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Even if she rejects me, even if she sends me away and tells me she never wants to see me again, I’ll know it and she’ll know it. I close my eyes just for a second, my ears ringing with the realization. Even the damn fan stops bothering me for a second.
I turn the new information over in my head, assessing it from all sides. I’ve never loved anyone before, not even in a non-romantic way. I’d take a bullet for anyone of my brothers, but I’d never say that I love them. Half the time I can’t stand them. It’s a lot for me to take in and my brain is kicked into hyperdrive.
The next thing I know, my phone buzzes against me. I hold it up to my face and realize that two hours have gone by. I must have fallen asleep. Even more surprising, there’s an email notification on my phone. I didn’t even know I got emails on this phone. It’s certainly the first time I’ve gotten a notification.
Snake set us all up with email addresses a few years ago, saying that we had to legitimize ourselves as businessmen. He added the damn app to my phone and I never thought about it again until this moment. Curiosity gets the best of me, even though all I want to do is lie in the dark and shut out the world. There’s an attachment in the email from a blocked address. In my head, I hear Snake giving a lecture about email safety, but I don’t care. This could be important.
My stomach rolls when I see Melissa sitting there, tied to a chair. She’s holding a newspaper with today’s date, and she’s clearly been crying. Her skin is pale and waxy, and her hair looks flatter than I remember. She looks awful, and it’s all I can do not to scream out in anger.
“This is a message to the Ruthless Kings,” she says with a shaky, hoarse voice. “I know that you’re looking for me, but you have to stop. My captors only want one thing. My father resigns from office and they let me go. End of story. If you come for me, they will kill me.”
She delivers the message with as much courage as she can, her voice not breaking on the words. But her shoulders are sagged and tears form in her eyes as she begs us not to come for her. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?
I quickly get out of bed and run to my door, nearly knocking Seer over when I try to leave. He’s standing in the doorway, hand raised in an apparent knock. He’s startled and there’s a grim look on his face, but he doesn’t move. He plants himself firmly in my way so that I can’t get past him.
“It doesn’t change anything,” he says, and I know he’s seen the video. “We’re not going to stop looking for her. We’re going to get her back.”
“And what if you get her killed?” I shout, my voice carrying down the hall. I see Hemlock stick his head out of his room and shoot me a sympathetic look before going back inside and shutting the door. “How did this even happen?”
“We’re looking into it,” Seer says calmly, putting his hand against my chest to calm me. He should know that won’t work, but he’s not backing down. “Snake is downstairs right now analyzing the video and running system checks. There’s probably a leak somewhere and we’re going to deal with it.”
“Move, Seer,” I tell him, my voice low and dangerous. “Get the hell out of my way, I’m not going to be treated like a prisoner in my own damn house.”
Seer steps aside and gestures for me to exit. I brush past him and run through the house until I get to Snake’s office. He’s typing fast and furiously at his machines, cursing under his breath.
“What the fuck…” he mutters quietly, trailing off. “What the actual fu—”
“What is it?” I ask him, invading the small space of the office. “Tell me something helpful for once.”
He glances up at me briefly before turning back to his monitor and squinting. He types away at an unbelievable speed, code quickly appearing and disappearing on the screens.
“I’m handling it,” he tells me simply. “That’s the best I can offer you.”
“Do better,” I tell him seriously. “Get that tech freak of a wife down here and figure out how the hell these assholes knew we were coming for them.”
“It isn’t that easy,” he says, still not looking at me. “The video is encrypted to shit, and somewhere there’s a microscopic hole in the system that I can’t find. We fortified this system better than the Pentagon last year, so there’s no reason that anyone should have been able to get past the firewalls.”
“I’m hearing a lot of excuses,” I seethe. “I’m not hearing any solutions.”
“The solution…” he starts with clenched teeth, craning his neck to look at something on his second monitor. “The solution is that you get out of here and let me work. The longer you distract me, the longer it takes for me to get to the bottom of the leak. I know you’re worried about your girl, but I can’t help her until I figure out who exactly hacked my system and how.”
“Take a lap,” Seer says from behind me, and I turn to glare at him. “We both know this isn’t Snake’s fault. He’s only just gotten back, he couldn’t have known.”
I push past him again, the ever-present nervous energy coursing through my body until I’m unable to do anything but pace. Melissa is going to die if her father doesn’t drop out of the race. Hell, she might still die if he does. I’m not going to trust the assholes who took her to keep their word. I’ll tear the city apart to find her, but if I do, they’ll put a bullet in her head. I’m trapped.
“He has to drop out of the race,” I say desperately. “Seer, you have to make him drop out of the race, it’s the only way we’ll get her back!”
“I’m leaving now,” he says. “I’m going to talk to him and we’ll figure it out. We won’t let her die, Bones, you have to believe that.”
I nod and pinch the bridge of my nose, where I can feel pressure forming. Dammit, I’m not going to start crying in front of Seer. That’s not something I do. The last time I remember crying, I was five years old. What the hell has this woman done to me?
“You tell him that if he doesn’t call a press conference, I’m personally coming after him,” I say with all the strength I can muster. “He can hire an entire army to protect him and I’ll still get to him.”
“Don’t be stupid, Bones,” he tells me with genuine concern. “Don’t think for a second he doesn’t care about his daughter as much as you do. He came here on a suicide mission today to get her back when he thought we had her. He’s not going to let them kill her.”
I nod and watch him go, sure that he’s going to do what’s best for everyone, and afraid none of it will matter. Seer is a great leader, but he’s also a diplomat to his core. He wants to keep the peace, and I want a war right now. The second I hear his bike pull away, I’m back in Snake’s office, standing over him while he works.
“That won’t make me go faster,” he says sarcastically. “If you want to be useful, go get me Seer’s laptop. The more machines I have working on this, the better.”
