Page 114 of Savior

I sat down and actually wrote the letter c before shaking my head. “No. Lauren, I’m not going to the store. I’m trying to make a timeline.”

She sat down beside me. “A timeline of what?”

“Nate says he got a page from the hospital saying he had a case. Obviously, we can’t trace that, but maybe there’s something else… like a text or phone call from a blocked number maybe?”

She tucked her hair behind her ear with a nod. “The night my mom was killed, Mike got a text from a blocked number. Not long after, I received something similar. Jeremy cracked the code on those already, though. Guy was a detective. Mike went after them, but the Sons got there first.”

I scratched both out. “Okay… maybe the surveillance footage that got emailed to Kate. We could run a trace on it—”

“Yeah, that’s been done, Dakota,” Lauren said patiently. “It led nowhere. I like where your head’s at, but this isn’t going to help us find Kate. Come on, let’s see what Jimmy’s come up with.”

Ooh, Jimmy was in the CIA. Better listen to him. Never mind that Dakota spent years studying the Marvel universe for insight into villains and their tendencies.

I trudged down the porch steps with a black cloud hanging over my head. I just wanted to be taken seriously for once, was that too much to ask?

Guy was a detective…

Jimmy was talking about setting up a perimeter with Little Ricky and Garrett when it hit me.

Someone who would know how to manipulate technology.

“Jimmy?”

“Just a sec, Dakota. Now, if we start—”

“Jimmy, it’s important,” I insisted.

His jaw clenched for a brief second before he gave me his attention. “Yep, go ahead.”

“I’m just curious, the surveillance footage that was emailed to Kate, did we ever find out who sent that?” Lauren’s eyes narrowed, and I jabbed a finger in her direction, willing her to be quiet.

“Uh, last I heard Jeremy didn’t have any luck on that. Something with a firewall… why?”

Bingo.

“Well, I just find it interesting that Lauren and Mike received texts from blocked numbers, only to track the guy down and find that he’d just been murdered by the Sons. We get video surveillance of the sergeant threatening Nate but arrive too late again. Then, we have the glitch with the pager—”

“What’s your point?”

Nate’s head lifted, and he looked up at me in shock. “Holy shit, Dakota.”

“It’s Jeremy,” I whispered. “He’s the only one who would have the means to do it. He’s been feeding us information this entire time, but only when it won’t do us any good.”

Nate’s jaw tightened, and the cords in his neck stretched taut as he ground out, “He’s the motherfucking traitor.”

Jimmy brought his hand up to rest under his chin. “It was staring us right in the fucking face, and we missed it. Everything he’s given us has been at their discretion.”

One of us didn’t miss it.

One of us was looking into everything; no stone unturned.

“Oh my god,” I breathed. “Jimmy, I know why they took Kate. It’s what you said—back in the barn. My father’s still alive—”

“Fuck, they’re going to use her to break him.”

“We’re not ready,” Lauren mumbled to herself before disappearing back inside the house.

Nate jumped off the tailgate. “We have to find her… you don’t know the things he’ll do! Somebody get me a goddamn gun!”

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