she couldn’t remember anything else about him. The tension was thick between the couple, but there was no time to unravel the strange marital dynamic. Her sole focus was on Lachlan and making sure he was safe.
Britt looked at the screens behind Bobby, which cycled through several camera feeds at and around Lachlan’s home, the cliffside, and the beach. There was no movement. No signs of him or Quattro.
“Where is Lachlan?” Britt asked, stalking toward Bobby. “What happened to him?”
“Quattro got him. That’s what happened. We were too fucking late!” Sebastian’s words thundered from behind her. He stormed into the room, stripping off his shoulder holster, bulletproof vest and night vision headset, and slamming them onto the table. He kicked at a chair, sending it tumbling across the space.
Kane followed him inside, breathing heavily as he squatted to the floor. “There were more of them than we thought. Even if we could’ve caught up with them, we were outnumbered. Didn’t have a chance with what we brought.”
“That’s fucked … “ Bobby muttered, pushing away from the keyboard terminal and raking a hand through his blonde locks.
Everett was the last to enter. His gaze honed on Remi, standing near Adonis. She was clearly as upset by the news as Britt was, but it didn’t stop her from instinctively turning to face Everett. It was as if she felt his presence. A move that didn’t go unnoticed by Britt or … Bobby.
“What are you doing here?” Everett asked, a tight edge in his tone. They all knew who his question was directed to.
Bobby moved between the two, his icy blue gaze directed at Everett. “Britt needed a friend to support her, even if it’s one she doesn’t remember.”
Everett’s gray gaze turned stormy. He nodded and turned away, ripping his tactical vest laden with ammo pouches and combat knives from his chest and dropping them on the floor.
Remi moved silently next to Britt, resting a hand on her shoulder. Britt needed to get them back focused on what mattered most.
“Did you see where they took Lachlan? Do we have any damn leads?” Britt demanded.
Everett shook his head. “We lost them as they entered the water. The boat has military-grade cloaking that prevents us from tracking it. We couldn’t take a chance of revealing our position because they could see us even if we couldn’t see them.”
“They would’ve taken us out easily,” Sebastian added. “We’re no good to Lachlan dead.”
“Please tell me you could track them through the feeds,” Kane said, heading to the keyboard terminal where Bobby had been sitting.
“Nope. Same problem disrupted the feeds,” Bobby said, walking to Kane. “But I did identify four suspected Quattro ghost sites hidden in the Palmchat Islands. All likely locations for them to take Lachlan by boat.” He typed on the keyboard, and the monitors were replaced with maps, each one showing a different route from St. Felipe to the locations with estimated travel times.
Adonis didn’t look impressed. “It’s a start, but still not much better than finding a needle in a haystack.”
“Maybe I can improve our odds.” Sebastian headed to a computer terminal and typed quickly. “They’re likely takingLachlan to Alejandro. By tracking the location of his private plane, we can triangulate the most likely of those four locations.”
Remi asked, “How are you going to do that? It’s not like any cartel files a flight plan.”
The jet’s call number. Britt knew that was the only way.
“Lucky for us, your hubby hacked and got the call number of the private jet. We were going to use it to monitor Alejandro’s location for the meeting tomorrow,” Sebastian said. “But it’s more useful now.” He turned to Bobby. “Can you shut down the scramblers and encryption shields?”
Bobby typed on his keyboard. “Done.”
The screen flickered, then stabilized, showing an avatar of the plane.
“What the hell … “ Kane said as Sebastian zoomed in on the screen.
“Looks like Alejandro will be landing in St. Basil in forty-five minutes,” Sebastian said.
Everett glanced between the two screens. “That’s about the same amount of time the boat will take to get from here to St. Basil.”
“But why would Alejandro do this?” Britt maneuvered between the men. “Why kidnap Lachlan if he already had a meeting planned with him for tomorrow?”
