LITMIR.BIZ

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with what could only be her last shreds of hope. The innocent girl was still in there somewhere. Whatever tactics Maddie used to save herself from fully disappearing had worked.

      Still, the spark died out with the shaking of her head back and forth. “Oh, Roni, not me, but I do want to help you. It would mean so much to me, but how?”

      Roni pushed a pad of paper and pen toward the girl, then whispered, “Draw me directions to where the Boss keeps his cars. I’ll take it from there.”

THREE

      A guard in a black suit stood at his post by the Boss’s office. From the stairway, Ethan watched around the corner as the guard read an incoming text on his phone. Ethan held his breath to see if an alert had gone out about him being missing from his post by Roni’s room. As soon as Roni’s guard took the maid down to the basement, Ethan made his way up the stairs to the top floor—the floor with the Boss’s office.

      Entrance into that office was critical. And so was time. Roni would only be safe for so long locked up in her room. He had to figure out how to get her out of this place, but first he needed to get an ID on who the Boss really was. Ethan needed a name, something Pace could use to hold the guy on while they ramped up the trafficking charges.

      Ethan knew his team was out there, ready to move in, but would hold off until they had evidence in hand. Rushing in would only botch all their work.

      The guard’s phone rang. He answered on the first ring. “Yeah, I’ve got time. Boss is visiting a lady friend for the night.” He shared a laugh with whomever was on the other end. Ethan wondered at the identity of the lady friend. Had the Boss left the premises to visit her? Or was the lady friend already in residence?

      Roni?

      She couldn’t be the lady friend, Ethan thought as he looked down the stairway. One floor down was her locked-up-tight room. She was safe inside. He’d made sure of it.

      Except the Boss would have a key.

      Ethan needed to speed up this quest and return to her to see if she had unwanted company.

      But first, he needed to access that office, so he could get Roni out for good. Too much was at stake, and for the first time in a year, it wasn’t just the case.

      Ethan waited for the guard to turn away so he could move in for a sneak attack, but the guard started heading in his direction. With his phone to his ear, the man said, “It’s not my job to watch him. Guerra brought the guy in, he should be the one playing hide-n-seek with Gunn.”

      So the alert had gone out. He was a wanted man. And the guard was headed his way. The only way to go was back down.

      Ethan took the steps in double time and launched his body over the railing at the bend. He shimmied down the spokes and held tight and still, breath and all.

      The guard ran past him from above, never looking over the railing at the man hanging between the landings.

      As soon as the guard made it to the lower floor, he turned the corner to continue down to the next one, saying, “I’ll check the basement out. We don’t need him snooping down there.”

      Ethan pulled his body up the railing spokes and over the railing. He hit the stair treads on a run and took the turn to the Boss’s office. Ethan slipped inside and closed the door on a soft click. The computer sat off to the right side on a mahogany desk. He would start there.

      The monitor hadn’t gone to full sleep mode yet from when the Boss left. Having to come up with passwords would have slowed Ethan up. In reality, it would have stopped him in his tracks.

      He opened an email account, but no names were listed on the account or any of the few emails in the in-box. Somewhere a name would have to be linked to the account. He clicked the trash files and waited for a couple of dozen to download.

      With one eye on the screen, Ethan opened drawers and felt the numerous paperweights lined up on the desk front. They were substantial pieces, some sharp, some blunt. The Boss’s weapons of torture, perhaps? Or death if things didn’t go well for his victims. Ethan was pretty sure a blood scan over them would glow blue.

      He picked up a heavy carving of a bull. It was some sort of trophy for the Most Valuable Player for a sports team. The name of the recipient had been scratched out. Figures the Boss thought of everything. But Ethan was counting on someone from his past not knowing him as the Boss. Someone who might email him with salutations to his real name.

      Ethan tipped the bull trophy over and saw a compartment had been cut into its base. He slid the bottom cover off to find a single key.

      The computer bleeped at its download end. He gave the deleted emails his full attention and found what he was looking for. Lyle Ramsey was the recipient name a sender used to forward some crass email joke.

      “Well, hello there, Lyle Ramsey. Does your friend know what you do for a living?”

      Ethan brought the computer back to the way he found it. He got what he’d come for. The processing team would take the PC when they were inside, but Ethan doubted they would find any evidence on it. Lyle didn’t get to be the Boss by leaving a paper trail. And no paper trail meant cash houses. Find the cash houses and Lyle goes bye-bye. Ethan didn’t think he’d have to look much further than the basement.

      He picked up the phone and checked it for a dial tone. He dialed the secure number for Pace and said two words.

      Lyle Ramsey.

      Pace would know what to do with that.

      Ethan hesitated to mention Roni’s presence. A part of him didn’t want Pace knowing she was with him. He knew what Pace would say to that.

      “Do your job.”

      Ethan sighed and quickly relayed the message that Roni Spencer was in his custody. He clicked off just as voices filtered down the hall.

      “If you brought some snitch into my house, you will pay, Guerra.” The Boss’s irate, booming voice echoed through the closed door.

      “Gunn’s not a snitch, but he does have high expectations for your average gofer. I’ve reminded him many times who’s in charge. Something tells me he would push me aside if it got him ahead. If he wasn’t so clever in his thefts, I would have wasted him months ago.”

      Ethan looked for a coat closet to hide in. He tried the door to his left.

      Locked.

      He circled the room. The drapes wouldn’t hide his big frame. Nor would the cubby under the desk. He pulled the doorknob again, but it wasn’t budging.

      Then he remembered the key.

      Guerra continued out in the hall. “The man’s a chameleon. Gets the job done before anyone sees a thing. Good at hiding out, which is why I can’t find him right now.”

      The doorknob turned just as Ethan inserted the key and turned his own doorknob. He was behind the door, safely hidden from sight before Guerra and Ramsey entered the office.

      But if Ramsey was here, what happened to the visit with his lady friend?

      Was she in the office with them now?

      Ethan turned to his side to listen with one ear, straining to make out another person’s presence. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed an elevator behind him. It would seem Ramsey had a private line down to the basement.

      “And what about the Spencer woman?” Ramsey asked, his chair squeaking as though he leaned back into it. “What does she know?”

      “Nothing. She thinks she’s been kidnapped for her money and is here to be ransomed. I would have killed her at the garage, but Gunn stepped in. She can be disposed of now. Her family won’t be expecting her home.”

      “Why’s that?”

      Ethan pressed his ear to the door, wondering the same

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