“I’m trying the best I can, but with the little that you’ve given me, it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The number you received the texts from is a burner cell with a signal bouncing all over the world. I’ll find the place of origin—barring they don’t move locations—but it’s going to take some time.”
“I don’t have time. They don’t have fucking time!”
Shelly holds her hands up in defense. “Look, Son, I get it. You’re stressed and probably haven’t slept; neither have I. I swear to you on Mr. Whiskers’s life that I have all my best girls on this. We’ll find them.”
Shelly has worked for my family for years. First for my father and now me. She is the best cyber hacker in the world, and the team of women who help her are equally as good. I know that if there were more she could do to find them, she would.
I blow out a breath of frustration. “What more do you need?”
“Another text. A phone call. More pictures. Anything would be helpful. We’re looking into the restraints Ruby is attached to. They look special made or antiques that were acquired. It’s just a matter of tracking down where they came from, and then we’ll have more to go on from that angle.”
Almost like magic, before I can respond to her, I get a text message.
Private: How did you sleep last night alone in bed?
Me: What is it going to take to get them back?
Private: Want to see how your wife slept?
I let out a frustrated growl that this person won’t answer my questions. Then another picture comes through. It looks like the same room that Ruby was in yesterday, but she’s in a bed. Wrapped in the arms of another man. Both of them naked.
I want to throw up looking at the picture of my worst nightmare. I’m not sure which kills me more: the one from yesterday where she was shackled to a wall or this.
Zooming in, I see the man has a tattoo on his left shoulder, and I don’t know whether to feel pissed off or relieved that my best friend is lying naked in bed with my wife. Moving around the zoomed-in image, I see a chain connecting from the wall to Desmond’s bloody ankle. Bruises mare his back and side.
I let out another deep exhale, then focus in on Ruby. That’s when I see that she’s tied to the bed, spread eagle, by her wrists and ankles.
Squinting to see more, I jump when Shelly asks, “Can I put it up on the screen so we can all see what we’re working with?”
“Yeah,” I rasp out, feeling deflated.
I swallow down the bile rising in my throat when the image is enlarged before me. It’s a stab to the heart seeing them look almost intimate together.
“I know what you’re thinking; it’s written all over your face,” Shelly starts. “But I know Dez, and from how I’m seeing this, it looks like he was trying to keep her warm.”
I want to cry when I look from her back to the screen and see it all in a different light. It looks like he’s shielding Ruby’s body, probably to both give her warmth and modesty. That is a very Desmond thing to do.
Whoever this fucker is, they’re trying to mess with me in all kinds of sick ways. But I’m not going to play into their hand. Not this one anyway.
Private: Look cute, don’t they?
Me: How much longer are we going to play this game?
Private: As long as I want to.
Private: She’s grown up quite beautifully. Shame I’m going to ruin it.
I close my eyes because then it clicks. It was so obvious. Why I didn’t realize it from the start makes me even angrier.
“It’s Ricco,” I say to Shelly. “That’s who has them. It has to be.”
“Motherfucker,” she mumbles. “I’m looking over all the properties the DeBrava family owns now.”
Her fingers click over the keyboard of her computer at a rapid pace while my eyes drift back to the screen. “Take care of my girl, Dez.”
“Found it!” one of the girls in the room shouts as she stands from behind her own screen. “The family owns property near the Spring Mountains. They built a home there in the 1980s, and according to the plans, there’s more than just a house. My guess is it’s an underground safe house or something.”
“Or something,” Shelly snorts.
“Send me the location,” I yell over my shoulder to Shelly, already making my way out.
“Done!”
My phone pings with a notification before I’ve left the building.
Making a stop to round up some of my best foot soldiers to come with me, I load up on ammunition and firepower and hope to God that neither Ruby nor Dez gets hurt in the crossfire.
When we pull up to the house, everything looks quiet, but I know better. Gun in hand, I cock it, ready to shoot anyone who gets in my way. “I’m coming for you, Tink,” I whisper as I walk toward the front door.
I’m ready for war, and it’s not ending until I have Ricco’s head on a spit in my lawn.
23
Ruby
I’ve been stuck to this wall for what feels like a lifetime. My face feels tight from my dried tears, while my body is shaking from being cold and scared. I can’t feel my arms now, and I lost feeling in my hands a while ago from them hanging above my head.
My stomach hurts from needing to use the bathroom for so long. I’ve almost convinced myself that it’s okay to just let it go, because it can’t get much worse than it is now, when I hear the door open. I look up to see who it is and feel disgusted when I see Ricco strut in with a smile.
“How’s my pretty plaything doing?” he asks, pushing my hair out of my face.
“I need to pee. Unless you want me to piss all over your shoes, please let me down to use the restroom.”
He chuckles, finding what I said humorous, thankfully. With a head tilt, a man walks over and begins to let my limbs free of the restraints. I begin to slowly walk toward what I think is the toilet when I’m pulled back by my hair. “Don’t even think about trying anything stupid,” Ricco warns.
Letting go and giving me a shove, I stumble a little before getting my footing. My legs feel like jello after being in the same standing position for so long. My arms feel heavy as blood begins to flow through them freely again as I attempt to fist my hands. Reaching the door, I’m relieved to see that I was right; there is a toilet on the other side. I let out a small whimper of relief as I use the restroom.
But that relief doesn’t last long. When I step back into the room, I stop short when I see Dez standing naked in front of Ricco. His back is to me, and he doesn’t know I’m in the room yet as I drop my eyes to the floor, feeling uncomfortable.
“There’s our girl!” Ricco sings as he claps his hands when he sees me. “Don’t be shy now.” He says it like it’s normal to be held captive and stripped bare in front of not only the man I hate more than anything else in this world, and other complete strangers, but also my best friend.
Rounding my shoulders back so as to not let Ricco see me shrink back in unease, I walk around Dez to stand next to him.
“Don’t you two make a lovely-looking couple. Too bad the other one got in your way,” Ricco says, sizing us up. I see Dez tense next to me at Ricco’s words. “How you can stand to not stare at her is a wonder to me,” Ricco adds to Dez.