Page 88 of BounBound By Scars

I took my place, grabbed my laptop again, and started digging like hell.

Every camera feed around his apartment complex was blank. This was planned.

I discreetly checked my phone to see if there were any open hits on Zane on the dark web. None.

“When exactly did he go inactive?” Zarek asked.

I briefly glanced at him. “At 00:42. We don’t have his last location logged but Ronan told me where he might have been.”

Eyes flew towards Ronan who was staring blankly at the wall. His jaw clenched.

“Find him, Kabir.” Zarek ordered in his usual tone.

I nodded barely looking at him. “On it, Ghost.”

“Kabir?” Sebastian’s voice was calm but I could hear a slight tremor. “Just… find out if he’s alive?”

That gave me an idea. The location module was deliberately turned off for his RLM. As far as I knew that could only be done as a manual override. And other than me, only Zane had access to do it.

I quickly switched windows to check what the last logged location was. The dot glowed. Right here. Blackthorn security office. Just as I suspected.

I cleared my throat. “As far as I can tell. He deliberately turned his RLM locator off. He’s probably still alive.”

A bang sounded. Followed by Ronan scrambling up from his chair and storming out of the conference room.

I wasn’t going to focus on what that meant. He needed certainty before I could give him any information. So I started digging again.

Amelia circled behind me, eyeing my phone sitting on the desk. She knew the code so she opened it. My eyes darted between my laptop and what she was doing.

“What’s this?” She suddenly froze. “There’s an encrypted file sent to you anonymously. Two minutes before he went dark”

I frowned. “What?”

Grabbing my phone from Amelia I started running scans on the file before opening it. I lightly tapped on my laptop and she immediately took over scraping the local camera feeds.

A loud groan came from Seb. “Fucking hell. We’ve got company.”

“In the middle of the night?” Logan asked.

“Headaches one and two are coming.”

I wasn’t paying attention. I needed to get into this file because I strongly suspected it was Zane’s message.

Just when the encrypted file began to load the conference room door opened and in walked a woman in a leather jacket, black pants and boots, and a man with a similar outfit. She looked familiar but I wasn’t paying attention.

Ronan followed them inside, seemingly calmer.

“Jesus, Seb!” Amelia snapped, voice sharp with urgency. “Detective Inez. Detective Mateo. How can we help you?”

I barely registered her words. My eyes were locked on my phone screen, heart jackhammering in my chest.

Two things happened at once.

The encrypted file Zane had sent me finally opened—and Inez’s voice sliced through the room like a knife.

“Two uniformed officers were called to respond to a public disturbance. A man matching Zane Cruiser’s description was seen in a scuffle with three men before being shoved into an unmarked van.”

Everything stopped. Because it was all adding up. Every horrible possibility. Every damn fear.

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