She raised her eyebrows. "We don't open for another hour."
"I understand. I received a tip that her son has been kidnapped. I need to confirm whether the information is accurate."
The eyebrows dropped. The professional composure cracked. Her hand was on her phone before he'd finished the sentence. "Mom!" She was practically screaming into the receiver. "There's a cop here and he says something happened to Ami!"
Seconds later an elevator opened and a woman stalked out who made the lobby feel smaller just by standing in it. She was average size for a woman, not physically imposing theway a bear or a wolf might be, but carrying herself with an authority that had nothing to do with size and everything to do with the absolute certainty that she was the most dangerous person in any room she entered. Blonde hair in a high bun. Blue silk blouse. Black tailored pants. Heels that clicked on the polished floor with the precision of a metronome. She moved like someone who had never in her life had to hurry because the world had learned to wait for her.
Lady Leo.
"You said you know something about my son Amani." Her voice was controlled but her eyes were not, carrying the quality of a parent's fear, which was different from every other kind of fear because it was bottomless.
"I received an anonymous tip approximately twenty minutes ago that your son was kidnapped by sharks and sold to an individual in the desert. I'm here to confirm whether Amani is currently accounted for."
Lady Leo's jaw tightened. One small movement, barely visible, but Nero caught it because catching things was his job. She turned to her daughter. "When did you last hear from your brother?"
"He texted Mom at four twelve this morning." The sister was already scrolling through her phone. Her hands were steady but her face was white. "'Heading home. The frittata was good.' He hasn't answered my texts since. I sent three. I thought he was sleeping."
Lady Leo closed her eyes for exactly one second. When she opened them, the fear was still there, but it had been joined by something hard, focused, and very, very old. The look of a lioness who has just been told that something has touched her cub.
"His apartment," she said. "Bethany, call his apartment. Then call everyone who was in the club last night. I want to knowif anyone saw anything after he locked up. Marco was on exterior patrol, start with him." She turned to Nero. "What do you need from us?"
Bethany. Nero filed the name.
"Everything. His route home, his habits, his schedule. A recent photograph. Access to any security footage from the club and the surrounding area. And any information you have about which sharks might have reason to target your son specifically."
Lady Leo's mouth became a thin line. "The sharks who were banned from my club for what they did to one of my patrons. They were involved in the Playground operation. When the Grizzly went down, some of them scattered. The ones who took my son—" She stopped. Breathed. The control was immaculate. "The ones who may have taken my son, would be from that group. They have a grudge."
Nero wrote it down. The Playground connection. Banned sharks with a grudge. That narrowed the field. The Playground bust had generated extensive files on the shark network, names, associates, known locations. If the kidnappers were from that pool, the investigation had a starting point.
Bethany was on the phone, her voice low and urgent. She hung up and turned to them. "No answer at his apartment. Marco says he went off patrol at three thirty, everything was quiet. He didn't see anyone."
"Amani left the club at four," Lady Leo said. She was doing the math. Nero could see it in her eyes. "Thirty minutes between Marco's last pass and Amani walking out. That's their window."
Nero nodded. "I need his route home. The specific path he takes from the club to his apartment."
Bethany was already pulling up a map on her phone. "Four blocks. He always walks. He doesn't have a car, uses ride apps when he needs to go further. Here—" She held the phone out and traced the route with her finger. A straight shot throughthe warehouse district. Quiet at that hour. Minimal foot traffic. Minimal witnesses.
A perfect hunting ground, if a predator knew the prey's schedule.
"I need a photo of him," Nero said.
Bethany scrolled through her camera roll and turned the phone around. The face on the screen hit Nero like a sudden change in altitude, unexpected, physical, something that required a moment to adjust to. The kid was stunning. Amber eyes, sharp jaw, a grin that suggested he knew exactly how good-looking he was and considered it a personal achievement. He was behind a bar, shirtless, holding up a cocktail with an umbrella in it, and the photo had the warm, slightly blurred quality of something taken mid-laugh.
Nero looked at the photo and thought:how does a guy who looks like that not have someone in his life?
Then he thought:maybe he's just an asshole. A lot of big cats were. Top predators, social graces optional.
Then he put both thoughts away because they were irrelevant to the job.
"Send that to me." He gave Bethany his number. "Does he have any friends outside the club? Anyone he might have gone to instead of home?"
Bethany shook her head. "Amani's life is this place. He works here, his friends are here, his family is here. If he's not at the club or his apartment, something is wrong. Something is very wrong." Her voice cracked on the last word and she pressed her lips together hard.
Lady Leo put a hand on her daughter's shoulder. The touch was brief, a lioness steadying her cub, and then she was all business again. "Detective, my network is at your disposal. I have people who can move faster than your department. I've already activated our security contacts for the Playground case,the same infrastructure. If the sharks are involved, my people may find them before yours do."
Nero had worked with Lady Leo's network before, indirectly, through the Playground task force. She wasn't wrong. Her resources were extensive and her intelligence was often better than what enforcement could produce through official channels. But there was a difference between cooperation and a private army, and a mother looking for her kidnapped son was likely to cross that line without blinking.
"I appreciate that," Nero said carefully. "And I'll take any intelligence your people can provide. But I need you to let me run the investigation. If your security team finds the sharks before we do, they call me. They don't engage. If this goes to prosecution, and it will, I need the evidence chain clean."
