The name slammed into Brian’s chest, sharp and immediate. His pulse spiked hard enough to feel in his throat. He swallowed hard. “Did he say where she is?”
“No. Just that she’s alive. For now.” Andy shoved his phone toward him. “Both numbers came up unknown. I tried calling back, but nobody picked up.”
Brian took the phone, eyes scanning the screen.
Unknown Caller—0:32
Unknown Caller—1:58
He handed it back, already sorting the timeline. “What else?” he said. “Tell me everything. Start from the first call. Don’t skip anything.”
Andy nodded, desperate. “Okay.”
Brian stayed where he was, still and focused, holding the fear behind his ribs where it couldn’t touch his voice.
Andy dragged in a shaky breath. “He said he had Tess. Or his people did.” His eyes filled up with tears. “He called her my weak spot. Said if I did what he wanted, she’d go home. If I didn’t?—”
He couldn’t finish.
Brian didn’t need him to.
A thought settled in, cold and unwelcome—this hadn’t been impulsive. Diego had thought this through. But none of it made sense.
“Why you?” he asked. “What’s his connection to you? You said you barely knew him that day in the interview room.”
Andy’s shoulders curled inward. “That was true—then. But he knows me somehow.” He swallowed. “He knows I’m good with computers.”
Tess had mentioned that more than once—the kid was a whiz. What mattered was how Diego had decided to use that bit of knowledge. Brian was almost afraid to find out.
“He asked me to do something for him a couple of weeks ago,” Andy rushed on. “He paid me cash to reroute an IP. That was it. Simple.” His voice cracked. “Simple and stupid. I thought it was harmless. But I never did anything else for him. I blocked his number and stayed away from him after that. I swear.”
But that one job was enough for Diego to get his hooks in Andy.
“What does he want now?”
The teen looked like he might throw up. “He—he wants me to mess with a crypto account.”
Brian stared at him for a fraction of a second. “Cryptocurrency?”
Andy nodded, frantic. “He didn’t say much. He said I had to log in to an account and change where the money goes. Just redirect it into another wallet and don’t get caught. He asked me to do it the other day, and I told him no. Brian, I swear, I said I wouldn’t do it. But he said it didn’t matter. That I already owed him. And now he has Tess.” The tears spilled over now, unchecked. “He said he’d text me everything I need. I told him I had to research how to do it—I’ve never done it before. He said I had an hour then he’d send the text. And if he sees any cops—any at all—then Tess...” He swiped his eyes. “I never meant for this to happen. I swear. I didn’t think—she’s my sister. I wouldn’t have?—”
“I know,” Brian said quietly, his mind racing.
Inside, rage flared hot and vicious. Terror followed, cold and suffocating. He locked them both down and exhaled slowly through his nose.
Impulsiveness. Stupidity. Teenage logic. It was a part of growing up, and he could rake the kid over the coals for it later. Right now, what mattered was that a sixteen-year-old stood in front of him believing a gang member’s choices were his fault.
“This is not on you,” Brian said, voice quiet but firm. “You made a bad call. Yeah. But Diego is the one who crossed a line. He’s the one who decided to grab Tess. That’s on him. Not you. You hear me?”
Andy’s jaw flexed. He nodded once, but his eyes said he didn’t believe it yet.
Brian filed that away with everything else he couldn’t afford to deal with in this moment.
He had to think.
See the angles.
Work the problem like an agent.
