Page 57 of Ethan's Command

It sounded like she meant business, but Brooklyn couldn’t lose hope. There were people around. Brooklyn glanced around to confirm they weren’t alone. There was a forklift driver on the next dock over and two men walking at the other end of the pier. Maybe she could yell and attract attention.

She drew in a deep breath when her door was wrenched open and she was unceremoniously pulled out of the car and into the warehouse. The men holding her were the two who had tried to grab Liam. She fought, but one of them slugged her in the jaw, and her head snapped back. They continued to drag her until they were back among the pallets.

“This is far enough,” Leilani said as they stopped and held her next to a bunch of boxes wrapped in cellophane.

“Now,” she said to the guy that Brooklyn had hit in the throat, “get me the drive.” He turned to Brooklyn and his sneer sent a chill up her spine.

CHAPTER 25

Ethan triedto calm his spinning mind. “Do you have any ideas about who could be behind this whole thing, Nova? Any at all?”

Nova shook her head. “We’ve still got nothing.”

Ethan’s expression darkened. "Could we have missed something on Yamamoto?"

Nova exhaled sharply. "Possible, but unlikely."

"If it’s not Yamamoto, then who else could it be?" Ethan demanded.

“Is there any lead you didn’t follow?” Nova asked. “Anything no matter how small.”

Ethan thought back. “We never connected with Liam’s friend Ren. He’s the only one we didn’t talk to. He’s been out sick. He’s also the one who supposedly lured Liam to the SUV via text.”

“Let’s talk to him then. What’s his last name? Do you have a number for him?”

Ethan swung around and went back into Liam’s room. “Hey, Liam?”

“Dude, I thought you left.”

Ethan tried to maintain a calm exterior. “Can you do me a favor and reach out to your friend, Ren? I need to talk to him fora second. We never got to talk to him, and I want to make sure we tied up all the loose ends.”

Jackson’s eyes narrowed, but Ethan gave him a tiny head shake.

“Sure.” Liam turned to his father. “Can I borrow your phone?”

Jackson handed him the phone and Liam initiated a video call. “Hey, Ren.”

“Liam! Are you okay? I heard you were kidnapped!”

“Yeah,” Liam said a little uncertainly, “um…I’m good. Someone here wants to talk to you, okay?”

“Sure.”

Liam handed the phone over to Ethan, who tilted it so he could see Ren. The boy didn’t look so hot which was confirmed by a loud wracking cough. “Hi, Ren, I’m Ethan, a friend of Brooklyn and Liam’s. I just wanted to ask you a few questions about last week. Is that okay? Are you up for it? I know you’ve been out of school for the last week.”

Nova pulled out her phone and began recording the call.

"Yeah, Nakoa mentioned you." Ren’s voice was raspy. "I caught walking pneumonia—or at least that’s what my grandfather called it. I don’t know why it’s called ‘walking.’ I didn’t get to walk anywhere all week."

Ethan forced a chuckle. "Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better. Do you mind if I ask a couple of questions? Did anything unusual happen last week.”

"Sure. I was talking with Nakoa. He said you were asking if anything weird happened this past week. I spent most of it home so there’s not much to tell. Other than the text. I swear I didn’t send it. Liam told me he thought it was me who asked him to come to the SUV but it wasn’t. I swear.” Ren’s words were punctuated by another hacking cough.

“I believe you, Ren.” And he did. This kid wasn’t lying. “Did you notice anything out of the ordinary? Anything at all?” Ethan tried not to sound hopeful, but they were out of leads and Brooklyn was in trouble.

“I…uh…well I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but I saw Keoni stick something in Liam’s backpack and then hide the backpack under the coats when we were at the café. He looked kind of scared when he was doing it too. It was weird, because, like, why didn’t Keoni just hand the thing to Liam if he wanted Liam to have it? Nakoa and I wouldn’t care. And why did he look scared? But then I remembered that his aunt showed up to pick him up that day. Normally it’s his uncle. Keoni says his Uncle Rick is a lawyer, but I don’t think he works much because sometimes he comes to the café and hangs out while we play. Anyway, his Aunt Leilani picked him up that day. He told me that she scares him. She scares me, too.”

“Me three,” Liam chimed in. “I know Keoni doesn’t like her. He says she’s mean.”

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