AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Forty-two
The next morning, after Stasia disappeared next door, Sam decided to check in with Marc and the others at the house onKennentiwhile Sophia opted to go to her Yaya’s house and start packing it up so when she left, everything would be ready.
“Should you be going there alone, Sophia? They know about the place.Sureyou don’t want me with you?”
Bristling slightly, she put her hands on her hips, fell back on words her Dad used, and glared. “So soon? Iknowsyou’renot stun. You want to start that shit, already?”
Laughing at her back-home speech, he held up both hands and stepped back. “No! God, no, my little pumpkin. I’m good. Just being sure you have everything you need.”
“Just so you know, boy-o, I can take care of myself. Don’t you ever think I can’t.”
Sam knew she kidded, but there was just enough seriousness behind the joking that he got it andsaid so. “And that’s why I feel secure in knowing you’ll be just fine and won’t be needing my manly strength to protect you.” He flexed his muscles jokingly and headed for the door when shethrew thepillow she picked upat his face.
Renting a car from a close-by dealer, he headed into town and drove to the house where his people were staying. As soon as he arrived, the others began filling him in on all the operations they’d set in place for the next day. It was a lot of organizing, getting all his people settled in along with the local authorities so they’d hit every one of the stakeouts at once.
They couldn’t take any chances that someone from one of the houses would warn the othersand help themescape. That mustn’t happen. Once Manos foundout that thejig was up, that his people were being arrested, he’dobviouslygo into hiding, and they might not be able to capture him another time. Worse, he could stop Sophia from taking the twins. If the scumdisappeared with them, Maureen might lose her chance of ever findingJack and Caseyagain. Sam couldn’t let that happen, not to his only family.
Suddenly, David appeared and his face let Sam know they had a problem. “What’s up, guy?”
“They’ve moved houses.”
“What? Where?”
“Here in Rhodes.”
“How? What happened?”
“They’ve stopped going to the place we’ve been watching.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, they took the hostages last evening like they always do, but they haven’t returned with them. One of the blackvans came back early this morning, and I just took for granted it was filled with the people, but it’s not so. There’s no movement around the place. Usually, the girls sit in the courtyard and have coffee by this time… not today. There’s no one around. It’s empty,except for the guard they left there.”
Sam felt like a bomb just detonated in his chest. Sweet baby Jesus, they couldn’t lose them now. Not now when they only had one day to get this right.
His gut tightened and he clenched his fists angrily. He stalked to the opposite side of the room and stopped, one hand at the back of his head and the other in his pocket, the same way he always stood when his brain kicked into top gear.
David waited, saying nothing. As usually happened, Sam came back at him with orders.
“I might have a way of locating them, but I’ll have to fetch Stasia. Give me a few hours. In the meantime, start looking around the area for any other places they could be. Hopefully, they won’t have moved too far away.”
“We need to get that address, boss.”
“Yeah, yeah. Keep working, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
