me. Like the old saying, ‘Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.’ But your friend”—she directed her words to Ivan—“Wayne is still friends with the man whose brother stalked her and chased her away. And he’s been embezzling from me.”
Did her tone border on accusing Ivan?
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Ivan appeared hurt, and his voice rose. “You could have told me, Sam.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I was waiting, hoping for a way to bring her back. I didn’t know her stalker was dead. I thought he was still out there.”
Samara didn’t suspect Ivan was involved with Wayne, then. Liam cleared his throat. “Enzo and a big player in the trafficking business are working together. Drugs and human trafficking. I believe he’s trafficking women—let’s call it an exclusive high-mountain club—and laundering money through the new resort he’s heavily invested in. This pilot, Wayne, he could be working for either of them and could also have been blackmailed to commit heinous crimes. It wouldn’t be the first time Fox has used those techniques. Someone even tried to kill us. Does Wayne drive a Hummer?”
Samara and Ivan shared a look. Ivan slowly nodded.
“Where would Wayne take Rae? What would he do with her?”
Samara’s cell rang. She glanced at the screen and snatched the cell. Hands shaking, she eyed both of them to keep quiet as she whispered, “Yes?”
She broke out in a laughing sob. “Oh, baby. You’re alive. Are you okay? Where are you?”
Samara put the phone on speaker.
“Mom, listen. I’m safe. I’m with Alan and Callie. We’re safe. But you could be in danger because of what I’ve done. Please get out of the house. Go somewhere. I’m going to go to the police, but I have to make sure everyone I love is out of harm’s way first.”
Liam understood that strategy.
“Mom?”
Liam spoke up. “Rae is missing, Zoey. I need your help. Where would she be taken?”
The irony wasn’t lost on him. He’d started this with Rae to search for a missing Zoey. Now he needed Zoey to find his missing Rae.
“I think I know where she is,” Zoey said. “I . . . I was there too, briefly. But let me check.” Zoey’s fingers clacked on a keyboard. “Someone has checked in to the Morning Glory cabin tonight.”
“Wait. How do you know this?” Liam asked.
“It’s a long story. Me and this trafficking ring go way back. I hacked into their system a long time ago. They’re branching out in this area.”
Liam couldn’t wait to hear that story but only after Rae was home and safe. “Okay, then. Who checked in?”
“A man checked in under the name ‘Powder Keg.’ And I know who Powder Keg is. Mom knows. Ivan knows him.”
“Powder Keg is Wayne,” Samara said. “Tawny, he’s embezzled from us. We were thinking he could be the one who took Rae. But how can you be sure she’s there?”
“I can’t be 100 percent sure. But if he’s checked in and Rae’s missing, that could mean he took her. That’s how this operation works. Men can spend a weekend at a private cabin with a beautiful woman of their choice. Come to the Saddleback Mountain Ski Resort for skiing and then an unforgettable tryst in an exotic cabin. You can pick your cabin on the website—one that can only be accessed on the dark web.
“Runaways and young women are the easiest—they fear for their lives and the lives of their families. But people like me or Rae, if we get in the way, which probably isn’t that often, we’re used . . . then disposed of. There’s nothing you can do tonight until the blizzard blows through. Maybe even tomorrow.”
He’d given Kelvin a similar warning about the blizzard, that he should send backup before it was too late.
Was it too late for Liam to help Rae?
“I brought this on her,” Zoey said. “So I’m going to do what I can. I’m going to try to persuade the man behind all of this to let her go. Mom, the rest of the books. There should be eight of them. You sent me four already. I have those now. Pull them from the shelves. Do exactly as I say. Look at the book’s number in the series.”
Samara pulled the Zane Williams books from the bookshelf and laid them out in order. “Now what?”
“Using paper and pencil, rub over the impression inside the covers. Remember to keep the words in order as you retrieve them. That’s crucial.”