Page 63 of Cassidy

“We need to do something,” a third whiny voice said. “We can’t trust Millions to keep his trap shut.”

“We need that USB drive,” the first voice snapped. “Train here is going to get that for us, understand?”

Gabe knew Train was Travis’s screen name. How exactly did these guys expect Travis to get the USB drive? They probably had a plan, one he hoped to derail in a big way.

He tried to gauge how long it had been since he’d left the precinct. Twenty minutes? Thirty?

If he were honest, he’d secretly hoped Cassidy and Rhy would come to the rescue. He shouldn’t have come on his own, but it was too late for regrets.

It was up to him to get Travis out of there. By any means possible.

Peeking around the corner, he caught a glimpse of Travis sitting in a hard-backed metal chair with his hands tied behind his back. Three young men, all about the same age as Miles Wayland, were standing off to the side.

“I will,” Travis said. “I promise I’ll call Gabe and have him come out here with the USB drive.”

“You shouldn’t have stolen his phone, Lonny,” the guy who appeared to be in charge said. “What’s going to happen when Train here calls the police department where his brother works?”

Fighting between the men was a good sign. Gabe could see that they were tired and nervous. They hadn’t been prepared for this, and it showed.

Unfortunately, two of the men had guns tucked into their waistbands.

“Shut up!” Lonny said angrily. “I’m the brains behind this scheme, you’re the idiot who messed everything up.”

“Hey, calm down, both of you.” The guy who did not have a weapon seemed to inch closer to Travis. Maybe his job was to guard his brother. If the guy in charge was Turk, then it was King who had taken up a position closer to Travis. “We’ve already raked in several hundred thousand dollars. We can walk away, Turk. We can walk away and use the technology again at some other time.”

“Are you crazy?” Lonny demanded. “They’ll find and arrest us.”

“Not if we escape to Mexico or the Caribbean,” King said. “We can work from anywhere, remember?”

For a moment, it seemed as if Turk was seriously considering the possibility. Then the guy glanced at Travis, and in that moment, Gabe feared they’d shoot his brother and head out of there.

“Don’t move! I have a gun trained on the three of you,” he said loudly. “I also have the USB drive, so I’m here to offer an exchange. The drive for Travis.”

As a unit, the three men whirled to face the opening. Their facial expressions would have been comical if not for Turk and Lonny drawing their guns.

“Throw down your weapons,” Gabe said in a sharp tone. “Don’t make me shoot. All I want is Travis. You can have the USB drive.”

“If he had a gun, he’d have shot us by now,” Lonny said with a sneer.

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Gabe said, knowing he was losing the upper hand. “The place is surrounded. Are you willing to die here today?”

When the two armed lifted their weapons, he knew the gig was up. He hadn’t expected them to fall for it; he wasn’t any good at this sort of thing. He was the team tech expert, not a cop!

Yet he had little choice but to see this through. Pulling the USB drive from his pocket, he stepped into the opening and held it up in the air where they could easily see it.

“I have the drive!” He did his best to look intimidating. “Release Travis and no one will get hurt!”

He heard a loud thump from somewhere outside. The panicked expression on Travis’s face made him feel guilty. His brother had clearly expected more. The guy closest to him leveled his gun at his chest and fired just as the front door to the warehouse burst open.

The force of the bullet was shockingly painful, knocking him backward off his feet and stealing his breath. He hit the floor hard, his head bouncing off the concrete floor.

For the second time in his adult life, he sank into dark oblivion.

Cassidy had been soangry with the way Gabe had taken off to find Travis on his own that she could barely speak. What was wrong with him? Did he have a death wish? Gabe didn’t even have a weapon!

Thankfully, Rhy took charge and pulled the team together.

“Okay, we know his location,” Rhy had said as they’d set out for the warehouse. He’d insisted they all headed out in full tactical gear. “We’ll surround the warehouse and use Brock to negotiate Travis’s release.”

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