Page 113 of Fallen Hero

“Before we go down that rabbit hole, what else did he say?” I asked, intentionally not mentioning Shep in front of Atlanta.

“Amir’s changing the location of the auction,” Aiden told me, holding my gaze. There was more, I knew it. “No word on where to. Calista’s cover is blown.”

It was Gavin who delivered the kill shot, and when he did, pain sliced through my gut, leaving carnage in its wake that almost took me to my knees. “Amir put out a bounty for Calista. It has since been rescinded.”

Rescinded?

“What the fuck does that mean? Did Amir pull the bounty or was it paid?”

“The working theory is paid,” Catarina gently told me.

“Rescinded,” Atlanta contradicted. “Jason wouldn’t let this opportunity slip through his fingers. He’d pay Amir to find her for him.”

The calm tone in which Atlanta had rapped out that Calli was being hunted by a sex trafficker—the same one who’d taken her sister two decades ago—pissed me right the fuck off. The lack of urgency was infuriating.

“I need to make a call,” Atlanta announced.

Jack waited until Atlanta was in the living room, out of earshot, before he told me, “Jason is staying at the Bvlgari Resort. Shep hacked the security camaras. Two hours ago, Jason and three guards left the property in a black SUV. Shep tracked it but lost it when it headed out of the city. He’s still trying to pick it back up. He’s also got feelers out for the new location of the auction.”

“What about the taxi Calli was in?”

“Shep lost it twelve miles past the Dubai Safari Park.”

Fuck.

I took my phone out of my back pocket to pull up a map. “There’s nothing but desert out there,” I noted. “Why the hell would she go out there?”

“Tanner,” Atlanta said as she came back into the foyer.

“Who, exactly, is Tanner?” Catarina asked.

“He’s my contact in Dubai, former merc turned arms dealer, among other things. I called him earlier to tell him to expect Calli early to pick up her kit—rifle, pistol, and body armor. At Calli’s request, I also asked him to call in some guys to handle the brothel at the bazaar. He lives in a tiny village, twenty minutes past the Safari Park.”

I wanted to feel relief Calli had gone to pick up weapons and was now armed. However, the gnawing in my gut made it impossible.

“Jason left his hotel with three guards,” Pete told Atlanta. “What can you tell us about them?”

“Bodhi Lee, Arlo Brown—both former SAS—and Archie Evans, former SBS. It’s not Jason who you need to be worried about. The guy is a total tool. He inherited the brothel and the high-class service from his father. Rumor is there’s a traitor in Jason’s crew. My bet is on one of them.”

“Prostitution’s legal in Berlin. Why kidnap women and force them when there are willing women?” Gavin pointed out.

Personally, I didn’t give a shit about the history lesson. I wanted a locale and to move.

“Old man Anderson got greedy and wanted something to offer his clients who had rougher tastes, but he couldn’t find any girls to offer those services, so he picked a few from his stable, got them hooked on heroin, and suddenly they don’t mind being punched in the face by a john. This proved to be popular, but he didn’t want to keep pulling beautiful women from his brothel, and those men didn’t care what the women looked like, so he started snatching runaways and putting them into service.”

“Inherited? So, the father’s dead?” Aiden asked.

Atlanta’s dark hair shifted when she turned to look at Aiden. “Yes, he’s dead. A stroke.”

Quick and painless. The bastard deserved worse. But there was nothing I could do about that.

“How’d Lili wind up over there?” Catarina’s inquiry had me grinding my molars.

Who the fuck cared? Calista was out in the desert alone with a rescinded bounty on her head and two men who’d either like to see her dead or sold.

Neither option was acceptable.

Jesus fuck, my heart felt like it was crawling up my throat.