Page 40 of Hacker Salvation

“She ran to the bathroom, but she’s been gone six minutes.”

“Maybe she went to another one. Are you positive she went to the one over there?” He pointed in the direction Annabella had gone.

“Yes.” I jumped out of my chair and ran toward the ladies’ room. I could hear Gabriel behind me. I threw the door to the women’s room open and pushed open each stall door. She wasn’t there. “Fuck.”

I grabbed the phone out of my pocket and called Brock. He answered on the first ring. “Hey, John.”

“Can you hack the cameras at Annabella’s work?”

I could already hear his fingers hitting the keyboard. “You want me to hack Universal Studios’ cameras?”

“Yes. Is that possible?” I started to walk back toward the director’s chair. He would need to know what was going on.

The director was in a conversation with Annabella’s manager.

“Annabella is missing,” I said. “We need to lock down the area.”

The manager started to puff out his chest. “You can’t just go around demanding things of the director. Annabella is a diva. Are you sure she didn’t just get sick of you and go home for the day?” I couldn’t believe she paid this douchebag a dime.

The director turned from Annabella’s manager to me. “She wouldn’t just disappear, and I don’t know why you think she’s a diva. You’ve been trying to get me to drop her from the film since she got arrested for murder. You’re supposed to work for your client, not against them.”

“Thanks, Director Paterson,” I said. “I’ve got someone looking at the camera feed right now.”

“I’m not going to even ask how that’s possible,” Director Paterson said.

Marcus became pale. “You can’t do that.”

I raised an eyebrow, and my phone rang a second later. “Hey,” I answered.

“You might want to find Annabella’s manager.” I looked around the room and saw the fucker heading for the door. “Gabriel, grab him.”

Gabriel took off at a full sprint toward the man.

“What did you see, Brock?” I could hear someone else in the room with Brock. It sounded like his wife, Jessica.

“She talked to her agent for a few seconds before a man in a black mask came up behind her and put a gun to her back. They took her outside and pushed her into the trunk of her manager’s car.”

My stomach dropped. How far could they have gotten? Who the hell was after her?

Gabriel walked back in with Annabella’s manager. Her manager was threatening to sue Gabriel for manhandling him. I didn’t care what Gabriel did as long as we could figure out who the fuck was after Annabella. Gabriel pushed the pudgy guy into the director’s chair. When he tried to stand, Gabriel pushed him back down.

“Sit,” Gabriel demanded.

“I have a video of you helping a man kidnap Annabella,” I said. “Who has her, and why?”

“I can’t tell you.” Her manager was a short, fat guy. He started to cry when I leaned in farther. “She has so much power. She said she would ruin me if I didn’t help her.”

“If I leak that video to the press, your career is over. How do you think it looks to let your biggest client get kidnapped?” I paced in front of the director’s chair. “If you don’t give me a name within the next few minutes, I’m sending the video to the press and making sure you’re never hired by anyone else, you sniveling piece of shit.”

I wanted this man to pay for the pain I knew Annabella was going through. Even if he gave me the info I needed, I planned to leak the video to the press. He was supposed to look out for his clients, not help someone kidnap them.

“The governor’s wife wanted a meeting with her.”

Gabriel picked up his phone and made a call. He would get as much information from Brock as we needed. “Why would the governor’s wife want a meeting? And there’s a difference between requesting a meeting and kidnapping someone from work.”

“It has something to do with the 23andMe DNA test she took.”

I grabbed Annabella’s purse and headed for the exit. Gabriel was on my heels, talking to Brock. We needed to get to a computer or a conference room. We decided to head back to the hotel and figure out our next plan.

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