Page 32 of Ethan's Command

There was a long, tense pause on the other end of the line.

“Well, you must have,” Kahana said, her tone laced with confusion. “His English teacher reported him absent.”

The air around Brooklyn shifted, the world narrowing to the sickening truth clawing its way to the forefront of her mind. Her voice, though shaking, grew more resolute. “Mrs. Kahana,” she said carefully, “please call the police. If Liam isn’t in school, it’s because he’s been taken.”

“What?” Krista’s voice rose in clear disbelief.

“Please!” Brooklyn begged, her voice cracking under the weight of her fear. “Call the police right now. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

She ended the call abruptly, her trembling fingers barely able to press the screen. There was no point in lingering on theline; she already knew the truth. Deep down, she felt it—an icy, suffocating certainty.

Liam had been kidnapped.

Her knees buckled as the weight of the realization crushed her. She collapsed onto the small stool by the counter, gripping the edge like a lifeline. The once-familiar surroundings of her exam room blurred into a haze of sterile whites and pale blues.

A rush of panic surged through her, accompanied by a singular thought that cut through the chaos:I have to find him. I have to get him back.

Brooklyn pushed herself upright, her legs unsteady but driven by sheer will. Her heart pounded as she grabbed her bag and rushed for the door, her mind already racing with possibilities.

Somewhere out there, Liam needed her—and she would do whatever it took to bring him home.

CHAPTER 12

Ethan pushed openthe door to the comms center, the scent of coffee and French fries meeting him as he strolled in. “Hey, Rusty. How are you doing?”

Rusty glanced up from his desk as he popped a fry into his mouth and chewed. “Good. How about you? Anything new with the Liam situation?”

Ethan dropped into the chair beside him, the frame creaking under his weight. “As a matter of fact, yes.”

“Oh, yeah?” asked Cooper from the corner, his voice tinged with curiosity.

Ethan turned, startled. “Didn’t realize you were here too.”

Cooper leaned back in his chair, hands clasped behind his head. “Just dropped by to work on a few things with Whiskey.”

“Cool,” Ethan said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a USB drive. He held it up, the plastic catching the fluorescent light. “This is something the cops missed.”

Coop raised an eyebrow, his expression sharpening with interest. “Nova’s going to be thrilled to hear that. She’s not local PD, but she hates it when they screw up. Reflects badly on everyone.

Ethan shook his head. “It’s not the cops’ fault. Someone didn’t tell them the truth—or didn’t know it.”

Rusty sat up, pulling his chair closer to Ethan. “Fill us in.”

Ethan booted up the laptop in front of him, the faint hum of its fan filling the silence. “I went to the corner where those guys tried to grab Liam,” he began, his tone measured. “I’ve got to say, it’s not the kind of location you’d pick for a snatch-and-grab. Too many witnesses. Too many variables.”

Rusty leaned forward. “Like what?”

“For starters,” Ethan said, pulling up a map of the area, “you can’t predict which direction someone’s going to head when they leave a place like Dave’s Café. If they were targeting Brooklyn, they’d have had to follow her there. But that corner? It’s crowded. People everywhere. Traffic lights changing constantly. The whole setup was sloppy—amateur. The Yakuza doesn’t do amateur.”

Rusty frowned, his brows knitting together. “No, they don’t. When they pull something, it’s clean. Precise.”

“Unless,” Cooper added thoughtfully, “they didn’t have time to plan. What if it was a heat-of-the-moment thing? Someone gave them a location, and they acted fast.”

Ethan nodded, his mouth tightening. “That’s what I’m thinking. It wasn’t planned. Whatever set this off happened quickly, probably that day. But if they weren’t following Brooklyn, how the hell did they know where she and Liam would be? And how did they know where she parked? She could have just as easily parked somewhere else.”

Rusty let out a low whistle. “You think they had a lookout in the cafe?” He shook his head. “Yeah, this is sounding sketchier by the second.”

“I think it’s a distinct possibility that someone in Dave’s tipped off the Yakuza when Brooklyn arrived. I’m guessing whoever that was also told them the direction she came from.They might have even circled the block to locate her car but that also might have been too risky. Either way, they were definitely tipped off.”

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