Chapter Seventeen

For once, the entire firm was working on a case in the front office because Miriam’s space for the reception of visitors was bigger. She had closed the office to guests until Bonnie was found, so they all worked the case, Deena Rae enthusiastically coming in from her medical leave. They all longed to exert some physical pressure on their bodies, but the inherent need to find Bonnie overrode everything. Yesterday had been spent with half the team combing Austin, visiting known properties owned by the senator and Jonas. The other half had been digging into everything else at the office. As much as he’d wanted to get in on the action, Zack was well aware of his limitations and realized his skill set would be better suited listening to his voice software read off credit card statements and shit that made him crazy.

The FBI had come in and told them to cease and desist, that they were impeding an ongoing investigation, but they’d only stopped while the men in suits were there. As soon as they’d left, the office flew into a flurry of activity again.

Right now, Jordan and Ryan were scouring the city, ready to call in for backup when they found her. Evan had hacked into both the senator and Jonas’s cell phones and had Deena Rae triangulating shit on a giant map, while Miriam was listening to phone calls nobody had a clue how Evan had obtained. Quinten was currently at the DA’s office with Valerie trying to get records from the senator’s court case, looking for any assets to clandestinely search. Hollerman was at the police station, trying to glean any information he could. Simon was pacing the room, looking over everyone’s shoulder, barking orders at everyone.

Surveillance videos of the event showed two men who weren’t Jonas, but nobody was under any illusions. They were henchmen. Jonas had made the clear threat. He came from money and status, and his father had flown under the radar with nefarious activities, undoubtedly giving him a sense of sanctimoniousness.

The two faces had been projected onto the wall for everyone to study. Ryan had confirmed they were both at South by Southwest, one of them was Manicotti Man, the other was the tattooed guy who’d pulled Bonnie into the room to be held at gunpoint by Jonas.

Both of them were running through Evan’s facial recognition software, but the red guy was coming up with nothing so far. Manicotti Man was Alfonzo D’Angelo, a known associate of the senator, whom the FBI had already picked up for questioning. Of course, the senator had already denied everything, and the Feds had let him loose. To their knowledge, Jonas hadn’t been picked up yet, even though Ryan had told them everything about The Wave the other night, and the clear threat to her should have made him suspect numero uno.

But whatever. They had this.

Thirty-six hours after Bonnie had disappeared and what had they learned? Jonas and the senator were going to work as if nothing out were out of the ordinary, going home to drink their expensive brandies, and doing it all over again. No phone calls where they talked about Bonnie, no purchases for her, nothing.

Bonnie wasn’t being held in any building the senator or Jonas owned. They hadn’t found anything on traffic cameras, either. Zack had heard a quiet vehicle, which meant it was probably a luxury sedan or limo of some sort. But with the South by Southwest madness happening, the town was full of industry big-wigs who drove rental luxury sedans and limos. Vehicle records showed the senator owned a Town Car, but they hadn’t been able to pick it out in any of the traffic cameras. Bonnie’s phone was left at the scene, so they couldn’t trace that.

“Do we have anything from ATF?” Simon barked from where he’d stopped pacing at the head of the conference table, behind where Miriam was sitting with heavy-looking headphones on, listening to phone calls.

Paige, Evan’s wife, looked up from a sheaf of papers. “Um, they both have a ridiculous number of guns registered to them, the senator mostly has antique and collectibles, really expensive ones. Jonas has more handguns, a few shotguns, and a rifle. Between the two of them, they’ve got just about every caliber and manufacturer covered. I’m not sure what to look for specifically.”

“Recent ammo purchases, licensing revocations,” he sighed. “I don’t know. The needle?” Pinching the bridge of his nose, he ducked his head. “Somebody find the needle.”

The needle in the haystack. The big break. The one thing that would make all this other stuff fall into place. It usually took months, years to find the needle, and they needed it yesterday.

Zack’s phone buzzed on the table, and the tinny robotic voice spoke softly to him, telling him it was Quinten calling. He picked it up.

“Give us something good, man.”

“I’m sending you some pictures of documents. Can you scan them in with your software? There are a couple of boats I’m about to check out, plus some real estate deals he was in the middle of during the trial. There’s also evidence of a couple of fictitious business name filings that may give us a few other places to look. If he bought property using one of those, they’d be harder to find.”

“Is this Jonas or the senator?”

“It’s the senator, but the way he structured the shady side, it looks like he put a bunch of stuff in Jonas’s name.”

“Got it. Send them over.”

His phone was already pinging incoming images, and Zack used the wireless connection from his phone to print them out on the printers in the office. Ryan’s wife, Krista, started pulling them off as they printed and putting them in order.

At that moment, Mia, Jordan’s girlfriend, waltzed in, carrying cardboard containers full of coffees and bags of pastries.

“I figured you guys haven’t eaten in a while, so I brought sustenance. Anything I can help with?”

Zack’s eyes watered at the scene. Every man in the firm was helping, as they should. Besides being the sister of Simon and Quinten, Bonnie was the woman Zack was head over heels in love with. And this firm had always done what they could to protect the ones they loved. But the fact the women were getting so involved really made him ache with a wish for none of this to even be necessary.

“You and Krista can go over to the whiteboard and start making lists of assets—which ones belong to the senator, which ones belong to Jonas, and which ones they share. As Evan gets information from the …”

Simon trailed off, and Zack assumed he was looking over at Evan. “DMV, Secretary of Commerce, State Licensing Board, ICC—”

“Yeah, all those places, we’ll have more to add. But we need an organized list. You guys check and double-check all information after you copy it down. We can’t afford wild goose chases because we can’t read your handwriting.”

After a few minutes of silence, while everyone was hard at work, compiling information, Slade walked in with a bag of donuts and more coffee.

“Sorry. Class just let out. What can I help with?” Zack’s brand-new brother clapped his hand on Zack’s shoulder, a move that was more reassuring than he cared to admit. He’d had a hard time knowing his father’s infidelity was so brazen and that the “other” family had known about him the whole time. But all in all, it wasn’t shaping up to totally suck.

Slade’s shadow moved to where Deena Rae was working the giant map. He gave her a soft kiss and murmured something to her. She babbled something back that sounded a lot like “Love you, too, fucker” but Zack couldn’t be sure and didn’t want to use his ninja skills to invade privacy.

“You can double-check Deena Rae’s pins. Make sure she hasn’t made any mistakes with the coordinates.”

Slade chuckled softly, and Evan and Zack groaned under their breath. If they had said something like that about Deena Rae, she would have bitten their heads off. Simon was the only person who could insinuate Deena Rae made a mistake. Slade wasn’t a pushover, and they all wondered how they made the relationship work, but she presumably already held Slade’s balls in her pocket, or they wouldn’t be together.

Zack stood and Shania eagerly leapt to her feet. “I’m going to take Shania out. We need to stretch.” He needed out of here. While he had a specific job, it wasn’t what he wanted to be doing. Sure, the credit card shit was important to find Bonnie—if Jonas were stupid enough to use something that would help them find her—but nothing they were doing could be used in a court of law. The only way they would be able to take him down was to find her with him. Their methods would be suspect, and they’d probably all suffer legal ramifications. Of course, that shit didn’t matter at all.

He and Shania got on the elevator, and as the door closed, a hand slapped against it, followed by a grunt as it was pushed open. Zack stiffened before he realized it was Slade.

“Hey, man. I just wanted a minute with you.”

“Sure, but fair warning, this dick’s taken.” A bark of laughter met his ears. Zack was being nonchalant, but he really needed some time. He was freaking out inside his head, needing to be doing something, but he was stuck here.

It had been over a day, and chances were, Bonnie was already fucked. They’d probably taken her, killed her, and dumped her body somewhere. That’s what the odds were. That’s why business was as usual with the fuckers. He needed to find a way to wrap his brain around that, even if it hurt more than the world to even imagine it.

“I wanted to let you know that even though things are still weird for us, I’m here for you. I appreciate what you did to help me with Deena Rae, and I’ll do whatever I can for you. Brother or not. You got it?”

Zack wished he could see the guy’s face, but his voice spoke honestly. Zack knew Slade loved Deena Rae, could tell it in the way his voice softened around her, the way he was constantly melding their shadows together when he saw them, as if he couldn’t be around her and not touch her.

It was the same way he felt about Bonnie, except he and Bonnie had something older, more comfortable, yet new and unfamiliar at the same time. He hadn’t gotten the chance to relearn her likes and dislikes, to find out if she still hated sushi and beer, to find out if she still liked cotton candy as much as she had when she was younger, or if her tastes had matured. He wondered what else he would never learn about her.

“Stop.” Slade’s voice interrupted his thoughts, and Zack’s unseeing eyes snapped back up to Slade’s face, wanting to know what he looked like.

Vague, dark shapes crunched down over Slade’s eyes.

“Dude. Your eyebrows are out of control.” The shapes in question relaxed, and Slade’s booming laughter filled the elevator as the doors opened.

They walked outside, the clicking of Shania’s claws on the tiled floor leading the way.

“How blind are you?” Slade asked the question that had probably taunted him forever.

“I see blurs, shapes, shadows, colors, and light. Zero details. Things are better when they’re muted by the sunglasses, but nothing’s ever clear to me.” And that was just visually. All sorts of metaphors and parallels could be drawn about his life from that one statement, but Zack refused to go there right now when Bonnie needed to be found.

Silence. Slade digested Zack’s words and Shania took a dump in the grass, leading Zack back to the spot to pick it up and dispose of things with the plastic baggies held in the handle of her harness.

“Well, I want you to understand I’m here for you, man. I owe you and the others my life, as well as Deena Rae’s. Even if I didn’t, though, I’d still be here for you.” Slade’s hand clapped again on Zack’s shoulder, and Zack pulled the man into a hug. A bro one, with all the back clapping and shit, but it was a hug nonetheless, and Zack’s eyes prickled again.

“Thanks, man.”

“Anytime.”

Slade left Zack alone to his thoughts, which swam around and around in his head. An amalgamation of blurry shapes, light and dark. Zero clarity. No details.

Story of his fucking life.