Chapter 12
“Riley, the team is about to go in,” Flaherty said.
“On my way.” Riley grabbed her coffee mug and followed Flaherty out of her office, down the short hall, and into the Tactical Operations Center. Pulling her headset on, she adjusted the mic in front of her mouth. “Jake, where are you?”
Captain Jake Cabot was heading up a team of three men sent to quietly get Alicia Baylor in and out of her home in Texas. Riley’s mother was sure to be the next victim of the RRA. Riley just prayed her team got to her in time.
“Two clicks from the house. No activity in the past three hours,” Jake said into the comms.
“No visitors?” She asked.
“Not that we’ve observed. Vehicle is in the garage, but we have not had eyes on the target.”
Fuck. That didn’t bode well.
“Any lights on in the house?” Riley asked.
“Mick says the kitchen and family room lights are on, as well as, the TV.”
A little sigh of relief slipped from Riley’s chest. Maybe the woman was upstairs taking a bath, or doing crafts or something in another part of the house. Riley’s mother was a scrapbooker and could get lost in the activity for hours without realizing how much time had passed.
Riley watched the video feed of the men entering the house, one behind the other, in a highly choreographed dance they knew by heart. Muscle memory. They cleared the house, but did not find Mrs. Baylor. That didn’t mean the woman had been kidnapped—but Riley couldn’t shake the rock that sat in the pit of her stomach and told her Jess’s mom was in serious trouble.
Lance stepped beside Riley and grasped her elbow. She pulled the headset off the ear closest to him. His hot breath warmed her, but his words sent ice through her veins. “The training team found Laura Townsend’s body.”
She lifted the mic from in front of her mouth, and turned to him. “Where?”
“Outside of Turbo.”
A mix of emotion swamped her. One the one hand, imagining the young woman’s severed body in the middle of godforsaken land in Colombia made her sick to her stomach. But they all knew the girl had been killed—had a front row seat to her execution—and the idea that she would be coming home to be laid to rest on American soil, where family and friends could mourn her properly, provided a modicum of peace.
“Riley, we found something.” Jake said into the headset. Riley stared at the screen. Jake’s camera attempted to focus on the object he held in his hand. “We found it on top of the laptop keyboard.”
A thumb drive in the shape of Iron Man rested in his palm.
“Bring the laptop and the thumb drive back with you,” she instructed. “And get the hell out of there as soon as possible.”
“Copy, completing a final sweep,” Jake said.
Riley covered her mic. “How far out is the helo?” she asked Flaherty.
“Four minutes,” Flaherty answered.
“Four minutes, Jake.”
“Roger, out here.”
“Tony, let me know when they are in the air,” she said to Abbott, then walked toward the door with Lance. She didn’t need to tell him they had to update the Colonel. He knew. In fact, he knew her moves almost before she did. It was disconcerting, at times, being so in sync with someone else. But lately, as she came to rely on him more and more for support, she found it gave her a sense of calm. A sense that she wasn’t alone. The feeling that she wasn’t weak if she leaned on him every once in a while. And the overwhelming sense of pride that he leaned on her when he needed her.
Holt was in his office and waved them in. Lance closed the door as Riley brought the Colonel up to speed on the latest events.
“The team in Texas will be back tonight,” Riley said. “As soon as they get here, we can go through the laptop and thumb drive, and see if there is any information on them.”
“Do you think you will find anything?” Holt asked, one brow quirked up.
“On the laptop—no,” Riley said. “But I believe the thumb drive was intentionally left for us to find.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, if I disconnect a thumb drive from the computer, I either put it away, or toss it on the desk. This was on top of the keyboard. I’ll concede it may just be how Mrs. Baylor handles her thumb drives, but it just doesn’t feel right.”
“No harm in taking a look,” Lance said.
“If it’s nothing, it’s a serious invasion of Mrs. Baylor’s privacy,” Holt said.
“But if it’s not, it might be the only way to save her life,” Lance rebutted.
“And Jess,” Riley added.
“See what’s on it,” Holt said. “Keep Mason up to speed, but otherwise, this stays with us until we can get a plan together.”