Page 35 of Ruthless Heir

“Fuck their privacy. A woman was taken from your club, and you're not concerned? I'm sure that will bode well for publicity. I will rain down on this place, and you won't get any business,” I yell. Some of the clientele in the club are starting to take notice. My anger is starting to boil over, but I adjust my approach. “I'm not asking for all of your footage. Just the part where Vasilisa got taken. It was about two hours ago,” I growl.

The manager looks like he's about to refuse again, but then he seems to think better of it. “Alright, alright. Follow me,” he grumbles, leading me to a back room with a computer and multiple screens.

He starts clicking away at the keyboard until the camera footage comes up on the screen. I see a white van in the alley backed up to the side door. Vasilisa is mostly hidden by the open back door of the van, but I catch a brief glimpse of her just as she is being shoved in. The side of the van reads Stevenson Plumbing, but I'm sure the name is fictitious.

“Can you zoom in on the license plate?” I ask as the screen shows the van driving away. I'm not holding my breath that it's registered, but I'm not leaving a single stone unturned.

The manager nods and makes some adjustments before we can see the plate clearly. I snap a photo with my phone before thanking him and leaving the room.

I pull out my own burner phone and dial Jacob back in New York. “I need you to get as much information as you can on this license plate number ASAP,” I say, immediately reading off the combination of letters and numbers when he answers.

“On it, Kai,” he says without hesitation.

I have nothing to go on and the wait to hear back from Jacob is nerve wracking. Guilt gnaws at me for assuming the worst—assuming that Vasilisa betrayed me and used my efforts to run. Only thing that brings me a little reprieve is knowing they won't kill her as long as they're still waiting for their ransom, but the clock on her life is ticking.

Finally, my phone rings, and it's Jacob. “What did you find?” I ask, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.

“The business name is fictitious, as I'm sure you suspected, but the stolen plate belongs to a rental van. The company is based in Sacramento. The license plate was reported stolen two days ago. The idiot was caught on tape removing the plates from the rental by a man named Jack Briggs.”

“Any other information on him?”

“I'm cross-referencing his identity in our databases now for other crimes he may have committed.”

“Yeah, do that and keep me posted.” I hang up and start pacing. Jack Briggs. It could be a fake name, but it's something to go on.

I decide to head to my estate and call Lennon back. I need to know if he has any solid leads on Liam. Unfortunately, he fills me in on what little progress they've made. “We've got eyes on Liam's usual spots but no sign of him yet.”

I fill him in on what I discovered at the club, including the discovery of the license plate as well as locking down the name of the man responsible. “Jacob traced it back to a rental company in Sacramento,” I say, taking a deep breath. “Hold on a sec, he's calling me back.”

“That was quick. What have you got?” I ask Jacob, hoping he has a new lead.

“I ran the Jack Briggs alias in our database from my laptop. I was able to triangulate a few properties that he's been associated with. Of the three, one is located in Sacramento and one is located in San Francisco. I’m sending you the addresses now. I hope this helps.”

“It's a huge help. Thank you for being expeditious with this. It's very time sensitive.”

“No problem, man. I'll let you know when I get more leads on your pops.”

I hang up the phone with Jacob and immediately call my brother back. “What's your ETA? I have a good lead on where Vasilisa is being held.” I tell him of the two locations Jacob sent, but given how quickly Vladimir got the call and how close the San Francisco address is to the club, my best guess is that they're holding her there.

“I'm still quite a bit away. I'll touch down in San Francisco around five in the morning. That's still before the banks open and before Vladimir would be expected to retrieve money from his safety deposit box. And if she is not at the first location, we'd still have time to make it to the second location before banking hours.”

“You have a point,” I agree. “How many of our soldiers are you bringing with you?”

“Including me, we will have a small army of ten.”

“Okay, I just arrived back at my estate. I have my five remaining men here, so including me, that will bump up our numbers to sixteen. That will have to do. I can't involve Vladimir's men at all. I don't know which of them I could trust. Our surprise attack is the only advantage we have.”

“I couldn't agree more. We can't risk anyone giving these fuckers a heads-up we're coming. Do you want to divide and conquer?”

“What do you mean? Send eight men to the Sacramento address in case we get it wrong the first time?”

“Yeah, two birds, one stone.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. We’re going in blind, so we have no idea what opposition we’ll meet with their numbers. Our odds are the greatest with sixteen.”

“That's one way to look at it,” Lennon says. “But our surprise attack may tip them off if we get it wrong. I'm sure they're running a feed to all of their locations. They would have at least an hour to move her before we could drive to the second address. We can't fly because the trip to and from the hangar would add even more time.”

“Fuck! You're right.”

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