with only one casualty. The guys dragged him to the side of the road and quickly covered his body in the ditch, making it difficult to spot.
We ditched all their cell phones on the way, so the GPS couldn’t track us either. Then went to our house, where our rides waited.
We’d packed our bags earlier, and Team Delta had loaded them for us while they waited. The cars pulled up, including the O’Briens’, and some of our men tied up the prisoners while the rest of us climbed into the helicopters. The nanny was still out, but the girl was carrying on like we would toss her out of the thing once we were in the air.
“Shut her up,” someone yelled.
Grabbing her face, I said, “Listen to me. You’re safe. We won’t hurt you.”
She spat in my face, the little shit.
“You’re exactly like your father.”
“My da? How do you know my da?”
“Never mind. I know you have no manners.”
“Yes, I do. You’re mean.”
“I’m trying to be nice. Now sit still and be quiet.”
We finally lifted off, and she still squirmed. This time as I reached for her, the stinker bit me.
“I should spank you for that. You’re a spoiled brat.”
“Am not. You are. You need a spanking.” I really did, but not from her. The little imp scowled at me. I had to admit, she was cute. But I wasn’t in this for cute. This was revenge. “You’re going to be in big trouble. Wait until my grandad hears.” Then the brat stuck her tongue out at me. She was a sassy little thing, but what else would you expect from an O’Brien.
“You going to push me out?” she asked.
“‘Course not.”
“Then why’d you steal me?”
“It’s complicated and stop asking questions.”
“No, I want to know why you shot up my car.”
“You certainly are precocious.” I did my best to give her a nasty stare.
“I am not. I’m just curious,” she fired back.
Precocious and smart. We were about thirty minutes into the flight when the nanny started groaning. Gemini was next to her and said something. We all had headphones, but I’d taken mine off to hear the little stinker. I put them back on now.
Gemini was speaking. “She’s moaning about her daughter.”
Drex added, “She’s out of it. Wait until she’s lucid. I’m sure she has a concussion.”
Near the time we were landing was when it all unfolded. The nanny stopped groaning, and the kid screamed, “Mam, are you okay? I want to see my mammy.”
Her mammy? Everyone’s eyes cast around the helicopter and went back and forth between the girl and child. There wasn’t much of a resemblance between them. Had they told her the nanny was the mother?
When the nanny sat up and growled, “What have you done to my daughter?” We had our answer. This wasn’t the nanny. It was the mother.
The pieces fell into place. O’Brien wasn’t the girl’s father. He was her grandad, as she’d called him. We’d hit the jackpot on this trip.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Raiden
It had been a week since I’d spoken to Scottie. Not knowing whether she was alive or dead was awful. I’d badgered Isla, but she refused to tell me anything, other than things were fine. I didn’t buy it. She bit her lip and chewed her nails constantly.
Acer was no help either.
“She asked me not to question her, so I don’t.” That was as much as I got out of him. “I know you’re worried, but all I can say is if something had gone wrong, you’d know it.”
That was true. Word would’ve spread through WI like a wildfire. My only option was to wait. And I wasn’t the guy who had patience for that.
“I’m tempted to go to—”
“You’re not going anywhere. I’ll tie you up and chain you to the bed if I have to. You’d only compromise the mission if you did.”
“Fine. I’ll sit and drink myself to death.”
“Not going to let that happen, either,” he came back at me. “Make yourself useful. Go invent some kind of software to prevent this thing.”
“What are you talking about?”
He met my gaze squarely. “Think about it. You have access to the dark web like the law enforcement agencies do.”
“Acer, everyone does.”
“Hear me out.”
One quick nod and he continued. “They need a centralized database on guys like O’Brien where everything is collated. It doesn’t exist. They have to beg Interpol, MI6, or the other agencies they can contact to get what they need. If there were a way to collect this data and deposit