Sweet Pain (Amatucci Family #3) - Sadie Jacks Page 0,39

dirty or clean?”

Hughes hummed again. “By all accounts clean. She’s still on her first year. Probably all sparkly and full of morals and shit.”

Ryker’s chuckle was dry. “Hook up with Nik. She’ll have more. I want Sherman’s movements tracked from that store. I need to know where she landed.”

“I’ll get right on it.”

Nik dashing in. “I’ve heard back.” She looked at Daphne, nodded. She completely ignored Hughes. “Don’t ask questions.”

Daphne shook her head. “I don’t care. Just tell me where my baby girl is.”

Nik’s shoulders settled. “Best guess for de Silva’s HQ is across the street.” She stabbed her finger at the wall. Where windows probably should be. Or were, but Hughes had them covered up.

“Reasoning?” Ryker asked.

“If she’s running a legitimate business as a front, then she needs to have at least the server capabilities we do. There aren’t a whole lot of buildings around New Trenadie that can handle the extra electrical output or input that she would need. And why reinvent the wheel, when she can set up and piggyback your hard work? Another way to drive the knife.”

“Assuming her legit business is a front, why do you think her crew is set up from there as well?”

“Because her business, while profitable, is still small. She would have more than enough space with renting only five or six offices.” Nik smiled. It was all teeth and attitude. “She’s got seven floors.”

I felt my mouth drop open. “And she could set it up so her soldiers and associates look like business guys. The comings and goings in a tech company is the perfect cover. Someone is always in the office. People come and go in random shifts,” I said.

Everyone turned to look at me. I shrugged. I wasn’t stupid, even if I wasn’t part of the back of the house with the Amatuccis. “Do they have a private access garage?”

Nik smiled at me, made me feel like a teacher’s prize student. “Indeed they do, Willow. Gold star.”

I snickered. “Then access is completely controlled. They could be running both businesses from there with very little indication to…other activities.”

“Are you saying my daughter could be across the street? Right now? When she should be in a hospital with a HEPA filter and rigidly controlled contaminant protocols?” Daphne’s voice rose to a level I was pretty sure dogs could hear from miles away.

Ryker grabbed his mother’s hand. “If that’s the case, I’ll bring her home tonight. But we need to get eyes on it. In it.”

“Mr. Penn, here’s your phone.” The front desk guy came in, slid a phone and box into Ryker’s hands. “All essential numbers have been programmed. I’ve left all but three of the speed dial options open.” Front Desk guy smiled at me. Winked.

Ryker snarled. “Thank you.” He stepped in front of me.

I rolled my eyes from behind Ryker’s back. He really had other things to focus on instead of my being smiled at by some random dude who worked for him.

“I’ve got footage of Sherman, Penn,” Hughes announced. He thankfully pulled Ryker’s attention back to more important things. “And I think Nik is right. Look at this.”

“That fast?” Ryker asked.

“Literally less than three miles to track. Street cams and other footage made it easy.” Hughes pointed at a highlighted person on the screens. He’d looped the tracks together so we got to watch a single stream of choppy footage. He waited until the woman stopped and looked up at a tall building. “That’s OmniFirst’s front door.”

Ryker cursed under his breath. “Save a copy of that. Send it to me, to Nik. Encrypted.” With his arm around my waist, we were walking out the office and back towards the elevators. “I’m calling Turo.”

He pushed the three of us women into the elevator car and then stepped in with us. He lifted the phone to his ear. “If Nico is there, put him on as well.”

Ryker lowered the phone, hit his speaker button. “I’ve got Willow, Nik, and my mother here.”

“Then I suggest you remove us from speaker phone, Mr. Penn,” Nico said in a voice sharp enough to cut flesh.

“If you think I’m going to stand in the way of saving my daughter, you’re either stupid or willfully ignorant. I will be part of whatever plan is made and I will take those plans to my grave,” Daphne said in a voice as equally icy.

I rolled my lips in to keep from laughing out loud. Pretty sure that was the first time either of the Amatucci boys