“Oh yeah? What?”
“A few days ago, right after the race, I… Shit. Look. Nobody knows this, but I’ve been taking some community college classes for the last couple of years. Almost five actually.”
Why would that make Baby uncomfortable? “That’s great, man. I might be following in your footsteps soon. What are you studying?”
“Engineering. Maybe. It’s a long story. But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Look. It was your sister’s birthday a week and a half ago…”
Oh shit. “With the crazy going on with Amber and the race, I totally forgot. I didn’t call Quinn or anything.”
“I know.”
“Damn it. She always remembers mine. I can’t believe I did this again. I— Wait. How did you know it was my sister’s birthday?”
“Well, that’s what I wanted—”
He was cut off as everyone cheered when Violet and Aiden walked in with huge boxes labeled Fancy Pants Bakery. It looked like the wedding cake—or multiple wedding pastries in the form of whatever Violet had at her shop for this last-minute event—had arrived.
But Riley wanted to know more about how Baby knew he’d missed Quinn’s birthday.
And why the other man was looking decidedly uncomfortable about it.
“Bollinger, what the hell is going on?”
Riley was cut off again by the bride’s surprise laugh and yell. “I know this wrapping paper is from Girl Riley. Phoenix, where are you hiding her? I’ve got to get a picture of us with it before I open it.”
Riley turned away from Baby, his concern about his sister forgotten.
Where was Wildfire? She’d gone out to get the present almost twenty minutes ago.
“She’s around here somewhere,” he called out. “She brought in the present.”
A small blond woman he hadn’t met shook her head. “Actually, I brought that in. It was sitting right outside the door with Peyton and Cade’s names on it.”
Now Riley started really looking around. Had she had some sort of MS flare-up? Fallen and hurt herself?
“There was a note next to the present,” the blond woman said. “I didn’t read it. Maybe it’s from her?”
Peyton reached beside the box to the piece of paper. Riley knew as soon as she unfolded it that it wasn’t good. All the color drained from her face as she handed it to her new husband.
Cade read it. “‘Phoenix, you took something from me. Now I’ve taken something from you.’”
All the air had been sucked out of the room. The silence was deafening.
“Who is it from?”
“It’s hard to make out the signature,” Cade said. “Sayed something.”
The entire Linear Tactical team went on alert.
The party was over.
Riley didn’t even wait for Cade to finish. He dashed out the door, most of the Linear team on his heels.
There was no sign of Wildfire anywhere in the parking lot or around the building. No sign of Sayed.
He heard curses behind him, but he was too numb with terror to come up with any curses himself.
“Sayed El Kadi. He’s the Egyptian we infiltrated two weeks ago, right?” Zac asked. He didn’t do much active fieldwork anymore, but that didn’t mean he didn’t keep abreast of all the Linear Tactical mission happenings.
Riley looked at Wyatt, then Gavin. They were the ones who had been there. “Would Sayed do this? I know we didn’t leave any trace of me being involved.”
“We always do our best never to leave any trail back to you. But in this situation the timing was a little too convenient for him to ignore,” Wyatt said. “That rescue cost him a lot of money, and more than that, it may have cost him respect. That would be a true insult. One he would take personally.”
“He may have already killed her.” Riley could barely get the words out.
“No,” Gavin said immediately. “That wouldn’t make sense. If he had wanted to kill her, he would’ve just done it here and left the body out in public for you to find.”
Now all the air had been sucked out of the universe.
Kendrick Foster, the Linear computer guru, pointed up at the convenience store across the street. “You guys, there are some cameras around here I should be able to access from my computer. We just need to get back to my house.”
“We don’t have to do that.” This from the blond who’d brought in the present.
“Who the hell are you?” He should be gentle, polite. But he had neither gentle nor polite in him. Not while Wildfire was being held by a terrorist known for his brutality.
“This is Neo,” Zac said. “She’s helped us out more than once.”
“I have my laptop here. I never go anywhere without it.” She raised an eyebrow at Kendrick as if to ask why he didn’t do the same. “Mine’s faster than his anyway.”
Kendrick looked like he was going to argue, but Wyatt held out a hand. “Get it. We need any intel we can get.”
She had it out and on the hood of a car in less than a minute. She and Kendrick were bickering about the best computer nerd stuff to get access to the cameras they needed.
With every word, Riley came closer and closer to losing his shit. Every second these two spent half flirting, half fighting was a second Riley might be in pain.
A hand fell on his shoulder, stopping the ugly words that were about to spew out of his mouth.
“They work better this way. One-upping each other moves them faster. Let them work their way.” Baby’s whispered words made Riley swallow his biting comments, but only barely. He understood what Baby was saying. How many times had he and his team used inappropriate humor during dangerous stunts? It was a coping mechanism.
He nodded.
Neo had the footage up just a couple minutes later. “Here, and for the record, faster than Blazing Saddles over here could’ve done it. This is the best picture we’re going to get.”
She brought up a grainy image that was obviously a reflection of some type.
It was Sayed talking to Wildfire.
“Oh fuck,” Wyatt said. “He’s here himself.”
“What does that mean?”
Wyatt looked over at Gavin, then back to Riley. “Honestly, probably means he came here to kill you. He felt personally slighted by you and wanted to do it himself. But then saw an eye-for-an-eye opportunity with Girl Riley and took it.”
Neo and Kendrick were already bickering about something else.
Riley was just trying to keep from screaming. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep it in.
The thought of all the things Sayed could do to her…might have already done to her…
It was Wyatt who got right in front of Riley’s face and cupped his cheeks. “You can’t go there, Phoenix. If you have to deal with that later, then we’ll find a way, but right now you’ve got to stay functional. You don’t do her any good sitting here playing what if. You only do her good if you are firing on all cylinders.”
He took a steadying breath and nodded. Wyatt was right and had worked enough of Linear’s hostage and kidnap cases to know what he was talking about. He had even lived through tragedy himself.