Sweet Pain (Amatucci Family #3) - Sadie Jacks Page 0,37
and she wasn’t my sister. Hell, I hadn’t even met the girl yet.
“Call her. Now,” Ryker barked. “I want to talk to her myself.” He pulled his phone from his pocket. Stabbed at the screen.
Daphne nodded as she opened her purse. “What is going on, Ryker?”
“A few days again now, after her goons ran Willow and me off the road landing us in the hospital, De Silva sent me a box. It had a lock of Corrie’s hair, a polaroid picture of her, a piece of hospital gown, and a burner phone. De Silva called the phone as soon as the box was opened. Said she’d kidnapped Corrie.” Ryker paced back and forth in the clear part of the living room as he waited for his call to connect.
It must have rang through to voicemail because he snarled, lowered the phone, stabbed the screen, and lifted it to his ear again.
Daphne’s face had lost all color as well. Her hand was trembling as she raised her own phone. “Dr. Damien Banner, please. This is Mrs. Daphne Sheridan.” Her lips twisted at whatever she heard. “Then find him! And put me through to my daughter’s room.” I could hear the slightest quaver in her voice.
I needed a phone. Curse it. “Ryker, do you have another burner?” I asked while he did the phone stabbing routine again.
“Office, middle drawer.” He didn’t stop his pacing.
I rushed down the hall. Dipped into each room until I found one that actually looked used. I darted to the desk. Yanked open the middle drawer. Powered the device on.
My foot tapped a rapid staccato as I waited for it to get through it’s opening sequence. As soon as I saw that it was ready to go, I called Turo. Good thing I’d memorized all their numbers. I guess Turo’s suggestion—read order—that I memorize their numbers because I might not have my phone’s contacts readily available hadn’t been blowing smoke up my ass when I joined them.
“Who is this?” his rough voice came over the line.
“Turo, it’s me.”
“Willow? What’s wrong?”
I gave him a rapid fire rundown of the problem.
He snarled. “Shit! The police have the last guy from the bunker. We don’t even know her HQ. No way to contact her.”
Something niggled at the back of my mind. I jumped up from Ryker’s chair, raced back into the living room. Daphne was sitting on a bar stool, her shoulders slumped as she listened to her phone call.
“Ryker, do you still have the phone that came with the package?” I asked, the phone still up to my ear so Turo could hear as well.
Ryker turned to me. He nodded. “Yeah, it’s with my security team. Downstairs.” He held out his hand to me. I rushed forward, grabbed it. “Turo, we’re heading to Ryker’s –”
“I heard. Get Cricket started on tracing it. If we can get any usable information on it, call me. I’ll round up some associates, have them standing by.” He disconnected the call before I could say anything else.
“Mom. Come on. You need to stay with us,” Ryker called as he hit the button to call his personal elevator.
She rushed over. She tripped once on her heels. She kicked them off and raced the rest of the way her in trouser socks. “What’s going on?”
He ushered us all into the elevator, slapped at the button of the floor he needed. Ryker told her. “It’s not a promise or even an assurance right now. But it’s the only lead we’ve got. I had Nik doing some digging earlier, when we first got the box. I’ll call her in, have her give me the files.”
So saying, he used his phone and called his IT expert. “I need everything you got on de Silva and her operation. She’s still got Corrie. Or at least I hope her men do.”
I could hear Nik’s screeching voice over the line even though I couldn’t discern any actual words. I winced when Ryker just snarled down the line. “You think I don’t know that? Give me the fucking files, Nik. Now.”
His phone beeped.
“I’m putting you on speaker. Mom and Willow are here.” He lowered the phone, tapped the speaker button.
“That call came in four days ago, Ryker. How the fucking fuck did we forget about it?” Nik snarled down the line.
“Probably being shot at,” I said softly. “No one’s at fault, Nik. But we’d like to get her back.” I left off ‘if possible.’ We all needed to stay focused on the positives.