Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 97921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
“When Bella’s school was posted this morning. I followed her, not Izzy. Man, we have to find her. Someone took Bella off the school grounds after your guys left. Please, I’m here to help.”
Just then, Jace and Gio come rushing out of Gio’s office. They take in the scene before them and the frowns on their faces deepen.
“Who is he?”
Dante drops him and takes a step back.
“The man I’m going to kill if we don’t get our daughter back,” I reply.
“Jeez, what’s with you people?”
“Start talking, or I’m going to kill you either way,” I seethe.
“I tried to follow them, but I lost them. My drone fell out of range or was scrambled or something.”
“When I reverse hacked the person doxing Izzy, I got some shell company’s info. I hit a wall there. I can give you a description of the car and pull pictures from the drone of the person who took her.”
“Come with me,” Jace orders.
The guy turns to me, with a small smile, he says, “My name is Aaron, Izzy. It’s so nice to meet you.”
“Not now, kid. Find my daughter,” I reply.
“This day just keeps getting better,” Gio snarls.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I found your mother-in-law.”
“Where is she?”
“Her head is in the freezer at your in-laws’ home.”
“What the fuck?”
“I don’t know, but that can wait. Unless you have something to tell me.”
Dante shakes his head. “You already know what I know about all of that.”
Gio nods. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Dante’s phone rings and it’s like all the air is sucked out of the room. He pulls it out and places it on speaker.
“Hello.”
“You want your daughter back. I want money. We trade. I’ll text you the address. No funny business. I see a single cop and it’s all over.”
“You’re going to wish the cops were there, you son of a bitch,” Dante snarls.
The person laughs. “Twenty million. That’s change to you.”
“Let me talk to my daughter.”
There’s a small pause. “Daddy,” Bella whimpers.
“I’m coming for you, sweetheart. Be brave for Daddy.”
I look to Gio as the call ends, my chest heaving. “Her necklace. The teddy bear is a tracker. I’ll call Denise to track it.”
Dante
I can’t stop pacing the conference room we’re in. So many thoughts are going through my head. After watching the video, Bella will never return to that school again and they’ll be lucky if they can keep their doors open after I’m done with them.
“How the fuck did this happen?” I roar.
No one can get me answers. We still don’t know where my daughter is. The tracker isn’t working. We think it’s being scrambled like the kid’s drone.
All we know is that it’s Peter fucking Hall in the pictures Aaron pulled from his drone. I’m going to pull his spine from his body while his heart is still beating.
“How can we help?” Elijah says as he and Denise enter the room.
“Any luck with unscrambling the tracker?” Nyla asks.
“No, I tried the whole way here,” Denise says sadly.
“Guys, this isn’t adding up. It looks like Peter has only been getting the information from the forums like me. His accounts say he doesn’t have the type of money he would need for a scrambler of this magnitude, and he hasn’t had funds in the last six months.
“Dude is broke as fuck,” Aaron snorts and shakes his head. “Don’t you guys pay really well?”
“He was an intern,” Lizzy grumbles. She looks at me with tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Dante. This is all my fault.”
I walk over to her as she sits at the conference table, bouncing her leg and wringing her hands. I cup the back of her head and press my forehead to hers. “This isn’t your fault. We’re going to get her back.”
“His apartment is empty,” Gio informs me as he hangs up his phone.
“Fuck,” I bellow. “We keep hitting walls. I need something I can use.”
“The guys found maps from several old malls and abandoned buildings. I have them checking all of them.”
“I can help with that. I just need to find the tower that call to Mr. Di Lorenzo pinged from and match abandon locations and cross reference those with the area I lost single in,” Aaron says from his laptop. He types frantically on the keys of his laptop. “Bingo. I have it.”
My phone pings at the same time. “So do I,” I growl as the text comes in. “We have two hours.”
“I’m downloading the blueprints from the city archives,” Aaron says.
“I might be starting to like you, kid,” Gio says.
Aaron pushes up his glasses and grins. “Cool, I totally work for hire.”
“Don’t push it,” I mutter.
“Just saying.” He shrugs.
At that moment, Dario walks through the door. His gaze scans the room for me. When we lock eyes, he gives me a nod.
“What do you need?”
“He’s giving me two hours to get there. I need all of the men we have and someplace to bury the pieces of this fuck after I’m done with him.”