he said. “We don’t know what’s in store for us.”
“Didn’t you run maneuvers in the military? Prepare for ambushes? That’s what we’ll do now.”
“She has a point, Drex,” I said. “I see where this is going. Go along with Sinead, make her think we’re falling for what she says, but prepare for the worst-case scenario.”
Gem put her hand on Drex’s arm. “Yes, this makes perfect sense. Even if it is a ruse, we might get solid information.”
“Fine. Let’s see what Cruze comes up with.”
While he was down there, Gemini and Isla checked on Aisling. They gave her water and took her to the bathroom. It was quite an ordeal, according to them.
Scottie held up her bandaged hand and said, “I don’t doubt it. I’ve experienced the demon firsthand.”
“Did you cleanse that?” I asked.
“Yeah, and I put antibiotic ointment on it too.”
“Good. Bite wounds get infected easily.”
Cruze came back and informed us Sinead agreed to work with us, which was not new information. She was worried about her daughter and begged him to help her.
“I believe her. I think she’s legit.”
I wanted to roll my eyes at my gullible brother. An attractive woman and he was all in. “Good for you because the rest of us don’t.”
Drex announced, “We need to get Huff out here for the computer work. We can’t let on because she may activate something to warn Aiden.”
“Good point,” I said.
Huff arrived three hours later, and we went down to question Sinead. Initially, she was very knowledgeable about Aiden’s US locations and business activities. We asked her about the military weapons, to which she responded she knew nothing. However, she supplied us with information on his drug traffickers in major cities and his key operatives. When we asked where his hideouts were, she gave up the locations of three.
Drex and Huff stared at each other before Drex asked, “How involved with his business are you?”
“Not at all. He’d never let me in, even though I begged. He said women weren’t strong enough, didn’t have the stomach for it.”
She was lying. I knew enough about people from my business dealings to tell. The lack of eye contact was a dead giveaway.
The only truth she relayed was Aiden’s view on women, which didn’t surprise me.
Using my head, I motioned to Scottie to leave the room. When we were back upstairs, I said, “She’s lying.”
“No kidding. And I would’ve thought she’d be much better at it. I’m wondering if Huff can track the call she made to her father. That could give us a better starting point.”
“They must have a code.”
“Oh, you bet they do, Raiden. My guess is he trained her for a day like this. The bad thing is, we’re at a disadvantage. He knows we’re not killers.”
“Can we make him think we are? You staged the beating of Aisling. Why not stage Sinead’s death?”
“I’d worry about retaliation.”
That was a point I hadn’t considered. He was threatening to destroy Kent Enterprises. That was idiotic, I hadn’t thought of it. Which made me think. I grabbed my phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling the business to make sure everyone got out okay.”
The head of security answered and told me what I needed to hear. Everyone was safe, and they were still searching the building. They had found nothing so far. Sighing out my relief, I passed the information on to Scottie.
“That’s excellent news.”
“True, but why did Aiden threaten us then?” I asked.
“It had to be a diversion.”
Scottie had something, but what? “If so, what? He doesn’t know where we are.”
“Reynolds?”
“What about her?”
“She’s not using her cell phone, is she?” Scottie asked.
“No, they took it away from her and gave her a burner.”
“One of the staff, then.”
Our eyes met, and we both hurried back down the steps. “Hey,” Scottie said to everyone, “we need to talk.”
The room emptied as they followed us upstairs, where we explained our thoughts.
“Fuck,” Drex shouted as he slammed his hand on the table. “Get every one of them in here.”
His people had hired six people, yet only five showed up.
“Where’s Sharon?” Drex asked.
“We don’t know. No one can find her.”
“Now we know who our little bird is,” Scottie said.
I glanced around the room and something else bulldozed me. “Where’s Cruze?”
Everyone assumed he’d been downstairs when we questioned Sinead, but when we thought about it, he’d been absent.
“The last time I remember seeing him was when he came up after talking to her,” I said. “I’ll check his room.”
Scottie grabbed my hand and said, “I’m coming with you.”
His bedroom