Page 28 of Hacker Christmas

“Fuck,” I mumbled.

“Yep, this means she isn’t part of Daisy’s kidnapping. I know no one who would want to kidnap her. Did she make anyone mad in LA?”

I thought back to the party. Daisy barely had time to see anyone before we left. “Do you think it could be one of Aaron’s crazy fans? The detective at the scene today brushed us off and would barelyinvestigate the case. The first person I researched was the detective, and his past came back clean. No ties to anyone in Daisy’s past.”

“But we were both outed,” Aaron said. “Why take her and not us?”

“Maybe it was someone who saw her on TV and wanted her to be his. Is there another man still planning his revenge on Daisy? Is James still in jail? I hadn’t thought to check him,” Brock said.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Since we know it’s not Regina, are you heading to Denver? More people here to help find her would be nice.”

Aaron left the room, and Brock let out a sigh. “Yeah, I plan to be there in few hours. I’d hoped it was Regina. I hate not knowing who has her.”

“See you in a few.”

“Bye.”

I didn’t need to look to know that Aaron had stepped back into the study that I had taken over since we arrived at the cabin. Annabella was in the kitchen, preparing for our family and friends who boarded a plane the second we told them Daisy was missing.

He set a plate down and squeezed my shoulder. “You need to eat.”

“I don’t have an appetite. I keep looking through the video of the premiere and the security footage here before someone cut the video, but I see nothing.”

Aaron grabbed the chair from the other side and dragged it around the desk. He reached over and squeezed my hand.

“Let me look with you.” He nodded toward the phone. “Did Brock discover any information on Regina?”

I leaned back in the cushy chair and explained what the police had found and the women they ended up saving. Daisy going back to California was both the worst and best idea. Her presence had helped save tons of women but at the cost of the girl I loved. Aaron let out a whistle when I finished telling him about the women the police saved from theauction and that they had arrested ten men. I knew when they searched those men’s houses, they would find more women.

I hoped the women would be able to live normal lives. It has taken Daisy years to come back from the way Al had treated her, and she still wasn’t close to mentally healing all the way.

Aaron leaned forward in the chair next to mine. “Pull up the feed. I was so busy checking you and Daisy out that I didn’t pay attention to the crowd. Let’s see if someone looked off.”

Brock had collected a feed from the police at the premiere. I had also hacked the security cameras of the movie theaters.

“Damn, Daisy looked hot in that dress,” Aaron grumbled as I fast-forwarded through the video. “Stop!” Aaron yelled. “Go back a few seconds.”

Aaron pointed to an overweight man wearing a tux and standing behind the paparazzi. “He shouldn’t have been there.”

The man looked familiar, and I remembered where I’d seen him before. I opened another video file of the lodge. I played the video. “He was at the lodge. Do you know who that is?”

“Yes. Call Brock. I know who has our woman.”

15

Neal

Once Antonio, Asher, and Brock arrived, we jumped into Aaron’s SUV and headed toward the GPS location I’d pinned down from satellite imagery. The blue dot seemed so far away. I had no doubt that the men in the SUV would rescue Daisy, but that didn’t mean I planned to wait at the cabin for them. Once I knew who I was looking for, it only took a matter of minutes to find the fucker’s location. Waiting for Antonio and Brock to show up was the long part.

When Antonio turned onto the main highway, he pushed down on the accelerator. No matter how fast he went, the GPS dot felt miles away. Aaron pressed his hand to my knee to stop my nervous twitch. I hadn’t even realized it had been bouncing. Every minute it took to get her back was another minute the crazy fucker had to terrify Daisy, and she had dealt with enough crazy people in her past.

“Everyone knows the plan, right?” Antonio asked. Everyone in the SUV answered in the affirmative.

Antonio finally turned onto the gravel road toward the cabin Daisy was being held in. We donned night-vision goggles to aid in a surprise attack. When Antonio turned off the headlights and continued down the road at an aggressive rate, I gripped the oh-shit handle. He slowed the SUV a quarter mile from the cabin then angled it to block the road. Before he shifted into Park, Aaron and I jumped out.

“Neal, you go with Brock. Aaron, you go with Asher and me,” Antonio’s voice was low and serious. “Remember that we don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with. He could have someone helping him, and he’s unhinged. Keep your eyes open. Understand?”

We’d planned for one team to breach the front and the other team to enter through the back. Brock and I headed for the back of the house. The night-vision goggles made the trek through the high brush and trees easier. Brock had handed me a gun when we left the house. I’d put it in a holster and hoped I wouldn’t need to use it. I wanted Harry, Aaron’s ex-agent, to pay for what he did, and a quick death would be too easy.

---