Page 88 of Crave Me

“Yeah, but they’d already moved on,” I informed him.

“The fact they were able to do that so quickly means they have other properties ready and raring to go, deployment and transport preparations already worked out,” Asher said.

My dad nodded. “Jeremy would think many steps ahead.” He grimaced. “Just like I taught him, unfortunately.”

“It’s not your fault,” Riley told him, rubbing his arm.

“You couldn’t have known he was going to go off the deep-end like this, Dad.”

I caught Caspian, Asher, and Dante exchanging a look, making it clear they didn’t believe that. They figured he should have been able to see it. But at the time, my dad had been retired, he hadn’t been in that frame of mind. He’d been trying to move away from all of that, to settle.

“It will take time to determine the next place he could be using as a safehouse. There won’t be a paper trail to follow, he’s too smart for that.”

“Now we know he’s the one providing these safehouses to Elijah, we have something more concrete to work off,” Caspian said. “There will be a trail, we just need to find it.” He thought for a moment, clearly weighing everything up. And then he looked out at Asher. “Contact Caleb’s team leader at his facilities. Sven Nielsen. We know girls were moved to and from the property we searched before their bodies were dumped in the middle of nowhere. Caleb had his finger on the pulse when it came to trafficking, see if Sven has registered that. If not, work with Dante’s means to identify the girls and backtrack from there. If we can find out where they were taken from, we can trace transportation used and possibly even ID Elijah’s men tasked on the job. We know Raze’s trucks only moved Bastian and Caleb, so they’re using something else for this and to keep moving from safehouse to safehouse. Meanwhile, I’ll work with Frank to determine a pattern to these foreclosures Wheeler is choosing.”

“There’s got to be financial transactions somewhere,” Bastian said. “If not the houses, because they’re foreclosures, the equipment they were using to keep us captive, the money he’s paying his muscle, something. I’ll work on following that path.”

Caspian nodded.

As they were all about to move into action, I called out, “I have an idea.”

A dangerous idea. One they wouldn’t like in the slightest.

“We’re all ears, beautiful,” Bastian said, when I paused.

“No,” Caspian said, before I could even get my words out.

I cocked an eyebrow. “I didn’t even say anything yet.”

“I know how you think and strategize, especially in this sort of situation.”

“Caspian, wait, I—”

“You’re not going to use yourself as bait in a bid to draw Wheeler out.”

“Jesus Christ,” Bastian exclaimed, staring at me incredulously. “There’s no fucking way, Sky.”

“They’re right,” my dad said. “Absolutely not.”

“Hold on,” Riley spoke. “Although, it’s safe to say Wheeler would see it for the trap it is, it would pose enough of a distraction and incite confusion and complications on their end. His obsession would see to that. It could be used to throw him off course.”

“Or, it could end up getting you kidnapped right along with Cal,” Damien warned.

“Right there with him on that,” Bastian said.

Fuck. “I can’t just sit here twiddling my fucking thumbs when there is something I could do.”

“You need to prepare for battle. Ensure that injury is healing up well and won’t pose a problem when you enter the field with us once we actually do locate Caleb,” Caspian told me.

“You’re not going to bench me from the rescue?”

“I know better than that by now.”

“We all do,” Bastian said, playing with my hair.

Well, that was something at least.

It wasn’t enough to alleviate this sickly feeling taking me over now that it had been confirmed that Jeremy was actively involved in all of this and in far more depth than providing Elijah a heads-up. And he was involved because of me. It was like the Jett thing all over again, but on fucking crack.

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