The Law of Motion (Law Series) (14 page)

             
"I want him
back
," She  said through gritted teeth.

             
I looked over at Doc, and she was wiping her eyes scribbling on a piece of paper. She held it up to Chance. It read only one word, ‘
Inhaler
’

             
She nodded asking, “How is he? Is his breathing alright?”

             
"Yes, yes," she sighed dramatically. "Quite the healthy little thing you have. And
I
know which one is yours, because he's got just the same amount of attitude the guys say you had. The other one...he's a little...milder. A mistake, but a surprisingly fantastic bargaining chip."

             
There was a part of me that couldn't help but be proud of Juan, but the other part of me knew that attitude, while admirable in some state of affairs, could prove deadly in hostage situations.

             
I could tell Chance was thinking about her time with Alberto Garcia all of those years ago, because panic crossed her face. "Don't hurt him," She begged, shaking her head.

             
"I won't...if you follow the next steps, Alyssa," The distorted voice replied, sounding almost normal. "I've got a plan, and we're going to stick to it. Stay tuned..."

             
With that, the call ended, and Tink bolted to her computer room to see what her system made of that call.

             
She came back out with a remote, bringing it up on the main screen. "It was another throwaway phone, but this time, there was something interesting. Look," she stated, pointing to a phone number. "The first one had a Virginia area code. And this new one?" she asked, waiting for everyone to catch up to him. "This one was Maryland, and that's exactly where the signal ended. They moved out of state, but haven't gone far, okay?"

             
We all were, hanging on Tink’s every word.

             
“That’s good.” Cam sighed. He explained when everyone looked at him. “He has technically been taken from one state to another, which makes this a federal case.”

             
“Which gives you the ability to
legally
help us…” Dario caught on.

             
Cam nodded. “I can assign agents as needed now.”

             
That was new news, “You have that ability?”

             
Cam smiled smug, “Since the work you guys did in Cuba got me promoted.”

             
“Nice.” Macon complimented before everything got back serious.

             
Cam sighed, his face looking forlorn. "I won't lie to you two. The fact that their, taunting Alyssa doesn't sound good, its personal for them. Whoever that was isn’t stable, because their speech pattern, and mood during your conversation, was all over the place. This might not end with just the money."

             
“Who
was
that?” I asked remembering the very loud ‘wrong’ when Alyssa assumed it was Myles.

             
“Myles gone crazy?” Mack pondered.

             
Doc shook her head. “No, nothing in his medical history would suggest that. It has to be a new player.”

             
“A woman.” Kristen determined.

             
Dario looked at her, “How could you tell?”

             
“She called Adrian, a ken doll. Not to mention calling us bitches.” Kristen explained. She had a point.

             
"What about the money? Because I can..." Ross fidgeted a bit, but shut up when Cam held up his hand.

             
"I know you'd pay anything at this point, and I don't blame you, but I really want to see what thei
r

her next request is, Ross. If a trade can be made for those two boys, then we do it."

             
"Listen, listen, listen," Tink requested, her demeanor much more subdued than normal, because I was pretty sure she hadn't slept. "We ran a check on David Grubbs, his parents are fucking loaded. He did a lot of petty crimes in but pretty much walked away with a slap on the wrist. The longest he ever did was a month for an aggravated assault charge. And can you guess who his cellmate was? ”

             
"Myles," just about everyone in the room stated blandly.

             
"Exactly," she sighed with a nod. " David Grubbs should have gotten a year in Richmond for an extortion charge alone, but they didn’t stick. Next," she said, spinning in her chair and pointing up to the two drawings on the bulletin board. "Myles Thompson... This guy is a bottom feeder. He's done more time in jail than anyone at the age of twenty three should have, and it's everything from assault and battery, to domestic violence and public drunkenness."

             
"So is Terry Windsor the mastermind?" I asked, looking at the last picture “because these other two can’t be more than stooges.”

             
"They are only stooges," Tink concurred. "I’m still working on Terry Windsor. That will take me a bit."

             
"I need to know if you can get a hold of the that money, Ross. I don't want to pay a ransom...ever. But having it on hand...to show them...well, it could be beneficial."

             
"I can have it," Ross nodded, Doc still not saying much from the corner, her arms holding a couch pillow a bit too tightly. "when the banks open..."

             
"Not yet," Cameron said softly, his eyes flickering between the two of us. "I just want to make sure it's accessible. I'll give you plenty of notice when we need it. I'm waiting on a few things." He spun around in his chair, pulling up a few reports. "I want more info first.”

             
“I have a question," Jackson stated from the back of the room. He'd been quietly listening to everything, "Do they have any idea who
Chance
is? Who we are? Who we
really
are I mean?"

             
Cam smiled, though it was sad. "That..." he started, pointing his finger. "That is our key, right there. I'm damn sure that they have no idea what she and the rest of you are capable of. I think they just see her as a PI, nothing more. There is shit that
I
didn’t even know until you told me. They would have picked a different kid if they did."

             
“What if this isn’t about money?” Alyssa asked getting up, not being able to just sit anymore. She had been sitting unusually quiet since the last phone call.

             
Cam cleaned his glasses as he spoke, “Most kidnappings are about the ransom.”

             
She nodded but stuck to her line of thought, “But why only a fifty grand? That’s something that all of us probably keep stashed for emergencies in a duffle bag. Hell the safe in the back alone has about eighty.”

             
“They don’t know that though baby.” I added.

             
“Like Tink said, I was just handed a multi-billion dollar corporation. In their eyes I’m a
fucking
heiress, and that’s all they want?”

             
Doc nodded, thinking about it, “She has a point.”

             
“Well we need to see what they want in the next call.” Macon agreed. “ I think we should order some food and prepare to burn the night oil.”




             
“Any news on that chip?” I asked looking over Tink’s shoulder, a slice of pizza hanging out of her mouth as she used both hands to type. She changed into a pair of pajama bottoms from the overnight bag she kept in her office closet. She did all-nighters when things were normal and she was inventing new things, of course she would be prepared.

             
She took a break from typing long enough to take the pizza slice from her mouth and drop it onto her plate. “It’s fried.” She stated simply after trying to activate it again.

             
“What do you mean
fried
?” Doc repeated unable to take anymore bad news.

             
“It’s not working, it must have short circuited somehow.” She mused focusing on another task instead. “I need to focus on Terry.”

             
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, our main lead was officially a dead end. “So you’re telling me that there is
no
way to find Juan through that watch? How could you let that happen?”

             
Tink looked up at me. “I didn’t
let
anything happen. It was a prototype. Not all of my inventions are perfect. So we will find him another way.”

             
“We’d better.” I released, a bit harsher than I meant it to, but I didn’t apologize, I just went back to looking over the criminal records of Myles Thompson.

             
"Hey Adrian?!" Jackson snapped, his southern drawl rising to the surface. "Why don't you fucking direct your attitude toward the right place? Not my
wife
, okay? The enemies out
there. 
I've heard just about as much nastiness from you I can handle today.  You're acting like this is her fault."

             
The truth is, I wasn’t really even mad at Tink. She was the brightest of us all, I was just so used to her perfection that I forgot that she was human. “I’m sorry Tink, it’s not your fault.
You
didn’t let them get taken.”

             
“So it’s my fault then?” Alyssa asked standing in the door way. A statement she shouldn’t have heard. “Because I let them drive away?”

             
Dario cut in, “We aren’t going to play the blame game, we’re just going to get what we need done to get Juan back.”

             
Alyssa shook her head and before I could tell her that I was referring to myself with that comment she continued. “No Dario, he thinks it’s my fault so let’s get it out. I
let
them drive away.
He
didn’t check the bathroom but I let them drive away.”

             
“Thanks Alyssa, for
finally
verbalizing how you feel; because for the past thirty-six hours you’ve done a pretty good job of showing me. I admit it, I didn’t check , I fucked up. But you can’t even admit the reason you let them drive away.”

             
She scoffed in disbelief, her accent becoming more pronounced. “I had no
choice
! They would have shot Juan, or Cedric
k

”

             
I shook my head raising my voice over hers,
“
No, no, no Alyssa, that is bullshit. You
don’t
miss Chance. What happened to you taking on ‘your odds’? You’ve done it for everything else. Why can’t you admit it? You froze. ”

             
Her green eyes were wild as she threw up her hand in the air rushing words, her hands moving as she talked. “ I
can
admit things, unlike you. At the wedding, you could have easily corrected that guy, and told him that I wasn’t your
wife
, he wasn’t
our
son
, and then maybe he would have came at me directly instead of involving a four year old kid he thought was mine. You were so focused on that
family
feeling you wanted that you couldn’t even assess a potential threat.”

             
“I can admit I like the sound of being
with
you and having what comes with that. I don’t
freeze
when it comes to things I care about!” I snapped venting things I didn’t even know I was upset about until they poured from my mouth.

             
She was stunned her voice dropping lower. “No I don’t.” I should have backed down, because that was her tone of retreat, but I was still fuming.

             
“Yes you do, you froze with Juan just like you freeze every time I tell you I love you. That’s why you
never
say it back!”

             
“Fine, it’s my fault then.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry ok, I’m sorry guys.” She stressed looking around at everyone. “You’re right, ok?” She dismissed walking back towards her office.

             
She was shutting down again, and I hated it when she did that. I didn’t like the feeling of being placated. So instead of backing down  my anger escalated. “I
am
right Alyssa. The truth is, if you weren’t such a
bitch
to people that care about you, your father wouldn’t feel the need to do something as extreme as signing over his life’s work to win your love. This shit wouldn’t be happening at all!”