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She was wearing a holey sweater and ripped jeans. If I didn’t know better, I’d ask her if she needed money. A guy built like a linebacker entered behind her. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t place his face.
“She’s been gone since yesterday, and I didn’t know until twenty minutes ago?” She took up position in front of us, hands on her hips. “When were you going to tell me? When they start sending body parts?”
I gulped, now unable to get images of a mutilated Quinn out of my head.
“Nice, sis. Really nice,” Gabriel drawled. “Why don’t you tell us what else they’ll do to her? I think Liam would like to find out more about the torture methods you think they’d choose.”
Freya’s gaze turned to me, her eyes softening when she undoubtedly saw the expression on my face. “I’m sorry, Liam. That was careless.” Face hardening again, she turned back to all of us. “Have you found anything yet?”
Shaking his head, Gabriel dropped down into the closest chair with a loud exhale. “Nothing. She disappeared into thin air. The camera angle was off, only showing her standing up. Then she was gone.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.Youmight not have been able to find anything, butIdid,” the big guy said, and all our eyes snapped to him. “There’s surveillance footage from the shoe store across the walkway. They’ve had a few issues lately and installed their own cameras.”
The guy set a laptop on the table, and Jude handed him a cable to connect it to the screen. Then we watched the grainy footage of Quinn getting dragged through a maintenance door. Now that we had an idea of where she might come out, we were able to find the license plate of the car she’d been taken away in.
I felt like I was going to break out of my skin. The bastards had injected her with something before carrying her away. Nobody had noticed because they made it look like she was drunk and they were helping her walk. “They’ve been watching her. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I wonder how long they’ve been planning this.”
“A while. There’d been chatter for weeks about something big going down, though nobody knew what,” Freya piped up. Staring at my sister, I wondered how she had so much information.
Interpreting my look correctly, she shrugged. “Gunner tells me everything. Well, almost everything. Not the gory details, because yuck. He’s been trying to get a handle on who’s acquiring soldiers and equipment as if it’s the end of the world.”
Jude leaned forward, raising a brow. “Don’t be a brat and just tell us what he found out, no matter how much you enjoy having the upper hand.”
Poking her tongue out at him, she turned to the guy who came in with her. “This is Vlad. He’s Aleksándr’s brother. And Quinn’s sous-chef.”
That’s when it all clicked into place. I’d seen a photo of him when I did a background check on all of Quinn’s employees. But there was no mention of a possible connection to Aleksándr. How could we have missed something so big? The reports I’d received regularly only mentioned him as Quinn’s employee and friend.
“Aleksándr’s men are on their way there as we speak. The car Quinn got shoved into is registered to an Olga Smith. Obviously, she’s not the one who kidnapped Quinn, but she might be able to lead us to who did.”
Ignoring the pounding in my head, I checked I had all my guns, making sure everything was in its place. I’d need them. “What’s her address?”
Vlad studied me. “No need for you to go. Aleksándr’s men will take care of it. They’ll let us know if they find anything. He won’t fail me. Not when I’m calling in my marker.”
Staring at him, I clutched the back of the chair.
Ignoring my puzzled expression and lack of answer, Vlad got up. “Quinn is like a daughter to me. And I will make sure those bastards that took her will regret ever setting eyes on her.”
Neither Jude nor Gabriel fared any better in hiding their surprise, all of us watching Vlad walk out of the room.
“Stop staring. It’s rude,” Freya said. “He’s a good guy, despite his family.”
Walking over to where Vlad left the tablet, I played the footage again. And again. Besides the license plate, there were no other clues as to who’d taken Quinn.
Vlad came back a few minutes later, carrying a machine gun over his shoulder while checking the magazine of a handgun. “They found something.”
Chairs scraped across the floor, and then everyone was rushing to the elevator.
We were in the car a few minutes later, Gabriel driving, Vlad in the front since he was too big to cram in the back. Jude was in the middle seat, poking his elbows at me and Freya, ignoring our protests. “GPS says we’re twenty minutes away,” Vlad said.
“Try ten,” Gabriel growled, then flew out of the parking garage, barely waiting for the gate to open.
We pulled into an industrial estate that had a few residential areas scattered within. Vlad pointed to a small house nestled behind a white picket fence and pruned roses.
Gunner and Aleksándr’s men were stationed in various yards and sitting in cars. If I hadn’t known they were there, I would have missed them.
We parked in the alleyway, the closest meeting spot that wouldn’t give us away, to find Gunner and Aleksándr squaring up against each other. The two men oozed distrust in their postures and pinched expressions.
Aleksándr nodded at us when we approached. “There’s one person in the basement and five on the ground level. My men have covered every exit, so nobody gets in or out without us knowing. Gunner’s taking care of cutting any communications.”
