Page 94 of Cash

“For the love of fuck, can we please not do this and just tell me what Kira and Garrett found.”

“Nebraska called Vinnie G,” he told me. “No need for a meet. She explained the situation. He gave his word that he’s no threat to Stella and Cara.”

I fucking hated that a mob boss knew Stella’s name, but I really fucking hated that he knew Cara’s.

Zane wasn’t done. “He was not pleased that Damion McKnight lost the thirty million he was cleaning but he was going to find a way to get the money back before he took out Damion. After Nebraska explained the situation, he no longer cares about money and he’s gunning for Damion hard. He’s got men in Virginia looking for him now. If they find him before we do, they’ll take care of that problem.”

Them taking care of ‘that problem’ was going to be a problem. I squeezed my neck again in an attempt to relieve some of the tension. Either that or to cause myself discomfort since I couldn’t fucking believe I was going to make this request.

“Stella would like to see to that personally.”

“I can see why, however, I don’t feel like offering up a marker to a mob boss.”

Fuck.

I was so fucking fucked.

“If he finds him and holds him, he’ll have a personal marker from me.”

The silence over the phone was deafening.

“Burn the earth,” he muttered. “I’ll tell Nebraska to broker that deal.”

“Thanks.”

“I need to ask again, where’s your head?”

Was he joking with this shit? I just gave him everything he needed. If I wasn’t soul-deep in it with Stella, no fucking way would I offer a personal favor to a fucking mob boss that would more than likely have my ass murdering some poor schmuck who sucked at craps but didn’t know when to quit.

“Fucking cut to it,” I growled.

Another pause, this one longer and infinity more infuriating.

I could hear the frustration in his exhale. “We’re on it.”

Not a good start and one that had my gut clenching. I was already making a plan how I was going to get Stella and Cara to the ranch in Wyoming when Zane dropped a bomb. “That shit at your house wasn’t about Stella. Garrett traced the hack. It was initiated by someone at the NSA. The files were opened and whoever opened them realized they’d infected the machine they were on and bricked it. The connection was open three seconds but that was long enough for Garrett to make the trace to the campus, but not a building or a person.”

“Why the fuck is the NSA hacking Z Corps?”

“Your sister called in a code red two minutes before your house took a barrage of bullets. Kira was working on tracking her when Garrett called to warn you something was going down.”

A weird sensation started at the base of my skull, radiating down my spine.

“Where’s Penny now?”

I heard Stella suck in a breath from behind me.

“Kira and Garrett are working on tracking her now. Theo, Easton, Smith, and Jonas have been deployed. Gabe, Myles, and Owen, are on standby. And Linc took Cooper and went to her place, they’re searching it now. I called Dutch and asked him to get Black Team up to speed and ready to deploy if we need them since all of Gold is still in Thurmont with the Secret Service.”

Camp David.

Penny was missing.

Stella and Cara on the run and in danger.

My hand dropped along with my head.

“Why?” I asked. “Why would someone at the NSA be after Penny? She quit. That shit with her former boss was cleaned up. What did we miss?”