Page 97 of Breaking Conviction
“It’s too late.” Dean’s voice came out robotic as he stared off. “You won’t get there in time.”
Naomi snarled. “In time forwhat, Dean? What do you mean ‘it’s too late?’”
Dean’s eyes finally moved toward hers, although whether he actually saw her, she wasn’t sure. “Everything’s already in motion. It was all supposed to happen when you got here. You were supposed to bring her... You were supposed to...”
“Dean, I swear to God—what is goin’ on? Fuck it, I’m leavin’.”
“You’re too late.” He looked at his watch and winced before a tear leaked from his eyes. “She’s gone.”
Chapter Forty
“Wes, what does this button do?”
Wes reached for Thea and plopped her into his lap before she could press the button on his desk in the war room at BlackStone.
“That tells me when someone I don’t know is at the gate. I press it…” He depressed the black button and a camera angle of the empty closed gate came on the screen. “Then I can see if anyone’s there and ask them,Halt, who goes there?” He used his best medieval sentry voice into the microphone and was rewarded with lyrical giggles.
“Wes, there ain’t nobody there. See!” She pointed to the empty screen before pointing to another. “What do all those words mean?”
“Bah, you’re right. Guess we’ll have to keep waiting for someone to visit us.” He pointed to the screen with the logins to answer her question. “That tells me who all’s been in and out of here. See, that’s your mom’s name right there when she left for work this morning. From that list, I know everyone else is going about their day, and only you, me, and Phoenix are here.”
He huffed at the time beside his last teammate’s name. Typically he’d be out all night and just getting in during lunchtime. If the guy didn’t have an STD by now, he must be invincible.
Wes shook his head before leaving Thea to play a game he’d downloaded for her on his phone. They’d just finished eating upstairs, and Wes needed to return to the task he’d been working on before lunch.
He was researching and cross-referencing the list ofAlea Iacta Estmembers that Ascot gave him along with Investigator Burgess’s notes, ADA Aguilar’s case file, the guest lists that had missing women, and any information he could find on the Rahab Foundation. It was a bear of a task, but he was working through it as painstakingly as possible. The women they’d failed deserved at least that.
Ascot had apparently had a few more members he’d “forgotten” about until Wes was out of the room to go help Naomi. They’d originally thought it was a group of rich, old white men, but after everything they’d learned, he hadn’t been too surprised to see Gail Haynesworth as one of the “members”. She’d been added to the list of monsters in this whole nightmare. Wes knew Ascot had more information in him, but the pathetic asshole was refusing to give up the one name they needed most.
Careful not to jostle Thea, Wes shook out the tension he’d had ever since Naomi called him after her meeting with Haynesworth. His queen had been on the verge of tears, and he’d wanted to burn the whole damn CTI building to the ground. The only thing that’d kept him from losing his cool was Thea’s oblivious smile at the time, and the anger and resolve that laced Naomi’s voice. It seemed like getting fired wasn’t going to keep her down, and she was refusing to let her happiness be a casualty in this battle.
His eyes drifted to another screen that displayed more possible victims. As far as innocent casualties went, all of his research that morning had shown him that over the years, there were at least three women who’d practically disappeared after attending the scholarship party. With what happened to Ellie and the most recent party, it was worrisome that he couldn’t find anything out about the women. Locating their whereabouts was now one of BlackStone’s top priorities.
And as for the Rahab Foundation... a year ago, Nora had told them that she couldn’t find any information on it and Wes chalked it up to being an organization so hidden that she couldn’t find it. The organization had been much like Sasha Saves, and he’d figured that Nora just didn’t know how to search.
But now he knew Nora and that excuse didn’t fly. The woman was nearly as proficient as him at finding out information about people. Maybe even better, although he’d never admit that to her. No doubt she’d think she’d earned another point in their silly game with each other.
With Nora’s abilities in mind, Wes had scoured his usual and even unusual channels—aka government databases—and couldn’t find any information on the organization. Now he was questioning everything.
If they weren’t saving women from human trafficking, then what the fuck had they been doing for seven years?
“What does…thatbutton do?”
He chuckled. Of course, Thea would be interested in the proverbial ‘big red button’. “If something bad ever happens, I press that and it sends an alert to police, firemen, all of my teammates. It tells everyone we’re in trouble.”
“Police like my daddy was?” she asked with a worried look. “Will my daddy come if that button gets pressed?”
Wes gritted his teeth. “No. Your father isn’t a police officer anymore. Cops are the good guys.”Or they’re supposed to be.“But you have nothing to worry about, princess.”
A low mechanical whirring began next to him as the door to the basement lowered and moved back on its track.
Thea gasped and swiveled her head to the side, her bright red curls bouncing with the movement.
“Wes, what is that?” she whispered and Wes tensed around her until he saw the backward baseball cap.
“Bastard didn’t want to eat— Oh, hey, there kid.” Phoenix slid the full plate across the floor before continuing up the basement stepladder.
“It’s just Phoenix,” Wes answered, even though Thea obviously knew by now. “He was downstairs working on something.”
