Ryker (Hope City #6) - Kris Michaels Page 0,64
sweeping look at the three men with him. “Peña and Rubio are rattlesnakes, but they like the comfort and the sense of invincibility their money buys. We are striking a major blow in the morning. Let’s get our shit together and get ready.”
Brody handed him the blueprints. “SWAT has their copies, these are your copies for the command truck.”
“Thank you. What team is Amber on?”
“She’s with Rayburn and Watson on team one.”
Brody walked with him toward his office. “I can’t believe they’ve put money into the walls of the houses and drywalled over them. What if it fucking burns down? Idiots.”
Ryker chuckled and nodded toward his office. “I’m sure it sounded like a good idea at the time. Get your shit together, you don’t need to babysit me.”
“Now, Cap, would I do that?” Brody laughed when Ryker flipped him off as he retrieved his cell phone from his pocket. “Now that I’m living with your sister, yeah, you would.”
Brody shrugged and raised a hand as he went to Theron’s office, no doubt to split up the thirty officers assigned to JDET.
Ryker opened his phone, scrolled to Brie’s number, and called. It rang through to voicemail. He glanced at the clock. Unusual. He dropped the blueprints onto his desk and sat down, taking his arm from the sling. He pushed her number again, and the phone went to voicemail again. A tremble of unease rolled across him.
The phone rang and he jumped to answer it, but the call wasn’t from Brianna, it was from her brother, Brock.
He slid his thumb across the face and barked, “What happened?”
“Is Brie with you?”
“No. I’m at work. Where are you?”
“Horizon. We have a double homicide and a pool of blood we can’t identify. Brie’s purse was on the ground by the back door, mixed with what we determined was a broken bottle of sauce. We've looked everywhere, but we can’t find her phone.”
“Did anyone see what happened?”
“The chef is pulling the tapes from the new camera system. He said Brie left about seven-thirty. Hang on, he’s got it up.”
“Fuck, I’m on my way.” He darted from his office and headed to the pegboard that held the vehicles assigned to the precinct.
“Ryker, have you tried to call her?”
He closed his eyes for a second. “It went to voicemail. Twice.”
“Okay, I’m putting you on mute while I watch the video, standby.”
Brock went silent as Brody and Terrence jogged toward him. “What’s up?” Brody asked as they approached.
He held the phone away from his face as he filled in Brody. “Double homicide outside of Horizon. Brie’s missing.”
“Missing? Fuck, I’ll drive.” Brody fished his keys from his pocket.
“Terrence, call the Deputy Commissioner and let her know what is happening. Pull in Thompson and Dodson, bring them up to speed just in case we don’t get back in time.” He headed to the door with Brody in tow as he shouted his commands.
“How long has she been missing?” Brody asked.
“Hold on,” he answered as they got into Brody’s truck. “Come on, Brock, tell me what’s on that video.”
“We have it. The clip is grainy, and it’s dark. It looks like she may have injured one of the men that trapped her. We have Subject One on tape shooting Subject Two and then running into the darkness in the direction we found the other body, Subject Three. Something happened and Brie got loose. The shooter, Subject One, tackled her. Her head bounced hard on the asphalt. He drove up in a late model blue SUV with chrome bumpers. No plate. He threw her in the back and loaded the man she evidently injured and escaped from, Subject Four, into the front. By the amount of blood where he fell, she had to have shot him or maybe stabbed him, trying to get away. I know she has a concealed carry permit. Was she packing heat? Did something happen?”
“She had her tire slashed a while back. That’s why she had the video camera installed.” Brody hit the lights and siren and took the corner out of the parking lot on two wheels. Ryker grabbed the ‘Oh, shit’ bar with his good arm and pinned his phone to his ear with his weak arm. “Can you get an ID on the video?”
“We’ve already sent it to tech, but the original is still on her computer. If this is related to the attack on you, my bet is you can ID the guys.” Brock sighed. “I’ve seen some half-faced surveillance photos of Rubio and