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“Thank you for your time,” he said politely, heading back to his car. He answered his phone on the second ring. “Yes, Matilda?”
“You better get here. You’re gonna shit yourself.”
Hunter didn’t bother to press her for more information. When Matilda’s voice turned all wheezy, he knew better than to ask for information she wouldn’t be prepared to share over the phone.
“You were right about Rocco Butler,” she said the moment he walked into her office at Ground Zero Headquarters. “But you’re not gonna fucking believe this.” With eyes aglow, she typed in a couple of commands and a photo of Rocco appeared on the large screen against the wall. “I used your facial recognition program and combined it with the identifier algorithm you designed for the CIA and voilà! As you can see, the two algorithms drill down into the facial bone structures of the picture we have. I then used that and compared it with a wide search to find a match. I found him. Rocco Butler was born and raised as Mark Riccardo Watts, your roommate in your final two years at college.”
“And the man I gave ten million dollars to help him kickstart a career instead of giving him a job as a director.” Hunter stared at the two pictures. “I knew something was familiar about him in the way he carried himself. How the fuck did he manage such a complete change?”
“He had a series of plastic surgeries done on his face when he was thirty. Nose job, chin, cheek implants, you name it, he did it. No doubt his aim was to change his appearance completely.”
“Anything on the phone calls?”
“All I can find is that the calls pinged off the same cell tower every time, on Maury Island. Lilith’s phone is off, so no luck there. What I did find is that the hack into Sensations Sub Academy came from Butler’s office at DevelopMate. Do you think he and Lilith worked together and if so, why? What are they after?”
“Butler used the Princes to get to me. It seems he has a bone to pick with me. I guess it’s a case of sour grapes because I am where I am today, and he’s still a bottom feeder. He was after the designs I was working on, that much I know.”
“Well, it’s too late. They’re already sold and uploaded. We’re running tests tomorrow. Nothing he does now can change that.”
“Perhaps not, but I need you to find Rocco Butler, Matilda. Mark Watts was a lazy ass and a vulture, feeding off everyone around him. He cashed the money I gave him, but he never used it to make anything of himself. Fuck! Of course, that’s why Leigh came to the academy!”
“Leigh Simms? What does she have to do with him?”
“I never met her, but she always used to phone Mark, or Rocco, when we were at college. It became a game to flirt with each other. Jesus, I can’t believe he would use his own cousin in his desire to destroy my success.”
“So, he aimed to blacken your reputation with lies about the club, steal your designs and… what?”
“Fuck if I know. Find him, Matilda. Lilith tried to tell me she was out, that she wasn’t going to do what Rocco wanted. If that is true, he would be livid. He might even have it in his head that she means something to me because of our trip to Castle Sin. My gut says he took her to get to me.”
“Yeah, another tidbit of information I found is that Rocco Butler was engaged to Lilith Prince, but she ended it about four years ago. Apparently, there is a visible animosity between them, even in public, so it definitely wasn’t an amicable break-up.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Hunter swore up and down and in every compass direction when realization struck. The fucking bastard was the one who used his domination to abuse her and had her raped by his friends. For that alone, he should be made to suffer.
“Lilith is in serious danger. Start looking. Hack into the live Earth geo satellite. They store video images for six months. Start searching from Lilith’s house on that Sunday, two weeks ago. Get a location on Rocco’s phone. I’ve got to find her, Matilda.”
An hour later, Matilda walked into his office, immediately linking her tablet to the big screen on the wall.
“I can’t locate his cell, but Lilith definitely didn’t go with the bastard of her own free will.” A visual flashed on the screen of Lilith’s car being forced off the road at Lincoln Park. From there, she was yanked out of her car, knocked unconscious by a masked man, and thrown into the back of a blue van. “Whoever it is knows how to avoid traffic cams. We lost the van when it disappeared into an underground parking garage in Georgetown. I found a report of an abandoned van, so he must have switched cars and ditched it there.”
“So, you don’t know where she is.”
“I didn’t say that. Butler has been going to the office every day but every second day, instead of going home, he drives to the docks and from there takes a ferry to Maury Island. We’re still scouring the Earth geo satellite feeds, but my gut says he’s holding her hostage somewhere there.”
“Keep looking. I’m heading out to the island in the meantime. Send me coordinates and his exact location as soon as you have it.”
“Go, Boss. I’ll find her.”
An unused hunter’s cabin, Maury Island Natural Area, WA…
Hunter and Reece approached the cabin from the south side, hunkering down behind a thick western hemlock-spruce.
“Keep low. Matilda confirmed that Butler arrived here ten minutes ago.” Hunter checked the heat sensor monitor that Reece had brought along. As an owner of a recovery and secure company, he had all the tools they needed to extract Lilith. “Two signals inside.”
“No fucking way she’s here willingly, Hunter.”
“I know she’s not. I spoke to her brother earlier, and he never realized what a bastard Rocco really is. He acknowledged he knew Rocco was sometimes doing underhanded dealings but believed him that they were harmless.”
“Why didn’t he phone the police when his sister disappeared?”
