Page 61 of The Veteran

I rubbed my throbbing temple. “It’s kind of an unofficial thing.”

“Whatever that means,” she muttered. “Okay, I understand. Let me know when she’s safe and don’t worry, we’ll hold the fort here. Good luck.”

I thanked her and hung up. Then I made another call. One I’d really rather not make, but I knew I had to. I’d tried to do everything myself once before and it had bitten me in the ass. It was time to do things differently. Zeke answered just before the call went to voicemail.

“I need your help,” I bit out. “Sage has been taken.”

25

KADE

As I arrived at the King’s Security offices, everyone got the hell out of my way. I marched through the warren of cubicles and computers where Zeke’s staff were based and let myself into his office. He was sitting behind the desk, a wall of monitors in front of him.

“Why didn’t we have eyes on her?” I demanded. “Shouldn’t there have been a security camera in the safe house so someone could have raised the alarm as she was trying to leave?”

Zeke arched one pierced eyebrow as he glanced up, clearly not bothered by my belligerent attitude. “Generally, we’re trying to keep people out of our safe houses, not inside them.”

I swallowed a sound of frustration. What good was it being part of a billion-dollar company if we didn’t take advantage of all of the perks—such as state-of-the-art, real time camera systems?

“I don’t understand how a sweet little yoga teacher managed to sneak past trained security personnel with some of the best resourcing in the country,” I snapped.

Finally, a flicker of anger crossed Zeke’s face. It was the most genuine emotion I’d ever seen out of him. He stood and rounded the desk, then jabbed a finger into my chest.

“Look, Campbell.” His tone was low and dangerous. “I know you and I don’t often see eye to eye, and a lot of that is on me. I’ve always enjoyed winding you up. But how about, instead of blaming everyone else for losing your girl, you take a good look in the mirror.”

I frowned. What did he mean?

“I spoke to Sean earlier,” Zeke continued. “He told me he’d suggested having Lyle inside the apartment but you vetoed the idea. Lyle wouldn’t have needed to shower. He’d have had no reason to let Sage out of his sight and she might still be tucked up safely inside that apartment. But you thought you knew better.” He grimaced. “You need to be a better team player.”

I gaped. Me? A better team player? “That’s rich, coming from you.”

Zeke rolled his eyes. “You don’t approve of my way of doing things. I get it. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.” He backed off a few steps and jerked his head toward the wall of computer monitors. “Come on, I’ll show you what we’ve got.”

I rounded his desk, feeling chastised and a little ashamed. Here I was taking out my frustration on him when he was only trying to help. Both Sage and my mom would be disappointed in me. Hell, I was disappointed in me.

“Watch this.” He hit play on what looked to be poor-quality security camera footage. On the screen, I saw Mick arrive at the coffee house and take a seat. Zeke fast-forwarded through some of the footage, then hit pause. “That’s her,” he said, pointing to a figure who’d just come into view. He started it playing again. “She says something but before she has time to sit down, Baker comes up behind her.”

I watched, a sour taste in my mouth, as a nondescript man guided Sage away from the table, his body language indicating he was holding something to her back. I was tempted to ask why no one had noticed, but playing the blame game wasn’t going to help anyone.

Zeke clicked out of the footage and opened another video clip. This one was clearer and from a different angle. It showed Getty opening the door of a sedan. Sage and Baker appeared and I watched, my heart in my mouth, as Sage attacked Baker and then, having bested him, began to struggle with Getty. Even though I knew the outcome, I found myself mentally wishing she’d make a clean escape. But no, she was bundled into the sedan and they took off before anybody could intervene.

“Damn,” I growled.

“That’s not all.” Zeke brought up a map of the city, with several small red dots on it. “Jonah was able to get the license plate and did a city-wide search of traffic cameras. They passed by these,” he dragged his finger along the route set out by the red dots, “and were last captured entering this industrial district.” He clicked a check box and a smattering of gray dots appeared. “These are all the known traffic cameras in the area. They weren’t captured on this one or this one,” he showed me the ones he meant, “so it’s possible they’re still within that district. Perhaps they’ve found an abandoned warehouse or rented a storage container to use as a base.”

I circled the area with my finger. “You think they’re somewhere in here?”

He shrugged. “It’s my best guess, but Jonah is keeping an eye on the camera information in case the license plate is pinged again.”

Some of the tightness around my chest eased. “This is good. Have you told the cops?”

“Already sent it to Jo.” He typed something, clicked, and then my phone buzzed. “You have the map now too.”

“Thanks.” The back of my throat ached. “I appreciate you dropping everything to look into it. I’m, uh, sorry for being a jerk.”

Zeke heaved an overly dramatic sigh. “Apology accepted. Just don’t do it again.”

I clapped him on the back. “Thanks.” My tone was gruff. “I’ll be in touch when I’ve got her.”