Breakaway - Sadie Jacks Page 0,68

half and slowly ate one section while I took inventory of the room around me.

Except for the bed, there really wasn’t anything useful. I didn’t have a knife or a stone to cut up the fabric. And since the bed squeaked and groaned when I sat on it, I wasn’t sure I wanted to remove its cloth. Metal squeaked and groaned like that. I couldn’t deal with an allergic reaction while I was locked up.

So I sat on the bed and began reciting the constellations as I nibbled my sandwich. My guys would find me. They’d promised.

I just had to wait.

Chapter 37 – Toven

Wednesday afternoon

“The signal is still in one place. I’ve got it narrowed down to two buildings. They’re packed so closely together, that the signal is bouncing,” I told Tag over the phone.

“Give me both addresses. My team is ready to set up surveillance. We just need a spot.”

I sent him the geotag for the tracker. I didn’t know what kind of battery it had, but it was a miracle it had lasted this long. I prayed to anyone and anything that would listen that we got to her in time. Thanked the universe for letting the tracker work. For giving Tag the foresight to put it in her clothes.

We’d sat around the last two nights trying to come up with a plan to get her out before the gala. Everything we came up with bordered on insane and carried a super high risk of getting Hollyn hurt or killed. They were thrown out immediately.

“Once we get a solid location on her, I’ll hit you back,” Tag said and hung up before I could say anything. I sent up another string of prayers and pleas to whoever was listening. It had worked the first time.

I switched screens and continued to read through the new data my autotasks had compiled. Most of the stuff on the Christiansens was stuff we already knew. Their interest in the buried cable thing was still a stumper though. Nothing I’d found helped. At all.

It was literally acres of farmland out in the middle of New York state. There weren’t any special soil or mineral rights. No litigious issues with land rights or markers. Nothing was out there. “It’s almost as bad as Hols’ magical world.” I laughed as I said it.

Then almost slammed my head against the desk. Repeatedly. I called Thane.

“You found her?” he asked. The same as he’d asked every time I’d called him in the last forty-eight hours.

“No. But don’t hang up on me either. I’ve been through the land rights and contract for the buried comm cable thing that Ainsley wants us to sign back over to her.”

“She never said anything about signing it back over to her. She just wants me to make sure their father knows it was my fault they didn’t get the contract.”

I snorted. “Yeah, because blackmailers always stop after getting what they want. Think, man. You’re supposed to be the brains of this particular operation—and by that I mean our company. If nothing is out there except grass, cows, forest creatures, and air, what could they possibly be hiding?”

His low growl came over the line loud and clear. “I’m not in the mood for games, Tove. Spit it out.”

“What if that’s where Alder Valley is? Hols said she lived beyond the veil. Maybe that’s where it is?”

“But she came out of the wall in Center Point Park. That’s nowhere near the buried cable.”

“Open your mind. Maybe it’s like Narnia or some other kind of alternate universe. Nothing she’s told us makes sense in a rational mind. Suspend your disbelief for just a second and work with me here.” I wanted to crawl through the phone and beat him with it.

He took a deep breath, let it out slowly. It whistled over the open line. “Fine. Assuming the world she’s from is hidden, would it need a lot of space, or just a little. It’s not like the wardrobe in the Narnia books was big. It was the world on the other side that was huge.”

“Shit. That’s right. Damn it.” I rubbed circles on my temples. “Then what the fuck is Ainsley and her fucking family hiding out there?”

“I don’t know. Once we get Stretch back, we’ll take a trip to the land out there. I’m not signing it back over. Not unless I absolutely have to.”

I smothered the snort. He’d throw it at them to get our girl back. Any of us would. “I