22

John quickly popped into the V Lounge to get a glass of blood. Being in Savannah’s presence made his need for blood stronger than usual. He knew he had to take precautions in order not to lose his head around her, so he quickly downed two glasses of O-Neg. Just as he left the lounge, his phone rang. He looked at the display.

“Ryder?”

“Hey, John. Your hunch was correct. All kids that disappeared had a photo shooting session at Kerry Young’s studio.”

“Thanks, Ryder. We were just there. It’s possible that her site was hacked. Thomas is looking into it right now. I’m back at HQ.”

“Anything you want me to do?”

“Follow up with Damian and Benjamin and see if they know yet whether Alexi Denault owns any property where he could hide the children. At this point he’s our number one suspect. He had opportunity and the right technical knowledge.”

“Yeah, and he’s Russian. I’ve been looking through the police reports. If it’s him, he has to have quite a few accomplices. They’ll need several people to watch the kids. This is not a one-man operation.”

“No, it’s not. But it seems he’s very careful. Damian said he keeps to himself. We just have to catch him off guard.”

“Are you sure the photographer isn’t involved?”

“Pretty sure. She was genuinely surprised when I confronted her. Hard to fake that.” He sighed. “Anyway, thanks, Ryder. Stay at HQ for now in case I need you for something else.”

He disconnected the call and walked back to the human lounge.

Savannah was still seated at the same spot as before, but her eyes were closed and she was leaning back against the sofa cushions. He sat down quietly, not making a sound and watched her peaceful face. No wonder she’d nodded off. She’d been through a lot, and she wasn’t used to the hours he and his vampire colleagues kept. He didn’t have the heart to wake her, and at present, there was no need, so he simply sat there in the other corner of the sofa, his body turned sideways, one leg angled, one braced on the floor, and watched her sleep.

Had they been real lovers, two people in a relationship, he would get to see her like this often. He knew he’d enjoy seeing her like this. Safe under his watchful eye. Trusting him as she slept. Yes, he would like that. But he also knew that the chances of that happening, of a relationship developing between them, were doubtful. Wrong place, wrong time. Wrong species—not hers, but his. Because would a woman like her, a woman who had responsibility for a child, really risk bringing a vampire into her home? Wouldn’t she always fear that he would hurt her daughter, even if he told her that he would treat Buffy like his own? But why would she believe him? All she would see was the bloodthirsty creature, not the man with the capacity to love and protect innocents.

His cell phone pinged softly. A text message from Thomas. He read it.

Good news and bad news. Come to the lab.

John shoved the phone back into his pocket. He looked at how peaceful Savannah slept, and for a brief moment, he contemplated not waking her. However, he knew she would be upset if he didn’t. She had every right to be involved in this, and if he excluded her, how could she ever truly trust him?

Gently he put his hand on her shoulder. “Savannah.”

She shot forward, shaking off his hand in the process. “What?” When her eyes landed on him, she pressed her hand to her chest, drawing his gaze to her rapidly rising breasts, as she drew in calming breaths. “How long have I been asleep? Did something happen?”

“Everything’s fine. You nodded off for only a few minutes. Thomas has news. We should go back to the computer lab.” He offered her his hand to help her up, but she either didn’t see it, or didn’t want his help. He tried not to take it personally, nevertheless, the rejection only emphasized that she wanted to forget the intimacy that they’d shared earlier.

When they arrived in the computer lab a couple of minutes later, Thomas was still seated in front of the monitor, while Grayson had hopped on the desk.

“So what did you find?” John asked without preamble.

“First the good news”, Thomas started, and Savannah sucked in a breath. “There is indeed evidence that somebody hacked the photographer’s server, and accessed the picture files and the client database.”

“You said good news,” Savannah said, her voice shaking a little. “So there’s bad news?”

Thomas looked straight at her, a serious expression on his face. “The hacker is good. Very good indeed. He was able to wipe out his footprint. I can’t trace him. I have no idea where he is. He could be in the next building, or he could be all the way around the world in China, for all I know.”

“Fuck,” John cursed.

“Yeah,” Thomas agreed. “But that’s not all.” He swiveled in his chair and clicked on a window. “We also found this in Buffy’s client file.” Pictures of Buffy together with Savannah appeared on the screen.

John shot Savannah a look. “You didn’t mention that the photographer took photos of you, too.”

She shrugged. “We just took a few, because Buffy wanted one with me and her together. And the photographer didn’t mind adding a few extra shots for the same price. Why should it matter?”

Grayson hopped off the desk. “It matters because they tried to kidnap you too.”

Surprised that Grayson knew about this, he gave the young hybrid a questioning look.

“I spoke to the twins. They filled me in.”

“I still don’t understand,” Savannah interrupted.

John turned to her. “What Grayson is pointing out is that whoever kidnapped all these children, saw your photo, and for whatever reason decided to kidnap you too.”

Thomas pointed to the screen. “I can think of a few reasons why.”

Savannah spun her head to him, but Thomas didn’t elaborate.

“But…” She pointed to the picture, but didn’t finish her sentence.

John sighed. “Whoever wanted Buffy, saw you and decided he wanted you too.” And now he remembered something that would explain why the kidnapper hadn’t taken them both at the same time. “Do you remember you telling me that on the day Buffy disappeared, you were running late, and instead of picking her up from school, you had to send the babysitter?”

Savannah nodded, then pressed her hand to her mouth when she seemed to realize what this meant. “They intended to kidnap us both. Together. And when I wasn’t there, they took Buffy and came back for me later.”

John nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

“We have to find this bastard,” she pressed out through a clenched jaw.

John sighed. “Thomas, is there any way you can find the hacker?”

Thomas shook his head. “I wish I could, but unless he makes another attempt at accessing the site, I can’t trace him.”

“That’s it,” Savannah said suddenly.

“What?” John asked.

“We have to make the hacker access the site.” She looked at Thomas. “We can put a tracing code into the site and follow it to him. You know how to do that, right, Thomas? If not, I can—”

Thomas lifted his hand. “I can do it, no problem, but we have no idea how long it will take for the hacker to come back to the site to access it.”

“Then we’ll have to give him a reason,” she said.

“What do you have in mind?” Thomas asked the question that was also on John’s mind.

“We have to assume that he has a spider monitoring the site and knows when new material is uploaded.”

Thomas nodded. “Yeah, but—”

“We’ll just need to upload new photos, embed a tracing code in them, and create a new client file in the database so it looks legit,” Savannah continued undeterred.

“Brilliant,” John praised, then addressed Thomas, “Can you do that?”

“Nothing easier than that. Only thing is, we need pictures of a pretty girl aged between nine and twelve,” Thomas replied.

“Easy,” Grayson claimed. “Let’s use the aging software that Eddie purchased a couple of months back. We can use photos of one of our female staff members and age her down to about eleven.”

If it worked, this was the best idea the hybrid had ever had. John nodded at him. “Do it. Who do you think will give us permission to use their photo?”

“Permission?” Grayson asked with a frown.

John scowled at him. “Yes, permission.”

“I do,” a female voice said from two desks away.

John turned his head in her direction. “Isabelle?”

The twenty-two year old hybrid approached. “Sorry, couldn’t help but overhear you guys.”

“Savannah, this is Isabelle, Samson’s eldest. Isabelle, this is Savannah Rice, our client.”

The two women exchanged greetings.

“You can take my picture. The software works best the less years you have to shave off somebody. Eddie showed me how it works,” Isabelle said.

“You would do that?” Savannah asked.

Isabelle smiled. “I was kidnapped once myself, and I know how frightening it is. Anything I can do to bring your little girl home, I’m happy to do.”

Savannah reached for Isabelle’s hand and clasped it. “Thank you, thank you so much.”

“Well,” Thomas said and turned back to the computer. “Let’s get to work.”