Page 87 of Parker

Clicking on the username linked to the most recent request, Parker used his hacking skills to find the proof he needed. Within seconds, he had it.

“It’s her, Ash.” He smacked an excited fist on the table, the screens and other equipment trembling in its wake. “Hot damn, it’s reallyher!”

She’s alive!

His Quinn was alive, and she was trying to tell him where she was.

“How can you be so sure it’s Quinn?”

“See that there?” Parker pointed to a specific sequence in the midst of countless others. “That’s a 32Ipp4. It’s a personal I.P. address linked to a private network.” He looked at his friend. “It’sQuinn’sprivate network.”

“People can have their own networks?”

“Oh, yeah.” More clicks filled the room as Parker did what he did best.

Watching the endless trove of code scroll past, Asher asked, “What are you doing?”

“Tracking the I.P.” His fingers never stopped moving. “As long as she stays logged on, I can use it to locate the originating computer, which will give us the coordinates of where she’s being held.”

“Why don’t you just message her back through the game?”

“Thought of that, but I don’t know how she’s accessing it or who might be watching her. If I message back and her screen dings or shows a pop-up like mine did, it could give her away.”

Both men knew what captors could do to their hostages when they got angry, and it wasn’t a risk Parker was willing to take. Not with Quinn.

Never with her.

“This might take a couple extra steps, but it’s something I’ve done a billion times.”

“Homeland?”

“Among others.” Parker nodded.

Blood rushed past his ears, his heart physically hurting from the force of its beats, but he didn’t dare stop. He was close. So fucking close he couldtasteit. A few more keystrokes, and…

The air left his lungs in a rush. Sitting back, he let his fingertips slip from the keyboard as he stared at the screen, hardly able to believe what he was seeing.

In spite of her being held against her will—despite having gone through God only knows what over the last two days—the brilliant, resourceful woman had found a way to guide him straight to her.

“Park?” Asher’s tone was that of concern. “What’s wrong? Did it not work?”

Parker shook his head, but… “It worked.” He turned to his brother and smiled. “I know where she is.”

16

Quinn typed out another random,non-working code into the selected location and hit enter. The same as she had the last billion-and-one times over the last forty-eight hours.

Justin’s dead. He just…killed him. Like he was nothing. Like he’s going to do to you.

The numbers and letters on the screen blurred together behind a well of tears, but she blinked them away. Crying wasn’t going to do anything but piss Victor off. And after what he did to Justin…

Focus, Q. Keep up the act and give Parker time to figure it out.

Thoughts of Parker threatened to bring on more tears, but the voice in her head was right. She needed to stay focused on the plan and not do anything that might draw suspicion from her captor.

A plan that she’d had to wait until now to implement because, until a couple hours ago, Victor’s hired muscle had stood nearby, watching her every move. Today, however, he must have decided she could be trusted to follow instruction, because he’d moved the other man out into the hall to stand guard.

She hadn’t acted right away for fear it was some sort of trick. A test that, should she fail, would mean certain death.

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