Page 9 of The Dragon's Dream Mate (Savage Shifters Special Ops 3)

“She contacted me. I don’t recognize the number, but it’s Simone.”

I took the phone from her and then handed it to Gage.

The message read,Safe right now. In van. Moving. Snow Cones, Si.

That was it.

“How do you know that it is Simone?” Damian asked.

“Two reasons,” Rainey was trembling all over.

“Come into my room. We don’t need to wake up the entire hallway,” I said, interrupting.

Once inside, I handed her the hotel courtesy robe.

Slipping it on, mindlessly, she continued, her voice shaking even more than her body. “Snowcones. That was our key phrase. If she was ever in trouble or if strangers tried to pick her up - even if they said they were agents or cops - she wasn’t to go anywhere with them unless they knew the phrase.”

Everyone nodded. That made complete sense.

“Second, she signed it ‘Si’. It symbolizes the International System of Units. It is a play on her name, as she wants to be a chemistry major. She always signs everything Si to friends and family.”

That sounded reasonable.

Gage said, “So we’ve established that it’s Simone. You don’t recognize the number?”

Rainey shook her head and answered, “No.”

“Any idea how she could have gotten hold of a phone?”

Rainey choked back a laugh. “She’s fourteen and sneaky as all get out. Someone might have dropped it. She might have pickpocketed it. There is no telling with that child.”

Gage smiled and said. “Just like her aunt. And it means that she’ll find a way to help us find her and to stay relatively safe.”

He handed the phone to Damian. “Call Alex and give him this number. Even if it is just a burner phone, it might help pinpoint a precise location for her and whether she is being taken to that same house that we identified.”

Damien came back in. “Andrew was on night duty. He’s on it.”

“I guess that’s why my boss suggested you guys. You can get things done without having to deal with all of the red tape.”

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” Gage said.

Damian gave Rainey back her phone. “Your niece seems like a very strong, smart girl. I’m sure that she will be just fine.”

Everyone was wide awake, so they all left to go to their rooms to get clothes on.

Before Rainey left, I asked her how she knew which room was mine.

“I didn’t. I knew that there was one of you guys on either side of me, and I just picked one. It happened to be you,” she answered and headed out the door.

I had to admit that her words stung a little bit. Despite the lecture I had just given myself about needing to be emotionally distant while we figured things out, I wanted to be the person that she turned to when she needed someone.

Damian came back in with his computer. It seemed that the van Simone referenced was still moving. It was outside of the city. According to the GPS tracking system, which even burner phones have, it was moving to New York. The van should arrive by morning.

When everyone returned, we talked about whether we should simply go meet the van and try to hijack it and the occupants. There were several problems with that idea.

First, we didn’t know how many henchmen there were inside and how many children.

Second, there was no reason to think that even if we had a chance to capture the van, the traffickers wouldn’t simply kill the children.

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