Page 122 of Of Light and Dark

Denielle had burst into tears, and Wes dragged her upstairs to their room for her to calm down. Dad disappeared with his phone plastered to his ear before I could confront him. A need to be with Nate while he looks for Lilly kept me from searching for my father.

Sitting back in my chair, with my arms folded over my chest and my ankle crossed over my knee, I watch Nate at work. The guy is good—and fast. His hands are flying over the four different keyboards on the desk. And Lilly is on the fast track to being at the same level—at least that's what Nate said to her. Lilly. Fuck, where are you, babe? Please be okay.

I squeeze my eyes shut. "You need to work faster."

"I work as fast as I can," Nate responds without pausing what he does, not taking my stab personally. He's better equipped and smarter than any authority we could've brought in, but at the same time, it's not fast enough.

There are still so many questions, but after Brooks's video, I'm convinced that everything is connected to the affair. It was the start of everything. Hell, Lilly has been saying it for weeks. I wonder if she has memories that were buried under the fake ones but were not fully erased—that, subconsciously, she knew.

Emily killed Payton and Audrey. She had an innocent woman and child murdered and then disappeared off the face of the earth. If she’s involved now, what is the purpose? What does she want? My mind shifts. If she took Lilly and she had no problems harming an innocent child—two if you count Lilly and Audrey—I don’t want to think about what she would do to someone who is an actual threat.

I need to get my ass out of this rabbit hole, or I am going to lose it. Again.

I focus on Lilly’s brother instead. Nate switches between typing on the two wireless keyboards and the laptops simultaneously. On one, he pulls up information about Hank, aka the traitor, which looks like his personnel file based on the Altman logo. Two monitors show command line windows, and I quickly zone out of those. The last one is the security feed for the property.

I move closer to get a better look. Nate pulls up the video from Wednesday night, right before the alarm system got disabled, and we watch the outside view to all the entrances.

"I don’t have any cameras inside this property," he murmurs as he fast forwards. George gave him more pain meds, and the three cups of coffee seemed to have done the trick. He no longer sounds drunk or looks like he’s about to pass out. He’s jittery, but I blame the caffeine for that.

We watch the feed until a dark SUV with tinted windows pulls into the drive. Nate switches the vantage point to another camera. "It’s a rental."

Scrunching my eyebrows, I glance between him and the screen. "How do you know?"

He points at a sticker in the window.

Just then, we watch a tall man get out: Turner.

No. Fucking. Way!

"Motherfucker!" I feel like someone just kicked me in the junk. Fucking Turner works with (or for) Emily—if she’s behind this. And so does Hank, the bitch assistant.

It’s all connected. Every-fucking-thing. How?

"He disguised the license plate." Nate’s voice is detached, and I eye him warily.

I follow his line of sight and scan the car. The plate is smeared with something reflective to the camera, and I curse under my breath.

We watch Turner leave the frame, and with no camera's inside, all we can do is wait. Nate skips ahead thirty seconds at a time until we hit the nine-minute mark. Turner reappears, carrying Lilly over his shoulder, and throws her in the backseat—literally throws her.

No!

I want to scream. Destroy something. He hurt Lilly. She's unconscious. What if she's seriously injured? My hands begin to tremble, and I clench and unclench my fingers.

Oblivious to the havoc raging inside of me, Nate keeps watching then zooms in. "Intelligence level of a damn amoeba."

That snaps me out of it. "Huh?"

"Hank got them the car. The moron used the company we hire for all the out-of-state board members’ rentals. They have built-in GPS tracking."

I snort. "I didn’t take him for that dumb." We can track her.

Nate pauses then starts typing again. "It’s too easy. He’d know I’d find that trail in less than thirty minutes."

Fuck!

Nate is correct.One of George's men finds the SUV abandoned in a less desirable part of town—keys in the ignition. Turner switched his mode of transportation, and with where he did it, there is a zero chance of finding a reliable witness. It is a fucking miracle the car is intact. George sends it for processing, but even if we find fingerprints, we know Turner is involved, so I have no clue what the purpose is.

Later that afternoon, George comes in with a single laptop, declaring that it was the only electronic device left in Hank Todd’s apartment.

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