“I believe I do,” he says, reaching out and taking my gun while telling Blake, “There’s a room upstairs where we can talk.”
“That works for me,” Blake says. “Not my wife.” He eyes Kara. “Wait outside and if I don’t come out alive in an hour, I guess start the funeral arrangements.” He grabs her and kisses her.
“Don’t say things like that. They aren’t funny.”
“Yes, wife.” He turns back to us. “I’m ready.”
Kayden talks to the man at the door who’s now watching us, then to Blake. “He’ll take you there. I need to talk to Ella for a moment alone.”
“Understood.” He starts to walk away.
“Blake,” Kayden says, halting him. “If you are who you say you are, you have my protection, and so does your wife. But if you’re not—”
“Protection it is,” he says, turning away.
Kayden turns me and removes the goggles I didn’t even know I still had on. “You okay?”
“I have these weird, crazy emotions going on that I can’t even lock down.”
“That’s understandable. I can talk to him alone.”
“No. I want to do this.”
“Well, then,” he says, placing Annie in my purse and zipping it up, “let’s go see what he can tell us.”
Five minutes later, Kayden and I are sitting at a round table with Blake in a small room.
“First,” Blake says, “who I am. My brothers and I run Walker Security. I’m former ATF, my older brother Royce is former FBI, and Luke is a former Navy SEAL. We not only have our own team, we also worked with a group of local investigators to get here today.”
“How did you find her?” Kayden asks.
“I’m a damn good hacker. She was on the grid and she disappeared. When she disappeared, I knew we had trouble. When I couldn’t find her despite my skill, I knew we had big trouble.”
“So I ask again,” Kayden says, “how did you find her?”
He keys his iPad to life and flips a photo around to show us. “That’s Ella crossing the Italian border. That was our first big break. I then hired a group called The Jackals, who gave me a lead that brought me here.”
“Fucking Jackals,” Kayden bites out.
“You know them?” I ask, glancing up at him.
“We’re Treasure Hunters,” he says. “They’re the pirates I fired.” He eyes Blake. “They’ll sell her out.”
“They were paid well.”
“Pirates never get paid well enough. What do you know about David?”
“A doctor with nothing remarkable in his background,” Blake says. “Pretty average. He vanished with Ella, and I haven’t gotten a ping on him at all.”
“He’s dead,” I say. “Don’t ask details; I can’t remember how. I just remember that I ended up with no passport or money.”
“I actually know that part of the story,” Blake tells me. “And that you ended up with a man named Garner Neuville. He told our people that he spooked you and you ran. He’s been looking for you.”
“And he can’t be allowed to find her,” Kayden says. “But The Jackals will help him in two seconds flat. So you, Blake Walker, are just good enough to find her, and just bad enough to get her in trouble.”
“I’m good enough to save her ass, just like you. The Jackals don’t know I found her. I’ll redirect them back to France.”
“Do that,” Kayden says. “Do it now.”