Page 73 of Toxic Vengeance

This time the takeoff was without any issues. Eden stayed with Zack in the back, making sure he was as comfortable as possible. When he finally slipped back under soon after they’d leveled off, she left him to sleep and went to join the others. Everyone was crowded around Amber’s seat, where she was bent over her laptop.

Megan looked up at her as Eden came up the aisle. “How’s he doing?”

“Sleeping.” She nodded toward Amber. “What’ve we got?”

“She’s compiling all the data we’ve got so far, and working on the burner I gave her. You still have yours?”

Eden stepped into the row in front of Amber, took the second phone from her pocket and handed it over. “I want to tear apart this guy’s whole life,” Eden said to her. “Find out everything we can, so we can nail the bastard who sent him after us.”

“Oh, we will,” Amber promised, focused on her laptop screen.

Jesse knelt on the seat beside Eden and stacked his forearms across the top of it, watching Amber. “She hasn’t slept in twenty-eight hours.”

“I’ll sleep when this is done,” she argued without looking up.

Now that Eden looked closer, there were deep shadows beneath Amber’s eyes. She looked drawn, exhausted. They were overworking her.

“Here.” Chloe thrust a can of something at Amber. “Drink this.”

Amber eyed the energy drink warily, then shrugged. “What the hell,” she said, then popped it open and downed a large swallow. She groaned and made a face. “Gross. How the hell can you drink these things?”

“Because they’re the bomb,” Chloe said. “Just drink it. It’ll help.”

“You get four hours, and not a minute more,” Jesse said to Amber, his tone making it clear he meant business. Either Amber did as he said, or he would make her. “After that, you’re sleeping the rest of the way back to the UK.”

“Fine,” Amber said, but this time there was no annoyance or heat in her tone. “Now everybody get to work and help me out. Eden, you take this and search that second burner with Meg.” She handed Eden a palm-sized electronic device from the backpack next to her, and the phone. “Plug the phone into this, and then into the laptop.”

Megan already had another laptop open across the aisle. Eden plugged the burner phone into it along with the device. “Now what?” she asked Amber.

“Double click on the icon that pops up on screen. It’ll download a list of calls to and from the phone. Then enter the numbers into the program Meg has open, and you’ll get a location for each.”

It worked. As soon as Megan opened the program, a list of numbers started showing up. “There’s a list of about twenty calls or so,” Megan told her sister. “Starting a couple days ago, and last one was this morning.”

“Great. Send me the info when you’ve got a list of locations for them.”

Eden and Megan worked together to find out where the calls had come from. Most from around the D.C. area, but the one from this morning had gone to an unlisted number. They sent the info to Amber’s computer, then traded spots with Jesse so they could sit next to her and go over everything.

Amber looked over at Eden. “He called Zack’s old number twice last night.”

“I saw that.” Her gaze strayed to the closed cabin door at the end of the aisle. She’d been suspicious of Zack from the start, part of her refusing to accept that he wasn’t somehow involved on some level. But the man had since taken a bullet for her and killed his own handler to protect her. She felt horrible for ever doubting him now. “Trying to get a location on us.”

Amber went back to referencing the numbers, toggling between several screens she had open on her laptop. A couple minutes later she frowned, clicked back and forth between two screens. “Well, isn’t that interesting,” she murmured.

Eden craned her neck to see better. “What is?” Megan crowded close too. A second later Chloe popped over the back of the seat in front of them, draining the last of an energy drink, her eyes shooting to Amber’s screen.

“After trying Zack the second time, he placed a call to a phone in the same vicinity as the final call from Bennett’s phone,” Amber said.

“Where?” Eden asked, looking at the map Amber pulled up.

“Here.” She touched a finger to the screen.

Atlanta? “You think they’re connected?”

“Can’t be coincidence. Bennett’s last call was to a burner there. It lasted thirty-four seconds, and he winds up dead ten hours later with his tongue cut out. Then Zack’s handler makes a call to the same area and ends up shooting at you guys in that alley four hours later.”

“Can you get a better lock on the location?” Megan asked.

“No, the signal was scrambled. But—”

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