he replied somberly. “With a four-hour head start we’re going to have our work cut out for us in finding Moretti.”
His honesty was what she hated and what she liked about him. They were finally at a place where he pulled no punches with her. He wouldn’t allow her a moment of wishful thinking that somehow by the time they got to headquarters Moretti would be back behind bars and baby Emily would once again be with the parents who adopted her.
She stared out of the passenger window, each breath a painful ache in her tight chest. Four hours. Moretti had a four-hour head start to put some sort of plan into place, to find some place safe to hole up. He wouldn’t have left the prison without a definite plan and people waiting to assist him in whatever he needed to remain free on the outside.
She had so many questions now that some of the initial shock was beginning to wear off. How had Moretti managed to escape? Was his brother, Mason Moretti, still in the prison hospital? Dammit, how had Moretti gotten away?
There was no point in voicing the questions out loud. She knew Nick had no answers. She hoped that the team was already all gathered and at work and would have some answers for her by the time she and Nick arrived.
Thankfully throughout their short time working together, Nick had learned when to talk and when to keep his mouth shut with her. He didn’t say a word as he parked the car in the official parking garage. He remained mute as together they raced for the building and during the ride in the elevator up to the twenty-third floor. Please, let this all already be resolved, Lara thought desperately.
Lara and Nick flew down the hallway and into the conference room, and Lara was grateful to see that not only were her usual teammates gathered, but also junior agents James Walsh and Jennifer Gulden were present, as well.
A fleeting thought shot through Lara’s head as she recognized how different the members of the team looked now from that first day when she’d arrived to start working for the new Crisis Management Unit.
Mei Wang was dead, strangled and stamped with the MM tattoo on her cheek. Cass was in jail awaiting arraignment on a number of charges, and Christina Ruiz had been borrowed from another team to take Cass’s place as their computer expert. Ty looked as if he’d aged a decade with the death of his partner, as did Victoria after all she’d been through when her daughter had been kidnapped and with the weight of this entire case on her shoulders.
A new pain filled Lara. In one way or another Moretti had touched them all with his evil. The entire team had been forever changed due to his machinations. For the first time since Victoria’s awakening phone call a wave of anger rose up inside Lara, a deep, killing anger that equaled the terror that still gripped her gut like a tight vise.
“How did this happen?” Lara asked as she and Nick sat side by side at the table. “How in the hell did he get out of that prison?”
“The FBI and other law enforcement officials have swarmed the place and are in the process of conducting a full investigation,” Victoria said. “All I can tell you is that at this point there is one missing prison guard. Another guard, a Toby Racine, was found unconscious in Moretti’s cell. He’d been beaten and was wearing Moretti’s jumpsuit.”
“He obviously had help both inside and outside of the prison to pull off an escape,” Ty said. “What do we know about this Toby Racine?”
Christina sat up straighter in her chair and tucked a strand of her short dark hair behind her ear as she gazed at a printout of information. “He’s twenty-nine years old and has worked at the prison for the last three years. He lives alone.”
“And what about the missing guard?” Nick asked.
Victoria looked down at the notes in front of her. “Anthony McCord, at least twenty years working in the prison system. His wife’s body was found an hour ago in their home. We have units sitting on his residence.”
“He’ll probably eventually show up somewhere as a dead body, too,” Xander said. “Moretti won’t want any loose ends. Once he isn’t useful to Moretti anymore, he’ll kill them.”
“Maybe he’s headed for Canada—for either helping with the escape or for killing his wife. Or both. That would make the most sense,” Ty replied. “The border is only a few hours from here.”
“We have the border patrol on alert,” Victoria said.
Lara didn’t care about a missing guard, especially one who had apparently been turned by Moretti. The most important issue in her mind was little Emily’s safety. “I tried to contact Peter Linden, but my calls kept going to his cell phone. I finally called Faye Minnow,” Lara said and watched as Victoria’s eyes narrowed in response.
“Emily was moved just a little while ago by Linden’s partner Kincaid. It was a Level Ten, whatever that means,” Lara continued.
“I’m aware of the situation.” Victoria held Lara’s gaze.
Every muscle in Lara’s body tensed as she prepared for a blow. She saw it coming in the darkness that had taken possession of Victoria’s blue eyes.
“And?” Lara asked softly.
“And I got a phone call from the US Marshal offices a few minutes ago. There’s no US Marshal Adam Kincaid, and no such thing as a Level Ten. Peter Linden’s official car was found twenty miles away from the last location where the family had been located.” Victoria paused a moment and cleared her throat and then continued, “Peter’s body was inside of the car. He’d been tortured—probably for information—and then shot in the head.”
The shrill screaming began in Lara’s head once again.
Everyone in the room was silent for a thick, charged moment, and Lara took that brief time to forcefully shove away the wailing in her head.
She had to think. She didn’t have the time or the luxury to fall apart right now. Her child needed her, and she needed to find and kill the monster who had ruined so many lives and had haunted her for far too long.
“So, we have to assume that Moretti has the kid,” Xander finally said to break the silence.
“Emily. Her name is Emily,” Lara snapped. It didn’t matter that her name, her identity changed each time the Minnows were relocated. What mattered was that she wasn’t just some “kid” and that everyone at the table saw her as an individual with a real name and potentially in very real danger.
Xander looked at Lara. “Sorry.”
“Why would he take the time to arrange to get hold of Emily? What could he possibly want with her?” Ty asked. “I mean, he would have been smart to use the head start he had to somehow get out of the country.”
“He doesn’t exactly seem like the type who would want to be father of the year,” James added.
“Maybe he wants to use the baby as leverage of some kind,” Jennifer said. “Maybe he intends to ransom her for the means and the money to get out of the country.”
Lara listened to the others’ speculation, but she knew the truth. “He’s obviously got the means and any money he needs. He took her as revenge against me,” she stated flatly. “He
