Rambling.
He forced his nerves back down, then opened the door. Trevor reached for him, then squeezed his hand before he could pull away, and he squeezed back, afraid the touch would knock him off his game, but still needing it as much as Trevor did.
“In. Out. Done. You’ve got this,” Trevor said. “You’ll make the drop, we’ll get the address, and Courtney will be fine.”
“And Bobby?”
“We’ve got eyes everywhere,” Trevor reminded him. “We’ll track him down. But priority one is Courtney, and we’re making that happen today. Right?”
“Hell, yes,” Ollie said, then slipped out of the car. He opened the back door, grabbed the bags that Damien had prepped, and headed into the mall.
He couldn’t see any of the team—they were all too damn good—but he knew they were watching. He walked in through one of the main entrances, only to find the place relatively empty. Once a popular destination, it almost seemed abandoned.
Worked out great for the good guys, Ollie thought. Easier to keep eyes on the target.
He found the restroom easily enough then, entered, his stomach in knots since that was the one area in the mall without eyes.
It was completely empty, and he let out a slow sigh of relief.
His instructions were to put the duffels in the handicapped stall, stacked on the toilet. Then lock the door and crawl out of the stall from underneath.
Someone would be along within the hour to collect the ransom, and they’d leave an envelope with the address where Courtney was being held. Any attempt to follow the bag man would be noted, and a call would be made to the appropriate party, who would quickly and efficiently put a bullet in Courtney’s brain.
So, yeah. Ollie was following the rules.
He entered the stall, found that the duffels stacked just fine, and then he locked the door as ordered. He wasn’t particularly keen on crawling on the floor, but he had little choice. So he got down, crawled under, then stood upright again to wash his hands.
And then, with only one last look back at the stall with the ransom, he pulled open the door, headed back the way he came, and exited the mall.
He didn’t stop until he reached the car he’d arrived in. Trevor was gone—well-hidden inside the mall—and it was Ollie’s job to drive away. He did, maneuvering his way to Riverside Drive, then heading east until he was in Valley Village. He puttered around for a while, then turned south onto Laurel Canyon and—in what could only be described as dramatic irony—turned into the Von’s parking lot. The very lot where Courtney had been abducted in the first place.
He left his car, switched to another that had already been planted there, changed into board shorts and a faded blue tee, then put on the surfer-blonde wig and ball cap.
After that, he used the key that had been left under the mat to fire up the car and head back to the mall so he could reconnect with the team currently milling about the second floor as they traded off the duty to keep an eye on the men’s room.
“Anything?” he said, after putting on the headphone that had also been left for him.
“No takers so far,” Leah said. “Not a soul has gone into that restroom.”
“I’m on my way.”
“See you soon,” Trevor said, and just his voice alone made Ollie smile. As soon as this day was over, he was pulling Trevor close and, hopefully, fucking his brains out. He’d need to start with an apology, but surely Trevor would get it. The man knew how distracting he was to Ollie. And today of all days, Ollie had needed to be in full-focus mode.
“We’ve got something.” Brax’s voice rang out clear in Ollie’s headset. “A kid. Maybe seventeen. Jeans and a red tee. He’s heading for the men’s room.”
“Probably just taking a leak,” Leah said.
“Guess we’ll see. Yeah, okay, he’s in.”
Ollie picked up his pace, wanting to get to his station before the kid came out. He didn’t make it, and he turned to face the mall’s map, then hoped he looked like he was trying to locate a store.
“Bingo.” That was Trevor’s voice. “He’s got the bags and he’s on the move.”
“On him,” Liam said, and Ollie could imagine him and Quince falling in behind the kid, pursuing him to wherever he might be taking the ransom. Which, hopefully, ended up at Bobby’s hidey-hole.
“I’m going in,” Ollie said, once he’d turned around and saw that neither the kid nor Quince or Liam were anywhere in sight.
“You’re cleared,” Trevor said. “At your discretion.”
Ollie opened the door, then moved into the now unlocked stall where he’d left the money. At first he saw nothing, and he spat out a quick curse, then heard Trevor’s sharp intake of breath.
“Nothing?”
“Not a goddamn—wait. Something,” he said, seeing the envelope that had been taped beneath the stall’s private sink. He tugged it free of the tape, then said a quick prayer before carefully opening the sealed envelope. It contained just a thin strip of paper, and he pulled it out, then closed his eyes and exhaled in relief.
“An address,” he said. “We’ve got an address.”
“Report.”
He read the address back, and listened as Trevor dismissed Brax and Leah to head that way. “Get back to the car,” Trevor said. “We’ll be right behind them.”
“On my way,” Ollie acknowledged, then hurried out of the stall, praying that this wasn’t going to all go to shit, and that within the hour, they’d have Courtney safe and sound and back at her home.
* * * *
The address was all the way in Riverside, and since there was no way that Ollie was consigning Courtney to any more time in fear than was necessary, he called the Riverside FBI field office and had a team dispatched.
“Stealth,” he stressed. “She’s probably alone and bound, locked in. But we don’t know that for sure. Call me the moment you have eyes-on.”
When he hung up the call, his chest felt tight. “Tell me that wasn’t a mistake,” he said to Trevor, reaching over to twine their fingers together.
“It wasn’t. It’s the FBI. They know what they’re doing. She’s fine, Ollie,” he said. “We’ll have confirmation soon, but she’s fine.” He tugged his hand free from Ollie’s, then put it on the steering wheel. Ollie was so lost in thought, he barely noticed, his mind too full of worry for Courtney to have room for processing information about the world around him. He was in a car, and they were moving toward her prison. That was all he knew. Right then, that was all he needed to know.
The sharp ring of his phone made him jump, but he hit the button to answer immediately. “You got her?”
“It’s Liam. And we lost the money. And Bobby.”
Ollie caught Trevor’s eye. “What happened?”
“The kid passed if off four times. The last one was Bobby, or if not, it was his doppelgänger. He took the satchels into a men’s room in a strip mall in Panorama City. Didn’t come out. Turns out the damn thing had a back janitor’s entrance. I’m sorry, McKee. That fuck-up’s on us.”
“You didn’t know. You were following protocol. And at least we know he’s not with Courtney. I have a local team going after her now. He may have the bills, but he won’t have her. And we know who he is. We’ll get him.”