My truck comes to a screeching stop outside Alejandro’s hotel and I jump out, tossing my keys to one of his security who stands waiting for me. Alejandro is there too, holding Matthias in his arms. A woman stands beside him and two kids play around her feet while a third kid, older than the others, stands staring at a cell phone. I jog over to them.
“Jax!” Matthias squeals with delight as I approach. The kid has a huge smile on his face and I am thankful that he seems to know nothing of what is going on.
“Hey, buddy.” I ruffle his hair as I shoot Alejandro an anxious look.
“You must be Jordan,” I say to the woman standing beside him.
“Yes.” She smiles but her face is full of anxiety and concern.
“Thank you for bringing him here.”
“Of course.” She nods. It’s difficult to talk with four kids around, when we have to maintain a sense of calm.
“Do you know anything?” she asks.
“Not yet. You remember anything else that might help?”
“No. I’m sorry.” She shakes her head and her eyes brim with tears.
“Are you okay, Mommy?” the little boy at her feet asks as he clings to her leg.
“Yes, sugar,” she wipes the tears from her eyes and smiles at him. “My allergies.”
“I’ll have one of my drivers escort you all home. Thank you again,” Alejandro says to her.
“Please keep me updated, won’t you?” she asks.
“Of course. We’ll call you as soon as we can.”
I watch her and her children being escorted to her car by one of Alejandro’s security staff.
“Alana is on her way. She’s going to stay in the suite with the boys,” he says to me as soon as Jordan is out of sight. As though he has conjured her by speaking her name, Hugo’s car pulls up and Alana jumps out of it. She runs to us, taking Matthias from her husband’s arms and squeezing him tight.
“Nana,” he giggles, still blissfully unaware that his mother is missing. A few seconds later, Hugo unstraps the twins from their seats and walks toward us with them.
“Take them all upstairs and we’ll call you as soon as we can,” Alejandro instructs Hugo, who is one of the few people he trusts with his family’s safety. There is no danger to anyone else that we’re aware of yet, but having them at the hotel is a precaution in case there’s something bigger going on. He knows they’re completely safe here so he can focus all of his energies on finding Lucia.
“How will you find her?” Alana whispers as she presses Matthias’ face to her chest and covers his ear with her hand.
“I have my methods,” he says cryptically. “I’ll have her back to you before tomorrow morning. I promise you.”
“You’d better,” she says and rests her hand on his cheek.
“Go inside,” he orders and she does so, along with Hugo and the three boys.
“I’ve got all of the information Jessie could dig up on this guy. His parents’ address. Every relative—”
“We can track her,” he interrupts as he walks to the curbside where one of his drivers pulls up in his armored SUV.
“We can’t. She’s not in her car and he’ll have ditched her phone. This guy is tech-minded and he knows who she is. He won’t do anything to leave a trace of where he’s taking her.”
His driver steps out of the SUV and tosses him the keys.
We climb inside and as soon as we’re buckled up he passes me his phone and pulls away from the curbside.
“Click on the webpage,” he says as he floors the accelerator. “The tracker should come straight up. I was just on it.”
“I told you, she doesn’t have her car or her cell—”
“No, but she has a tracker anyway,” he says as keeps his eyes fixed on the road ahead. “When I checked a few minutes ago they were headed south.”
“What?” I blink at him. “What do you mean she has a tracker?”
“Don’t lose your shit,” he frowns as he keeps staring at the road. “I paid the doctor who gave her that contraceptive implant to add a tracker too.”
“What the fuck?”
“I know, Jax,” he snaps.
“Does she know?”
He shakes his head. “Of course she doesn’t.”
“Fuck!”
“What was I supposed to do? She wanted her freedom and that was the only way I could let her have it while giving me some peace of mind.”
“But, fuck, Alejandro—you had her implanted with a tracker without her knowledge.”
“It’s not like I’ve ever used it to keep tabs on her. It was only for emergencies like this.”
I lean back in my seat and open up the internet on his phone, and sure enough there is the flashing red dot heading south. I feel a wave of relief wash over me. That’s her. The speed they’re moving tells me they’re in a vehicle of some sort, but she’s there, isn’t she?
“It only works if her vital signs are stable,” he says quietly as though he’s reading my mind and my heart stops racing for the first time since I got off the phone to Jessie earlier.
“Why didn’t you tell me? How did I not know about this? I’m your head of fucking security.”
“I hoped I’d never have to use it, Jax,” he says with a sigh. “I knew you’d think that she deserved to know and I didn’t want you to have to lie to her.”
“Does Alana know?”
“Fuck, no,” he shakes his head.
“She’ll kill you when she finds out. Both of them will.”
“I know, but I can live with that. Like it or not, that tracker is going to save my daughter’s life.”
“You are an evil genius. I mean putting a tracker in your daughter along with her implant is all kinds of fucked up, amigo,” I shake my head. “But I also kinda wanna kiss you right now.”
He arches one eyebrow. “Yeah, well let’s wait until we get her back and then you can do whatever you want to me.”
Fuck, I’ve missed him.
“So who is this cunt who’s taken my daughter?” he asks.
“He calls himself Dolos.”
“Dole-what?”
“Dolos. He’s the Greek god of deception.”
“Fucking nerds,” Alejandro spits. “How the fuck do you even know that?”
“I guess I’m a nerd.”
He ignores my sarcasm. “Who is he really?”
“His real name is Richard Peterson. Comes from Alabama. His parents still live there. Had a full scholarship to UCLA and finished joint top in his class.”
“Joint with Lucia?”
“Yep.”
He’s a massive gamer too. Got his own YouTube channel with over half a million subscribers.”
He shakes his head and frowns at me. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“Beats me, amigo. People like to watch other people play video games for some reason,” I shrug.
“Why has he taken her, Jax?”
“I’ve picked through the stuff Jessie sent me and the best I can figure is he’s obsessed with her. Jessie tracked his activity and he checks her social feeds all the time, even though she barely uses any social media.”
“She ever spoken to you about him before?”
“He was one of the guys she led you to believe she was dating, remember? She realized you had me checking up on her and she decided to have a little fun with us. I checked him out and there was nothing at the time. Lucia said he was a buddy of hers and had no interest in her that way, and vice versa. Seems she was wrong.”
“If he’s touched her—” he growls.
“I know, amigo,” I agree because I feel exactly the same. The self-proclaimed god of deception is about to meet his fucking maker.
We carry on driving in silence for a while. I stare at the red dot on the screen, worried that if I look away it might disappear and we won’t find her.
“You truly love her?” Alejandro’s voice breaks through the silence.
“Yes. With every fiber of my being.”
“Why her though, Jax?”
“You’re seriously asking me that?” I frown at him. He, of all people knows how incredible she is.
“Yes. I know she is beautiful and smart and kind, and amazing. But you have dated hundreds of women. Why decide my twenty-one year-old daughter is the one for you?”
“I don’t know why it’s her, amigo,” I tell him honestly. “It just is. I think about her every second of every day. When something good, or funny, or anything happens, she’s the first person I want to tell. When I’m not with her all I can think about is getting back to her. The thought of never seeing her again makes me feel like I can’t breathe. I would die for her happiness—I know you know what love like that feels like.”
“I sure do,” he sighs.
“I’m sorry that I betrayed your trust, amigo. You are my brother and I love you, but I can’t imagine a life without her.”
He shakes his head in exasperation but he doesn’t say anything further and we get back to focusing on finding our girl.
