Page 39 of Toy

She sat back at the desk, wrapping her hands around the new mug. “One thing I’m wondering, though—what if they plan on keeping Jolie here in the States?”

My forehead wrinkled. “Why would they do that?”

“Well, we know they’re able to travel here. Tom Anderson got in, after all, along with whoever’s taken Jolie now. I’m guessing they use fake passports and only send one or two guys at a time, so nothing seems suspicious, but still… they’re clearly able to get here. So what if they don’t intend on taking Jolie out of the country at all?”

I shook my head. “Tom told me that Jacob Chastain wanted Jolie to be brought to him. He’s too smart to risk coming back here. Probably too cowardly as well.”

She nodded slowly. “Okay. So you think they’ll definitely try to get her out.”

“Yup.” My brows knitted together a second later. “Although you might be right. Maybe Chastain isn’t that much of a coward. Maybe he will come back here. Who knows?”

“We’ll explore all possible angles. But I’d say you’re right. It’s more than likely they’ll try to take her out of the country.”

I looked down at the desk as horrible images filled my mind. What if the men had already transported Jolie to Costa Rica and killed her?

My concerns must have been written all over my face, because Beck instantly seemed to know what I was thinking. She pushed the mug away and reached over to pat my hand. “I know you’re exhausted and stressed as hell, but I can tell you something that might ease your mind a tad.”

“What?”

“Criminals in this situation usually lie low for a few days. They don’t want to take their victim and hop on the first plane out. Too obvious. They want to wait until the heat is off them a bit,” she said. She held up one palm. “I know this is just a small comfort, but that means it’s likely that Jolie either left the country within the last few hours, or she’s still here. And like you said, her father wants her to be brought to him. That means no one’s gonna kill her until she’s there. So there’s a very, very good chance she’s still alive and well.”

“I guess that means we have some time, then,” I said, staring at the stack of papers again.

I was hopeful, but at the same time, my chest was heavy from all the stress. Even with the extra few days, what if we were still unable to find Jolie in time to help her? How would we even find her in the first place? Costa Rica wasn’t big, but it wasn’t the size of a postage stamp either. People could disappear there easily enough. In fact, they could disappear basically anywhere, if they really wanted to.

“I know how stressful this is for you,” Beck said. “I’ve been trying my best to think through all this stuff without putting too much on you. So—”

I held up a palm. “Just so you know, I appreciate everything you’re doing. Really. I’d be totally fucked without your help,” I cut in. “I know how much you’re putting on the line, too. You could ruin your career over this shit.”

“It’s fine. Really. I’m doing it for myself too, remember?” She smiled patiently. “Anyway, I was going to say, we should look at airport surveillance footage from the boarding gates of every flight leaving for Costa Rica within a hundred miles of here. Two hundred, to be safe. We might be able to spot them. That way we’ll know if they’re actually leaving the country. We might even be able to directly track them after their flight.”

I frowned. “Wouldn’t they take another private plane, courtesy of their little mafia friends?”

She shook her head. “Like you said earlier, Chastain is a smart guy. He’d know that we’re frantically searching for Jolie by now, and he probably thinks we’re only going to focus on private planes, seeing as that’s how he escaped in the first place. I’d say he knows we’ve figured that out by this stage.”

“So you think whoever has Jolie will fly commercial just to throw us off.”

“Yep. Exactly.”

“How, though? Jolie could just scream her head off at the airport and alert security.”

Beck sucked her teeth. “Easier said than done. There are ways to force victims to cooperate. Threats, intimidation. Even drugs. Whoever has Jolie will likely make it clear to her that if she so much as tries to attract any attention, she’ll pay for it.”

“I suppose so.” My jaw clenched. “So can you get this airport footage?”

“Yes. It’ll take a while, though, because I have to do it through unofficial sources. Mind sitting tight for a few more hours while I work on getting it?”

“Sure.”

She jerked her head toward the couch on the other side of the office. “You should try to have a nap. Seriously.”

“I can’t.”

She stood and put her hands on her hips. “You need energy to find Jolie, and you’re not gonna be up to anything while you’re running on fumes. Especially when you’ve only just recovered from a gunshot wound.”

She had a point. Grudgingly, I headed over to the couch.

As I lay my head against one of the arms, Beck gave me a faint smile. “We’re going to find her, Mason,” she said. “I can feel it.”

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