Page 48 of Fighting Conviction
Snake shook his head with a frown. “I’m not doing it. Come back to me when you get her permission—or if there’s an emergency.”
Steam was practically coming out of Jaybird’s ears. Devil didn’t mind the plan but he understood where Snake was coming from. Granted, Devil didn’t give a shit if the rest of the room had Ellie’s location. He’d made sure to keep following it after Ellie sent it to him the night before. There was no way he was telling her brother, though. Devil had it for an emergency and that was enough for him.
“Moving on.” Hawk sat in his usual place at whatever the hell the head of a round table could be called and crossed his arms. “I called a meeting for a reason and it sure as fuck wasn’t to stalk a coed. Sit your asses down.”
Jaybird grumbled to his seat between Phoenix and Devil at the table. Everyone faced Snake as he swirled around in his rolling chair, his back to the computer screens lining in stacks above his desk.
“We’ve got a lead on the Ashland elite scholarship party.”
Devil’s back straightened. If they were finally making plans to find the bastards who stole Ellie, maybe he could put his obsession with her aside. Everything surrounding her felt like unfinished business, so putting her to bed would be a relief.
He sucked in a breath and ground his teeth to the point of pain.
Not the relief I should be thinking about.
“We always thought the assholes would be stupid enough to try the same stunt again, but we haven’t had much to go off of,” Hawk explained. “Which means they probably have help from people above our pay grade—”
“Or we’re losin’ our touch,” Phoenix piped in with a shrug as he leaned his chair back on two legs.
Hawk narrowed his eyes at Phoenix, but their cocky teammate seemed unfazed by Hawk’s death glare. Their team lead huffed out a breath before continuing. “In any case… I got to thinking after our last meeting with Burgess… he really put emphasis on the party. We’ve always suspected he was a player on the other side, but with that comment, it made me wonder if he’s too dumb to realize he’s tipped his hand.”
Jaybird scoffed. “Abso-fucking-lutely he’s that dumb. The guy tried to pin my own sister’s kidnapping and her best friend’s murder on me.” His finger jabbed into his chest and Devil winced at the power behind it.
“Well, now we have proof he’s onto something, at least.” Snake cut in. He swiveled his chair around and after a few swipes of the keyboard, what looked like a professional database took over the nine screens in front of him. “This is the room check-in log at the McIntosh Hotel.” He cleared his throat and swallowed. “The one where…”
Snake faced Devil and completed his sentence as Devil trailed off. “Yes, that’s the one. Where the party was held just shy of a year ago. Where the girls were taken. Where we raided without any luck. All in the same, my friend.” He turned back to the screen. “I’d hacked into the system last year, and I’ve been keeping track of the hotel database and this new entry caught my attention and, specifically, when it is booked.”
Despite the large collection of screens, Devil still had to squint at the tiny writing. Give him a target through a scope eleven hundred meters away, and he’d hit it every time. But tiny words ten feet away he’d miss every other letter. Finally he got the right amount of squint to eye-opening ratio, but Phoenix ended up narrating it for him anyway.
“Vaz-yay Pup-kin? Room 307,” Phoenix sounded out.
“No, it’s pronounced like voz—as in the fancy way to say vase—yah, poop-kin,” Snake clarified.
“Poor guy.” Phoenix snorted back. “Sure it’s not my way? Your way sounds—”
“Moving on.” Hawk’s dark eyes may not faze Phoenix, but they shut Snake’s mouth mid-retort. “Snake says they’re using another dummy name.”
“Like Ivan Ivanovich last year?” Devil asked, recalling how, before they realized the name was a fake, Devil had wanted to beat the fuck out of the guy last year in retaliation for finding an empty hotel room when they were supposed to be saving Ellie.
Snake nodded. “Yes, exactly.” He pulled up the floor plan of the hotel. “According to the booking itinerary, this Mr. Pupkin is booking room 307 for only two nights around the same time the fundraiser was held last year.”
Jaybird shook his head. “It’s fucking incredible these bigwigs are able to keep parties like this secret. In the past, we knew the players ASAP and picked these assholes off easier than finding… uh… that guy.” He snapped his fingers. “The one with the red and white hat?”
Everyone cocked their head at Jaybird.
“You mean… Where’s Waldo?” Snake sounded out slowly.
Jaybird threw his hands up. “Obviously! Who the fuck else would I be talking about?”
“I’m not really surewhyyou’re talking about him.” Snake pushed up his glasses. “Usually Phoenix says the stupid shit.”
“Hey!” There was a thump as two of Phoenix’s chair legs returned to the ground. He opened his mouth but Hawk cut in before Phoenix could retaliate.
“That was MF7. We were backed by the United States and the subjects we were dealing with were third-world ops entering or exiting our country, with the occasional US-international trafficking ring. This is our home. We have to play by different rules now. Unfortunately, since the government seems to be MIA on this, that means figuring out who is involved all by ourselves. “
“I get it, but it fucking sucks ass,” Jaybird grumbled and Devil grunted in agreement as he shook his head slightly.
“We have to make do with what we’ve got. Speaking of which…” Hawk leaned back in his chair and scrubbed his hand against his fade before nodding at Snake to continue.
