Page 153 of Bonded in Death

“Everybody here by six hundred hours for a full briefing.”

“I’ve got it. Goddamn bastard!”

“Get the details and relay them.”

She clicked off. “Computer, replay message received from The Twelve.”

“Lieutenant,” Summerset began.

“Quiet. I fucking mean it. The screen’s jittering some. Bouncing some. Not a smooth ride. Computer, get me buses leaving New York, southbound—fuck, what time, what time?”

Unable to compute.

“You shut up, too. Message received, twenty-three-fifteen.”

“At the rate of speed,” Roarke calculated, “allowing for time to get on the turnpike, the mile marker at the first trace… About eleven.”

“Computer, buses leaving New York, southbound, between twenty-two-thirty and twenty-three hundred. Give me departure location, destination.”

Acknowledged. Working…

“If I could speak.”

“Not yet,” she snapped at Summerset. “Freeze screen.”

While the computer began listing buses, Eve moved closer to the screen.

“That’s it, that’s the one. Eleven o’clock bus, nonstop to East Washington. Departing from the East Side terminal. Roarke.”

“I’ll give Whitney the information.”

“Get this screen to enhance. I want to see that back wall closer, better. Can you sharpen it?”

“I can do that.” Cyril stepped forward. “If I may.”

“Do it, just do it. Yeah, more. That’s the ceiling line there. You can just see it. Low ceiling. Maybe seven and a half feet. No window. It’s a basement. Kid’s in a basement room.”

“And terrified. I will speak!” Summerset snapped it out. “I will not sit safe in this house while he torments, tortures, and kills that child. Someone’s child. I will not put my life above his. I will not risk it.”

“So what? You’ll be the trade?” Furious, she rounded on him. “How, with that big stick up your ass, do you find room to shove your head in with it?”

“Well, that’s a good one,” Harry murmured. “I’m stealing it.”

“You can save your insults.”

“I’ve got plenty, but I’m going to say I gave you credit for more brains than this. But you’re broken brick stupid if you think he lets that kid live two minutes after he kills you, or any of you.”

“You can’t be sure—”

“She’s right.” Ivanna put a hand on Summerset’s arm. “He’d never letthe boy live. He took a child because it would shake all of us to our core, and you more than anyone. He doesn’t plan to let the child live.”

“No.” Summerset put a hand over hers. “No, of course he doesn’t. But I’m not as easy to kill as he believes. I could—”

“You will not do a damn thing unless I tell you to do a damn thing.”

“You have no authority to—”

“Fuck yeah, I do. I’ll slam you in lockup before you can blink. Material witness. I’ll put every one of you in lockup if I have to. Jesus Christ, did you hear him?” she demanded. “Did you listen? He’s so egotistical he thinks we still believe he’s dead. He doesn’t know how close we are because—egotistical. Narcissist. Goddamn psychopath.

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