CHASE

 

“That poor girl,” I say under my breath as I follow Marcus out of the interrogation room and into the hallway. “She’s not cut out for this.”

“Yeah, but who is?” He waits for the retina scanner to pass over his eyes before pulling the door open and holding it for me. “People like us? We’ve been around these things. People like her? It’s not the world she’s been living in.”

“I know,” I mumble and close the door behind me. “Please tell me you were able to find something.”

He cocks his head over his shoulder with a cocky grin. “Marcus Aiken always finds something, but we’ll see if it’s enough.”

“Anything is enough.” I follow him to his desk and watch him as he unfolds his laptop and clicks it on. My eyes shift to the three monitors fixed to the table as they all flash on. “I’ll never understand all this technology crap.”

“Yeah,” he chuckles, “I’m an invaluable member of the team.”

His cockiness is rightfully earned. The guy is a total whiz and though he doesn’t exactly come from the same world the rest of us men do, he’s tough in different ways. The five of us—Domino, Luke, Zane, Zach, and myself—are physically strong. Marcus is mentally strong and though he’s very similar to Zach when it comes to the level of snark he’s capable of, he’s wise beyond his years.

Twenty-two damn years old and he’s smarter than the rest of us combined.

“So here’s the deal…” He spins in his chair to face me as I park my ass on the edge of the counter. “I was able to hack into the mall’s security system.” He turns his attention back to the monitors and clicks his way through a series of screens that steals my attention.

I jump to my feet and circle so that I’m looking over his shoulder as he navigates his way through the camera feeds. “That’s them, right?” I question, pointing to a black SUV speeding out of the parking garage.

“Astute observation.” He freezes the frame and zooms in on the license plate, then he cocks his head to look at me. “I ran the plates and that’s when I hit my first dead end. Those plates belong to one Elsa Charleston of Sacramento.” A photo ID of an elderly woman pops up on the screen. “Either the plates were stolen or Mama Elsa has some explaining to do, so naturally I investigated this woman.”

I lean back and stand up straight with my arms folded over each other. “What did you find out about this woman?”

“She’s dead.”

“Oh.”

“Like I said,” he tilts his head sideways and cracks his neck, “this was the first of many dead ends.” He closes out the window with the elderly woman and resumes the security footage of the SUV leaving the garage. Once it disappears from sight, he pulls up footage of the same vehicle speeding down the street outside the mall. “Domino would have a fit if he knew I was hacking into city surveillance systems, but what doesn’t kill him will make him calmer.” He bats an eye at me. “So let’s keep this a secret between me and you, right?”

“Affirmative.” I point back to the screen. “How long were you able to follow them?”

“About three miles and seventeen minutes after they exited the garage, they pulled into another parking garage on Stetson Avenue.” He purses his lips and then turns back to me with a sigh. “And this is dead end number two.”

“They never came out?”

“This was over three hours ago so I’d wager that there’s either a dead body inside that garage or that they came out, albeit in a different car.”

A dead body? That’s a little dark, and more than a little upsetting.

“I’m going to go investigate, but in the meantime, I want you to keep your eye on the feeds and let me know if you see anything suspicious.”

“I’ll keep an eye out, but what should I tell Domino if he checks in?”

“Don’t worry about him.” I shake my head and check my watch. “I don’t think he’s coming in today.”

“But if he does?” He spins around completely in the chair with his arms stretched out wide. “I’m basically a sitting duck hacking, illegally, into government systems at your request.”

“You’ll figure something out.” I nudge him playfully with my elbow. “If he comes strolling out of that elevator, kill the power to the monitors and pretend that he almost caught you tugging away at yourself like the prepubescent teenager that you are.”

“Okay, Daddy,” he scowls with a roll of his eyes.

“Daddy?” I can’t help but to laugh. “First of all, don’t ever call me Daddy.” I begin to walk away. “And I’m not even forty yet.”