Whirlwind (SAI Book 2) (22 page)

“Okay. Try Sam again and have him call me.”

“On it.”

The parking lot lights were flicking on and off due to the storm, which was making it difficult to see anything. He ran over to the far corner of the lot and started scanning the area. Nothing. He passed Sara’s car and continued to move across the lot. In the far corner, he saw a lump of something. Running over, he realized that it was Sara’s bright pink purse. Heart stuttering, he picked it up and noticed the dark tracks that ran over the top. Someone must’ve run it over. Sliding the clasp open, he looked inside. Her phone, wallet and Kindle were inside. It wasn’t a robbery. Someone had gotten to her. And he had failed to keep her safe. On his knees, he said several prayers. He wasn’t a man who attended church, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t have a relationship with God. “Please protect her until I can get to her.”

His phone buzzing brought him out of his thoughts. “What do you have?”

Sammy yelled into the phone, “How the fuck did you let this happen?”

“Is the Outfit on the move? Is this their work?”

“We have no reason to believe it’s them. I had the analysts run through the last couple of hours of audio and camera feed, and it’s business as usual. We have a guy on the inside. But he’s a low-level enforcer, so it’s going to be hard to get intel right away. None of the usual suspects have gotten on a plane in the last twenty-four hours. And the men who would probably be assigned are all here in Chicago.”

“Unless they hired a contractor for wet work.”

“They don’t want her dead. They want the password so they can get their money and list back.”

“Then, they want her dead.”

“Probably. Fuck, I’m getting on a plane in two hours. I’m guessing you have Lucky working her magic with security tapes and whatever else you need. Keep me updated. I’ll see you sometime after midnight.”

Grady ran to his truck, climbed in, and called Dane. When the call connected, he started talking. “Sam has no confirmation that this is the Outfit. All the suspects are still in Chicago. It’s possible they hired a local.”

“I’m heading into the office, and Lance is going to meet me there, along with Trevor and Harris. Lucky confirmed that the tapes are on the server.”

“Start looking at the street cams after two. That’s when she left the house.”

“Got it. See you in a few.”

Grady ended the call and drove out of the parking lot. As he made his way onto the highway, he tried to keep his thoughts calm. He couldn’t lose his shit, because that wouldn’t help Sara. She needed him to use every ounce of experience that he had gained over fourteen years on the Teams.

Failure wasn’t an option. It never had been, and this was no exception.

***

Grady strode into the SAI offices. It was now nine, and his best guess was that Sara had been missing for at least six hours. For all he knew, she could be out of the country by now. Shaking his head, he loosened the thought. No, not going down that road.

Slamming through the door of command central, he saw Dane, Lance, and Harris sitting in front of computers, going through the feeds from the traffic cams. He’d always been grateful for his brothers, but never more so than in this minute. “Any luck?” he called out as he grabbed a seat.

Lance briefly glanced up. “I hate gray cars. They blend into everything. We’ve tracked her from the house through three errands. It doesn’t seem like anyone was tailing her.”

Dane sat on the other side of Harris and hadn’t said anything. His eyes were glued to the screen. Sitting back, he rubbed his head. “I’m looking at the tape from the market. I started with the feeds from inside the store. I haven’t picked up Sara yet.”

Harris popped his head up and shook it. “I’m on the outside cameras. Nothing yet.”

“I’ll look at the traffic cameras leading away from the market,” Grady stated. He logged in, pulled up the link for the feed and started going through it. They were damn lucky that Hank had been smart enough to hire one of the country’s best hackers. When he’d caught her trying to break into a secure site they had set up for a company that manufactured parts for the Trident subs, he did the smart thing and hired her. Gave her a reason to go straight and use her talents for good and not evil. The coms set up in the Chicago office reminded him of what he’d seen when he’d contracted with the CIA. They were that good.

“Got her!” Dane shouted. He zoomed in and picked up Sara exiting her car. “Entering the market at fifteen hundred.”

“Shit,” Lance barked. “A blue van has showed up three times. I missed it on the first two stops. There are not that many navy-blue cargo vans in the world.” He zoomed in on the image and wrote down the plate. Grabbing his phone, he called Lucky. “Hey, darlin’. Can you run a plate? I’m on the loop and I don’t want to stop. Okay, thanks. Owe you.”

“I’ll track the blue van on the cameras from the parking lot,” Harris called.

Grady got up and stood behind Dane as they tracked Sara through the market. His heart lurched, and he felt like he’d taken a knife to the chest. Seeing her happy and relaxed and knowing that she was in danger and he’d done nothing to prevent it made him sick. “I’m not seeing anyone following her or really noticing her,” he commented.

“Yeah, the same person is not showing up with her as we move through the frames,” Dane added.

“Got the blue van entering the parking lot. Whoever is driving it parked in the far corner,” Harris called out.

Seconds ticked by as they each watched the tape. Details were noted and patterns recognized. “Here we go. She’s about to check out,” Grady said to himself. “The person in the van should be getting out soon.”

Dane and Grady watched as Sara checked out and walked out of the market. Just as she was moving to her car, the wind started to whip around her. They could see her struggle with the shopping cart, and Grady swore she was never going to the market alone ever again. Hell, once he saved her, she was never going to be out of his sight. They watched the wind slam her trunk closed and then open again. To see her fight with the cart, the wind, and the groceries made Grady angry. She should’ve never been out there alone. The thunderstorm started the moment someone entered the frame as Sara was finishing up. Grady and Dane leaned forward simultaneously, and Dane slowed the loop. “If that’s a man, he’s small. It’s hard to tell, though,” Grady commented.

The person approaching Sara had dark pants, a dark jacket and a hat shoved low to cover the face. There was a gun in the person’s hand—that much was clear. Sara never saw the person coming. The storm had probably drowned out the sound of approaching footsteps. She never had a chance to defend herself before the person shoved the gun into her back. They watched the exchange, and Sara didn’t turn around for the first several moments of the conversation. Why hadn’t he taught her to disarm someone?

“She’s doing the right thing,” Dane said. “She doesn’t have the skills to go up against someone who has a gun.”

“Who the fuck is this?” Grady shouted.

They both watched as the person started to drag Sara away. As they passed under one of the lights in the parking lot, Sara’s face and her attacker’s were perfectly illuminated. Grady fell into the chair and let out a stream of curses. “Holy fuck! It’s Angelina who grabbed her.”

A phone rang, and Lance picked his up. “What did you come up with? Balcom Trucking is the registered owner. Okay, thanks.”

“That’s the trucking company that Angelina’s family owns,” Grady said quietly.

“Makes sense that she didn’t try to get away. Sara probably hedged her bets because she knows how crazy Angelina is and figured she’d be shot if she tried to get away,” Dane said to the room.

“I’ll track the van for as far as I can, but it’s going to take time, and we probably don’t have that much of it,” Harris said, as he changed the feed that was coming into his computer.

“I’ll call Angelina’s father and get as much information as I can,” Grady said, as he walked out of the coms room.

“I’ll look up all the buildings that Balcom owns or leases, and then we can start clearing those,” Dane said, as his fingers started flying over the keys. “Lance, call Lucky and have her trace anything connected to Angelina. Maybe we can get a ping on her phone.”

“On it.”

Dane lifted the phone next to his computer and called Trevor. When the call was answered, Dane barked into the phone, “All hands on deck. Sara was snatched.” Grady heard Trevor curse as Dane ended the call. They would have the rest of the Team here within the hour. They were going to need every person available to bring Sara home safely.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Sara had finally been allowed to sit on the couch instead of the office chair. She also had managed to talk Angelina into securing her hands in front of her body as opposed to behind her back. There wasn’t a tactical reason that she could think of, but it was a lot more comfortable.

As far as she could tell, Angelina was in the grips of a losing battle with sanity. There would be moments where she could tell that Angelina was trying to make a rational decision, and then the other part of her psyche would take hold and she would start ranting. If Sarah hadn’t been scared out of her mind, she might’ve found it really fascinating. Ang had walked out of the office thirty minutes ago, and she wondered what she had been up to. Certainly nothing that boded well for Sara.

The sound of footsteps on the stairs alerted her that crazy Ang was back. When she burst through the door, Sara could tell that the lucid Ang had lost the battle with the crazy one. Would it be impolite to ask what her diagnosis was? It sure would be interesting to know what haunted her and caused her to behave so irrationally. “Do you have a plan for how this kidnapping is going to end?”

“You gave me the perfect solution. I’ll bet you didn’t even know that, did you?”

Shaking her head, Sara felt her hands grow clammy and her knees start to rattle against one another. The words that Ang just uttered let her know that she didn’t have much time to come up with a solution. Faking confidence, she threw her hair back over her shoulder. “Really?”

“I called my cousin in Chicago and told him to let the family know that I have something they want. They should be here by tomorrow morning.”

“I handed that one to you on a silver platter.”

“I know. I couldn’t have planned it more perfectly. They will take care of you, and I won’t go to jail. If this works out the way I hope…Grady and I may have a chance at reconciling.”

Sara was struck speechless. What could she say that wouldn’t sound like total bullshit? Nothing.

“I’m surprised that you have no snappy response. You’ve been full of them since I grabbed you out of the parking lot.”

“If you and Grady are meant to be together, then I’m sure it will happen.” There…that sounded like a total nonanswer. “So, how is it that you have some family members in the Outfit? I thought it was an all-or-nothing type of thing.”

“No. It’s a choice. My Dad left Chicago when he was a teenager, and he was never a made man. He has two brothers who were part of the family. What was Sal’s role in the Outfit?”

“I’m not really sure. He told me that he advised on matters of leadership. At first I thought he was a management consultant.”

“You had no idea that he was part of the mob?” Throwing her head back, Angelina let out raucous laughter. “You really are naïve. How could you not know that?”

Straightening up, Sara glared at her captor. “I didn’t happen to grow up in the underbelly of the criminal world. My father had a long, distinguished career in the Navy and my mother was an artist. I grew up in Georgia. I had the perfect family, and had no reason to believe that my biological father was a killer.”

“Oops. Mom must’ve gotten it on with good old Sal as a last hurrah.”

“I think it was her first hurrah, and she had no idea what he was into. The best I can tell is that I’m a result of a lost weekend. My mom went to Chicago for a seminar about Dali and met Sal. It was a one-time thing.”

“So, how did you find out about it?”

“My parents were killed in a plane crash, and I was going through our home and found a box of letters. Apparently Mom had gone up to Chicago to tell Sal about me, and she must’ve figured out what he was involved with, because she never spoke with him in person. There are letters between them, and she lied to him. He was begging to see her again, and she said she wasn’t up for it. She told him that she had been pregnant but lost the baby. He never wrote after that.”

Moving around on the couch, she tried to relieve the cramp in her leg. “The collection of letters didn’t make sense to me, so I looked up Sal on Google and contacted him about getting together. I had no idea what he was into. If I had, I never would have bothered.”

“So, you were not that impressed with dear old Dad?”

“No, I wasn’t. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t anything between us, and I wasn’t interested in making something. The only thing I got out of it was knowing where my eye color came from.”

“Yeah, you have those witchy green eyes that all the Marinos have.”

Moving around, Sara realized that she had to use the bathroom. “Can you unbind my legs? I have to use the ladies’ room.”