Page 37 of Guarded from Danger

“Sounds good,” Erik says. To Niall and Rhiannon, he adds, “We can meet this weekend to go over schematics and plans.”

“Perfect.” Dante checks his tablet again. “We also have a potential pro-bono client in Galveston—a woman who claims she’s been framed by her ex-husband for theft so she’ll lose primary custody of their daughter. I spoke with her on the phone, but I’d like to meet with her in person before deciding to take her case. I’m thinking I’ll head there Saturday, unless someone else really wants to go.”

Matt shakes his head. “Not me. I’d like to stay here to keep working on Lucy’s case.”

Rhiannon looks at Dante. “Why don’t you take Sarah? Make a weekend out of it? I know how much you guys enjoyed going out that way last time.”

His lips lift. “That’s not a bad idea. I’ll talk to Sarah about it. If we go, would one of you mind watching?—”

“I’ll watch Rambo,” Erik interjects. “I’m supposed to go to the community center this weekend, anyway. The kids would love it if I brought him along.”

“Okay.” Dante gives Erik a quick jerk of his chin. “If Sarah ends up coming with me, I’ll let you know.”

As they’re talking, my phone vibrates in my pocket, so I take it out to sneak a quick glance at the screen. It’s a selfie of Lucy grinning while Rambo licks her cheek, along with the message,We’re doing great! Don’t worry!

As if it’s that easy. I’m not sure I ever won’t worry about Lucy. It’s something I’ve discovered about love—it can be both wonderful and terrifying. Wonderful in how happy it makes me, how complete I feel, but I’m also terrified of losing it. Of losing the one person in the world who makes me feel whole.

Before I put my phone away, I quickly send a reply.

Glad you’re having fun. I’ll see you soon.

And the last sentence I keep to myself.

I love you.

“Okay.” Dante catches my gaze, and from his small smirk, I know I’m busted. But he doesn’t call me on it, perhaps remembering his own struggles to focus when Sarah was the one in danger. Instead, he says, “Now, let’s talk about Lucy’s case.”

He turns to Matt. “Since you’re the one who found the information, do you want to share it with everyone?”

Matt nods, his expression sobering. “Okay.” He glances around the table as he says, “So I found a video. Of another captive.”

My gut twists. “Shit. Are they?—”

“Still alive. Fortunately, this woman hadn’t been there very long. She still had most of her food left.” He taps the mouse pad a few times and a video appears on the projection screen. In it, a young woman is crouched in the corner of what looks like a concrete basement, and it’s so similar to how Lucy looked, bile rises in my throat.

Erik bites out a low curse. “Can we find her in time?”

“I already did.” Matt gives a thin smile. “Fortunately, I was able to trace the video feed the same way I did with Lucy’s. So I shared the location with the police in Fredericksburg, which is where this woman was being held. They rescued her early this morning.”

Rhiannon casts an appreciative smile at him. “Oh, Matt, that’s great.”

His cheeks go pink. “It’s something. But it’s slow going. Whoever’s behind this game is smart. They’ve tried to hide the videos behind overlays and lock screens with pin codes. So it takes an extra step to even find them. But I worked with Leo to design a web crawler that searches the dark web for suspicious posts and videos. That’s how we found this one.”

“It’s really good, Matt,” Dante says. “Not only are we finding victims before it’s too late, but each video gives us another opportunity to find the people behind this.”

Niall looks at Dante. “What about the FBI? Have they had any luck?”

“Well.” He hesitates long enough to know the answer isn't going to be good. “They’re actively working on several leads. Some hackers who are suspected of orchestrating sex traffickingrings, drug exchanges…” A muscle in Dante’s jaw twitches. “But they haven’t found anything substantive yet.”

“And?” I pin him with my gaze. “What else?”

Dante grimaces. “They found a body. Or, a woman walking her dog did. North of Waco.”

“And they think it’s connected to this game?”

“I talked to Cruz this morning, and he unofficially gave me the details. The victim was twenty-eight, emaciated, with marks on one wrist and ankle. While they need to do an autopsy, it looks like he starved to death. And this man, he matches a missing persons report from a month ago. So—” He exhales heavily. “It sure looks like it.”

Fuck.

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