Page 70 of Deserving Maddie

His team leader must've been close because less than thirty seconds later, Falcon stomped into the room.

Falcon didn't bother to speak. He just raised his brow and read the hostility swarming the room.

"Keep Ray in line," Wes snapped. "Sit on him if you have to."

His team leader took Wes's spot and stepped in front of him. Ray ran the probability in his head of getting around Falcon and landing another punch on the DEA agent's face before anyone stopped him. The chance was less than ten percent, and if he was being really honest with himself, it was closer to zero than he liked. That only made him want to do it more.

"Explain." Wes got in Agent Franklin's face. "Now!"

"There's no way it could've been Wraith. The guy we have inside has moved up the ranks and is now in Wraith's trusted circle. He would've sent out a distress call if they kidnapped Maddie."

"Ray, tell me why you think Maddie's missing."

He took a moment to compose himself. Landing himself in prison because he lost his cool and attacked the DEA agent, again, wouldn't help him find Maddie. She needed to be his top priority.

"Her secretary called me. She went out to grab a coffee two hours ago and hasn't come back. Her phone is going straight to voicemail. She never turns it off when the kids are at school."

Maddie wasn't close to many people, but she trusted her secretary enough that, if anything ever happened, she told Anne to reach out to him. Ray was glad she did. Two hours missing was too long already, but it was better than him not finding out until it was time for Maddie to pick up the kids. Ray made a mental note to have Kyle pick them up after school and bring them to the barn.

"Wraith likes to take credit for what he does. You said he taunted you with a picture?" Agent Franklin waited for him to nod in confirmation. "Don't you think if he did this, you would already have heard from him?"

He wasn't ready to admit the DEA agent was right. In his mind, it had to be Wraith, because if it wasn't, he had no idea who could be behind Maddie's disappearance.

"He could be waiting. Building the suspense or just plain old fucking with me."

"Ray, you need to consider it's not Wraith," Falcon spoke for the first time. "Do what you're good at and figure out where she is."

"Hack into her records," Wes ordered, "and see who she has been talking to or who might've reached out to her recently. I agree she would never turn her phone off, not while her kids are at school and they might need her."

Ray ran out of the room; he was back barely a minute later and set himself up with his laptop. Hacking into Maddie's phone took him longer than it should have. Precious time he couldn't afford, but for some reason, his nerves were getting to him and he was making careless mistakes. Twice he had to put her number into his program.

"Got it!" he finally hollered.

Each window showed a different app on her phone. Ray started with the obvious. There was nothing off with her texts or phone calls. The only people she regularly spoke with were himself, Kat, Gabe, and Charley. There was the occasional call to the school or from her boss, but nothing out of the ordinary that morning. Same with her text messages. It wasn't until he got to her email that he hit the jackpot.

"Son of a bitch."

"What did you find?" Wes stood behind him and read over his shoulder.

"Anthony's captain sent her an email this morning asking to meet. She's been having trouble with the insurance company and she thought it was because they finally realized there was more to her husband's death. Maddie was sure the captain was covering for Anthony, but she had no proof."

Why the hell hadn't he thought about Anthony or his death? Maddie had known something was off and worried it would come back to bite her. During one of their many late-night conversations, she confided in him that she never wanted to take the money from the death benefit, but Kat convinced her to put it aside in an account for the kids. She wanted them to have something to help pay for college. As a lawyer with a healthy savings before Anthony died, she had no need for it.

"Call the captain and see what you can find out," Wes started. "Start with the precinct. If he's not there, track his phone. See where he's been recently."

"You do realize I'm still here, right?"

Actually, Ray forgot he was in the room until the DEA agent spoke up. He had been so focused on his computer, he hadn't paid the man any attention.

"And?" Falcon raised his brow.

Agent Franklin threw his hands in the air. "I'm afederal agentand you're talking about hacking people and tracking them. That's, well …" He sounded exasperated."Illegal."

"I can guarantee your agency walks the gray line more than I ever do, but hey, if your moral compass is going haywire, then feel free to step out of the room." Ray waved the guy off.

He didn't have time to worry about if what he was doing was illegal or not. He skirted the line often, and right now he would hop completely over it if it meant he could find out where Maddie was.

Agent Franklin must not have been too concerned because he chose to stay.

---