She cut me off with a kiss, grim amusement sparking in her eyes. “I got this, Cam.”

“Caballero,” Cavazos called from across the room. “If it’ll set your mind at ease, you have my word that she’ll still be breathing when you get back.”

I glanced at him over her shoulder. “Your word? That’s a joke, right? Why don’t you give me a real laugh and swear on your honor?”

“Okay…” Liv pulled open the front door and pushed me onto the landing ahead of her. “Time to go.” Anne followed me out, and Liv gave me another kiss, so long and deep I got lost in it, and almost couldn’t find my way back. Then a soft click from below brought me back to the real world and I glanced down to find two of Cavazos’s men aiming guns at my head.

“It’s okay,” Cos said from the doorway, making a subtle lower-your-weapons gesture with one hand. “Caballero has agreed to do a little job for me, and service has its rewards….” He made another, less subtle gesture toward Liv, as if he was lending her to me, and my temper flared so bright and hot that for a moment the world seemed to glow around the edges.

Obviously furious, Liv muttered several profanities at him, then turned back to me. “Be careful,” she whispered, and I nodded. Then she backed into the apartment after Cavazos while I escorted Anne down the steps.

We ignored Cavazos’s men on the way to Liv’s car, and twenty minutes later we pulled into the parking lot of my own building and transferred all our stuff to my car. I let Anne drive so I could concentrate on Tracking.

I closed my eyes while she drove, repeating the three-quarters I knew of Hadley’s name over and over in my head, peeking out at the city occasionally to suggest a side road or see what part of town we were in. After about fifteen minutes, we turned left and the pull from Hadley’s name—so strong I could feel it buzzing on the surface of my skin—finally matched the direction of the road we were on. I opened my eyes one final time and a sudden jolt of alarm drove Hadley’s name right out of my head. Not that it mattered by then.

I knew the neighborhood. I knew where we were headed, even without tracking Hadley the final eighth of a mile.

We were nowhere near the industrial district where I’d expected Tower to house his new project. We were also nowhere near the commercial district where he owned several large, unused office spaces that might have worked, if his “donors” weren’t prone to loud disturbances that might alert the neighbors.

Instead, we were in a residential neighborhood. A very nice, very expensive residential neighborhood I’d been called to several times a year since I’d signed with the syndicate.

“No, no, no…” I mumbled, staring out the glass, transfixed as the estate looming ahead grew larger and larger through the windshield.

“What?” Anne glanced at me, then back at the road, which ended ahead in a massive circle drive serving just one residence. “Are we almost there?”

I nodded, still staring at what little I could see of the house through the tall iron gate.

“Which way?”

“Straight.”

She frowned, following my gaze. “But the road ends… Ohhh.” She pulled onto the side of the road in front of a patch of wooded-but-manicured land belonging to another property, out of sight from the house itself. “Is she in there?” Anne stared at the property ahead, and I nodded, my mind already buzzing with the complications this new information would mean for the rescue mission.

“Whose house is that?” Anne demanded, but I couldn’t answer. “You can’t tell me, can you?” she guessed, and I nodded. “That means it’s his, doesn’t it? That’s Tower’s house? He’s keeping her in his own house? Why the hell would he do that?”

I couldn’t answer any of her questions, and I didn’t even have an answer to the last one. Yed one syndicates often reaped the benefits of having influential police officers, politicians and government officials bound into their ranks—secretly, of course—but this was still quite a risk. A man had been murdered—a civilian, unconnected to the syndicate—and his wife and daughter had subsequently disappeared. If the public found out about that…

But they wouldn’t. Tower wouldn’t keep her in his own home unless he was absolutely sure he could keep the whole thing from both the press and the officials.

What he obviously didn’t realize, however, was that the child he’d stolen and hoped to hide from the world would actually shine some very unwanted attention on Tower’s private life—and lead his biggest enemy right to the front door.

Twenty-Seven

“Well, then, wake him up,” Ruben snapped into his cell phone, pacing back and forth behind the couch fast enough to make me dizzy. “I want everyone ready to go in half an hour.” I couldn’t make out the response over the line, but Ruben scowled and stopped pacing to listen. “Fine. Get Tatum ready just in case, but keep tracking Wilson and call me if you find him. Or if you hear anything.” He pressed a button to end the call, then slid his cell into his pocket and turned to face me, where I sat at the table.

His table. In his apartment. Deep in his syndicate’s territory, with two of his armed men keeping watch outside.

I’d never felt more caged in my entire life.

“Missing another man?” I asked, as he slid into the chair across from me at the table.

“My best Blinder dropped off the face of the planet two days ago.”