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“I agree. Kidnapping is not their jam. Not saying they wouldn’t…just saying this don’t feel like them. “
“So we talking door number three?”
“Meet the Jackals.” Jet held up a black and white photo of a bunch of women bound and gagged. They were huddled together on the floor of what looked like a cargo container. Their heads were slumped over and stains of perspiration covered their dirty clothes. It was a sad and pathetic photograph. And then I looked closer.
“Jesus Christ!” I dropped the picture like it was a slithering, hissing snake about to strike. “These women…are they fucking dead?”
“Yeah, they’re dead alright.” Jules spat out in revulsion.
“The payment for these border crossers was a little light so Latin Jackals offed the bunch of them. Nice fucking guys. They deal mostly in kidnapping and sex trafficking. Guns for hire is their thing. You got a vendetta? You want someone gone? Ransom money? The Latin Jackals are a one-stop shop for that kind of shit.”
“You think they have Liddy?
“I think there is a good chance.”
“Why? For what fucking reason would they take Liddy? She’s shit in the scheme of things. There are plenty of other targets they could go after for a revenge hit.” I scrubbed my hand through my hair as thoughts raced through my mind. “Christ, Jet. Your whole damn family would be first on the list. Why the hell not one of them?”
My vision had started to blur with that rage again. And when I looked at the two men in front of me nothing seemed clear. “I don’t understand.”
“Our role, the Silver Sinners’ role, in the takedown is huge. And you’re a key player, Kid. Liddy’s your woman.” My father told me. “Not too far of a stretch to think that they taking her means that we become occupied with finding her. Stands to fucking reason that finding Liddy takes us out of the game for a hot minute. And in that hot minute, we not only use our resources to deal with Liddy’s abduction, but our focus also shifts.” He lifted a chin towards Jules. “Case in point. Jules has spent the last couple of days hunting down information for us. Saints got that covered, but Colombians may see that as an opportunity.”
“But why her?” I persisted because the way I saw it…small fish big pond as far as Liddy went. Raine or one of her girls or even damn grandchildren would have made more sense. And though of course, I wouldn’t wish it on them, especially not the kids… it still made a lot more sense. I asked again. “Why not one of yours?”
Jet looked at me for a long moment then said. “Because they’re protected. Not our first time at this kind of rodeo, Kid.”
The implication of what he was saying was right out there on the table. They had protected their women, and I hadn’t. This was on me.
“You sure they took her?” I looked at Jules.
“No, man. I’m not.” Jules shook his head. “A lot of this still doesn’t makes sense but I brought you our best guess.
Best Guess? You have got to be shitting me. My reason for fucking living is missing and you bring me your best guess????????
“So, this is what… speculation?” I looked around the table at the three men with incredulity.
“Statistically speaking it makes sense. When I put all the factors of Liddy’s disappearance and cross-reference them with a bunch of other shit, abduction by the organizations I told you about here, was the most likely outcome. I gotta do a deeper dive for the rest of it, and that’s what I have my guys working on now.” Jules explained calmly.
“Statistically speaking?”
WTF
“I know, man, sounds cold and too damn scientific for what we do, but I’ve been working at this shit for years and the results are indisputable,” Jules said with absolute confidence. “I have patents on intellectual property and have made a damn fortune selling programs to the behavioral science division at the bureau. Remember that Ryan Hill case a couple of years ago? One of my programs helped to solve that.”
“I need to take a piss.” Jet got up from the table. “Why don’t we all take a minute?”
“You said most likely.” I ignored Jet and honed in on Jules again.
“Yeah.”
So there’s a chance they didn’t take her?” I looked down at the 8x10 black and white glossary of a dozen dead trafficked women.
“Yeah. There’s a chance. There’s a chance this whole thing has nothing to do with us.” Jules nodded. “But I can promise you this, if Liddy’s abduction has anything to do with the war going on with the cartel? The Latin Jackals have your woman, and we’ve got about 48 hours before she disappears for good.”
Liddy
I woke to the putrid odor of decay. That’s what hit me first, it was the smell of must and mold and fear. Slowly the rest of my senses began checking in. Everything was fuzzy. My head hurt, my jaw ached and I thought my nose might be broken. My hands were shackled up over my head, and my legs were spread eagle with each ankle cuffed to the bed frame. Claustrophobia set in hard as the heat of my panicked breath steamed the inside of the hood. Fear and abject terror had taken my ability to inhale and exhale away. My heart started pounding as my chest moved up and down in a panicked struggle to get some air in. My stomach cramped in excruciating waves of pain that crawled up to my chest. I was having a heart attack. I was going to die and I didn’t even know why.
“Jesus Christ!” A strong hand slid under my neck and lifted the hood that covered my face to just under my eyes. As my lungs instinctually took in long cleansing breaths, my heart rate began to slow down and the cramping slowly subsided.
