chapter 1
Numb terror.
That's all JJ felt. She was so angry and worried and sick she couldn't even move, breathe, or speak. Someone had taken Isabella right from her home. "This is all my fault. It had to have been David.”
Jonas rubbed her back in slow circles. "This has nothing to do with you. This has to do with us. All of us. They want a war, they've got one."
JJ turned into Jonas's arms and her gaze flickered up to his. "I wish it was that simple. You don't understand. This is what he does. He terrorizes everyone around you so that you’re completely alone. So that no one will want to be with you. So that you’re a pariah. I wish I could say he’s the kind of man who wouldn't hurt a baby just to fuck with me. But he would."
Jonas held her tight. "We're not going to let that happen. I promise. We're going to get Isabella back."
A sob racked her body. What was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to fix this? She had brought pain to her friends. Into her family. Once her parents moved away to Florida to be closer to their friends, she had no one else. These guys were the only family she had. And because of her, Noah and Lucia’s baby was gone.
From the couch Matthias groaned, and Noah ran to him. "Kid?" Noah shook him hard and slapped his face. "Kid, wake up.”
Matthias groaned some more, and even in his sluggish, obviously drugged state, he managed to defend against some of Noah's assaults. JJ was pretty sure she would've just lain there like a rag.
When Noah slapped him again, Matthias caught his arm, cranked it under his own, and then raised his other hand to hit him in the face. But then he blinked rapidly and realized who he was about to hit and released Noah. "Blimey. Pretty sure the fucking twat drugged me. What the fuck?" He tried to sit up, but Noah shoved him back down.
"Easy. We don't know what she gave you yet. Doc’s on his way to take your blood and will rush some lab results."
Matthias shook him off. "I'm all right. Just a fucking bitch of a headache." And then he let out a slew of curses that JJ could only assume came from a lifetime rolling about the streets of London. When he pushed himself into a sitting position, Lucia went to him and kneeled in front of him, holding his hands.
"Matthias, do you remember anything? Anything at all? They took Isabella.”
Matthias's brows snapped down and he stared at Lucia hard. "The baby? Fucking cunt took the baby?"
His gaze darted to Noah whose expression was grim and his jaw set. But he nodded. "Yeah, they took the babysitter too."
Matthias shook his head, and then groaned loudly as he cradled it gently with both hands. "Nah, mate, no one took her. She brought me a drink. Said she made tea. Fucking Earl Grey. I was downed because I wanted a spot of tea. That is so fucking bullshit."
Lucia shook her head. "But I vetted Katie. You vetted Katie. We all did."
It was true. The nanny had been interviewed by every single member of Blake Security. They’d dug through her background, her past boyfriends, any roommates she had. They'd gone over her financial records. That babysitter pretty much had top-secret clearance at this point with all the background checks she'd had.
"I know." Matthias said. "But it was her. No one else could've accessed or bypassed the biometric scanner or the alarms. Unless those were on when you guys came in."
Next to JJ, Jonas stiffened. "No. No alarms. Our phones didn't go off either. Nothing."
Matthias cursed again. "Yeah. It was Katie then because no one else could have gotten in here."
"Kid, you feeling up to it? We need to access the security feed to see what happened, and you're the only one who can do that quickly," Noah said.
"Fuck. You've been waiting for me to wake up? We're losing time.” He pushed to his feet and swayed, and Noah shoved him back down into a sitting position. "You stay here. Oskar, run and bring the kid his laptop."
JJ had never seen the German run so fast. But he was back in less than a minute and handed the laptop to Matthias. Matthias's fingers tapped over the keyboard at such a fast rate she could barely see the individual strokes he was making. "Yeah, mate. Here she is; bloody cunt is in the kitchen making the tea.” He turned the laptop around, but when they all couldn't see it he made another few quick taps, and the security footage appeared on the television set. He pointed. "Yeah, there she is, putting whatever it is in the tea. And then she brings it in here to me. I was working on something. But Isabella refused to sleep, so I had her one-handed, you know. Like you do sometimes, Noah, so that she can see outward and play a little, and then she falls asleep."
Noah's lips twitched, and he blinked back tears. "Yeah, I know."
Matthias sniffed too. "Fuck mate. I'm so fucking sorry. I'm such a fucking idiot. I took the tea. I drank it. Didn't taste any different, didn't smell any different."
Noah shook his head. "This isn't on you. This is on her. We just need to see the rest of the video."
Matthias fast-forwarded the video to show what happened when his head started to nod back. Katie took the baby, and then she made one call. "Yes. He's out." She was silent for a beat, and then her gaze darted to Matthias and back to the baby. "I don't think I can do that. If that's what you want to happen, you’ll have to come and do it yourself. Because I won't. I told you that already."
"Is there any way we can track who she was talking to?" Jonas asked.
Matthias frowned. "I might be able to hack her phone. Pinpoint her location. Read her text messages. But without the actual physical phone, it will be next to impossible to determine who she called. I'm fucking sorry. This is on me."
JJ stepped out of the comfort of Jonas's arms. "No Matthias. I've already taken the blame. It's because of me that all of you are in this position. He wants me. That's why he took her. Because he knows it would hurt me to see all of you hurting. Matthias this wasn't your fault. We'll find Katie. If anyone can do it, you can."
Lucia nodded. "JJ's right. You would be the one who could find her."
"I'll do my best. Again, I'm so fucking sorry."
"Don't be sorry. This wasn't you. Just find her," Noah said.
Lucia stood and turned to JJ. "Look, I know you blame yourself, JJ. I actually blame myself for leaving. I know Noah's gonna rip himself apart. And Matthias, you're killing yourself because you drank tea. None of us are to blame. The person to blame is this Chamaeleon character. He and Katie. We blame them. And now we all have to band together and bring my daughter home."
Noah wrapped his arms around her. "Lucia's right. We are a family. We won't crumble. And together, we're going to find my daughter. Even if it means taking the fight straight to ORUS. We will get her back."
Matthias tried to stand again but thought better of it. "That's just the thing you guys. I'm not entirely sure ORUS is behind this."
Calm, he had to stay fucking calm. Jonas dragged in a deep breath in hopes that one breath would keep him from wanting to pull something apart. He was going to kill that fucker. And he was going to take his time. And he was going to enjoy it.
There's plenty of time for killing him later.
They had to catch him first. And as much as he wanted to kill the asshole right now, his priority was JJ. He could almost feel her shaking as she stood next to him.
"Babe, want to take Lucia into the kitchen? Make her some tea, see what you can do to help her. I’ll talk to Matthias and see what we can seam together about the sequence of events, okay?"
The JJ he knew would argue about why she needed to be in the room with them when they were discussing things and vowing to kill the fucker herself. But that part of her was in shock. Instead, she simply nodded, went to her best friend, took her hand, and led her through the expansive living area to the back hallway and into the kitchen.
Jonas could only stare after her as she left the room. Would this be the thing that broke her? How the hell did he help her fix this? She’ll be okay. She’s strong. Right now, someone else needs your support.
He turned his attention to Noah and winced when he saw the fear in his friend’s eyes. Noah's lips were thin, his gaze bleak. What hell he must be going through right now. Jonas stepped toward his friend, but Noah jutted out his chin. "Let's get to work. Matthias, are you able to get into our back up security feed?"
From the couch, the kid nodded and tried to get himself up. The kid was too weak though, so Oskar and Rafe helped him to his feet. He was so unsteady, they half-dragged him into the hallway and back into his domain. Once they had him seated in his usual post, he sagged into his seat.
He had to give the kid credit, because as shitty as he must feel, he was still ready to work.
"All right gents, I know it's an easy thing to jump to conclusions about who's responsible for this, but I've had eyes on Chamaeleon since the other day. He hasn't moved. Not once, in or out, at least according to my feeds. I've also had eyes on ORUS headquarters just in case he found a way around my protocols. It's easy to assume it’s him. But," he shook his head. "According to this, the guy’s an agoraphobic or something. He hasn’t left his flat.”
Noah rubbed the stubble on his jaw. "How many exits are there in that building?"
"There are four. I have cameras on all of them."
Jonas wracked his brain. "This guy is good at hiding. I mean that's pretty much what they trained him for. We have to be missing something."
Matthias shook his head. "No. His door hasn't even opened. Two days, and he's been holed up in that flat. Unless he sprouted wings and flew."
Jonah scowled. "I mean, that’s possible, right?”
"I appreciate the confidence in the skill set, Jonas, but even ORUS agents can’t fly.”
“No, but they can rappel and shit, right Rafe?”
Lucia’s brother nodded. "That's a possibility. I’ve done it. But as a means of getting in and out of a building, it’s risky. Someone is bound to see you. But if the building has a basement or connects to a tunnel, it’s a good way in and out.”
Noah spoke, his voice low and gravelly. Like every word was painfully wrenched out of him. "Matthias, start looking at building plans of what was there before this apartment complex. Then start looking for any connection between David West and Katie. Anything at all. In the meantime, I'll send Dylan to her apartment. Though it’s doubtful she's there, he might find something that leads us to her. And let’s have Ryan start canvasing her known haunts. Everywhere she's been known to go. I want her credit card numbers. I want her phone number. Hell I want her library card number. Anything that can help find my daughter."
Matthias and Dylan gave him curt nods.
"Noah," the kid swallowed hard. "Really fucking sorry."
Noah visibly shook. "This isn’t on you. This is on that woman and Chamaeleon. All we can do is what we all do best."
Jonas studied Noah and wondered if his friend, Matthias, and Rafe would be coming out of assassin retirement to handle this guy. And if they were coming out of retirement did that mean that Katie was fair game too?
Noah hadn't ever given him full details of what he’d done for ORUS, but Jonas been able to piece together enough. The three of them, they had killed before. A lot. The part of him that was still a cop bristled at that. But he knew better than anyone there were times when extreme measures were called for. This was one of those times. And if there was killing to be done for the bastard who took Isabella, well then count him in.
"Matthias, walk us through what happened from the moment we left. Just one more time. Show us everything," Noah said.
Jonas turned his attention to Noah. "Listen, I know you're going to tell me no. But why don’t you let me handle this? Because right now you're too raw, and you're in shock. You and I both know you’re not at your best right now. Not to mention the cops will be here any second. You’re about to have your hands full. Let me do this."
Noah’s shake of the head was automatic. "She's my daughter. I'll do this."
"You can't do this and deal with the cops. Go." Even as he spoke, the buzzer indicated someone was downstairs. "See, the police are already here. You deal with them and the official channels. Maybe this is a simple case of the babysitter going crazy. If it is, we’ll find her in no time. If it isn't, the kid will work with the team. We have it under control."
Noah looked like he was going to refuse again. But when Dylan poked his head into the computer room and nodded at him, indicating the cops were there, he really had no choice. When he finally nodded, Jonas could see the sag in his body. He could see his friend giving up the fight.
When Noah shuffled out of the room to deal with the police, Jonas turned his attention back to Matthias and Rafe and assumed command. Rafe might be back in the fold, but Jonas had the most seniority on this team.
"Okay, it’s just us.” To Matthias, he said, “How are you holding up?”
The kid flattened his lips. "Yeah, mate, I’m good. Now let's catch this cunt."