“Mostly digital stuff.” I worried at the burn on my arm. Aidan glanced at me, his dark brow arching. I dropped my hands to my sides and cleared my throat. “I wouldn’t exactly call him a hacker type, but he seemed to have access to money when he needed it, but he was always looking for more.”

  “Kidnapping is a step up from cyber crimes.”

  I took a deep breath that somehow made my still raw throat ache even more.

  Aidan’s gaze sharpened. “What are you not saying?”

  “I don’t have any proof.”

  “Well, we don’t know this guy and you do, so spill.” He moved in front of me and flipped back the button placket of my shirt.

  I stepped back.

  “I’m just checking your clothes to see what kind of tracker I can put on you for the drop off.”

  “Oh.” We stood toe-to-toe and we were about the same height, but Roth had me by a good fifty pounds of muscle.

  “Jerry?”

  “Right. I got the idea that it wasn’t part of the plan. My mum called me in a panic and that’s when it went all sideways.”

  His near-black eyes bore into my head like a fucking laser. “So, this is a panic move? Like they didn’t plan a kidnapping?”

  “It wasn’t the plan. Ransom was, but for my mum. Not for anyone else. When I didn’t play along with their plan, it feels like they went off script or however you want to say it.”

  “More opportunistic.”

  “Yes. Jerry always seems to operate that way.” I clenched my fingers. “The wildcard in all of this is my mum. She plays with men to get what she wants, but she’s not stable.”

  “How so?”

  I didn’t want to give my whole fucked up history to some stranger.

  “Look, kid. I get it, your childhood was fucked. We don’t have time to play nice about that.”

  I stared at the floor. “It’s not that. Well, not exactly.” I locked eyes with him. “She’s not right about Simon. Obsessed. Unstable more than usual. She’s a narcissist, but Simon is like…” I wasn’t sure how to explain how twisted she was about him.

  Aidan nodded. “My brother’s the more head games one, but I’d say fixated. Simon is an extension of her and she got it twisted in there.”

  I blew out a breath. “I didn’t realize how much. Let’s just say the comparisons have been vast and I’ve lacked on every level.”

  “So, she’s got a hard-on for her kid.”

  I blinked.

  “I’m sure there’s some Oedipus thing that my brother would be all brainiac about,” Aidan continued. “Does she know about the kid aspect?”

  “None of us did.”

  Roth flicked around a small circular thing on the tip of his finger. “Tracker and limited range mic. We usually hide it on a button or collar, but you seem like a nervous sort.”

  “You try having your mum and her husband kidnap your brother’s pregnant wife and see how you do, asshole.”

  “There we go.” Roth smirked. “Get angry. We need your head clear. Crying about it ain’t gonna fix shit.” He tucked the small tracker on my third button. He moved to a computer and hooked headphones over one of his ears. He frowned and fiddled with something on the laptop, then came back to me. “Got a phone?”

  “Who doesn’t?” I took it out of my pocket and set it on the table.

  He went back to the laptop, then fit both headphones on his ear. “Tony?”

  “Yeah, boss.” A tall, skinny guy with tattoos came over.

  “I thought this thing was good with interference from smartphones.”

  “It is.” The new guy’s hands flew over the keys and then both of them were crowding me.

  “Some space, mate.”

  They paid me no mind.

  Donovan crossed the room to us. “Problem?”

  “We have backups, but something…” Aidan tipped his head then plucked something out of Tony’s back pocket.

  “Hey.” Tony turned back. “Oh, you think he’s got a wire on?”

  “A what?” I ripped the little tracker off my shirt and shoved it at Roth. “I don’t have a bug on me.”

  “Yeah? Guess we’ll find out.” He held out the long, thin wand over my arms, moving down to the rings on my hands, then over my buckle. It started whining the closer it got to the middle of my chest. “Take off the chain.”

  “What? I’ve had this since I was boy.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s a perfect place to put a tracker. Take it the fuck off, kid.”

  I pulled the chain over my head. The clasp had been soldered together after I almost lost it a few years ago.

  Roth took it and sat at the table. “Well, shit. Tony, look at this?”

  Tony pulled the chain down the table and he put on a pair of glasses. He started tapping away at the laptop again and did a low whistle. “Long range tracker. Doesn’t seem to have a way to listen, but it definitely is a locator.”

  “What’s the range?”

  “According to the specs I found on it, it has limited capabilities. Pretty much can just tell where he is, but more of a general location. Like within a few hundred feet maybe.”

  “What the fuck?” My heart was racing. “He bugged my fucking cross?” I felt almost sacrilegious even saying that. The one small thing I’d had as a boy that hadn’t been tainted by my life. A nun had given it to me—one of the few teachers who’d ever given a damn about me.

  Donovan dipped a hand in his pocket. “So, this Jerry could feasibly know where Ian was at all times?”

  Roth nodded at Tony.

  “Give or take a building if he was in the city.”

  That was how he’d known where Zoe was. When I was with her, how much time I’d spent on the road. I bent at the waist, my stomach roiling.

  How had my life spiraled out of control like this?

  “Do you want me to disconnect it?”

  “No.” Both Roth and Donovan said it at the same time.

  Donovan’s face was unreadable. For that matter, Roth’s was as well, but suddenly, there was tactical glee surfacing in his. He glanced at Tony. “Do we have something that will work around this so we have the upper hand?”

  Tony grinned. “I think I have just the thing. Gotta get it from my bag.”

  Donovan folded his arms. “What are you thinking?” he asked when it was just the three of us.

  “Use the asshole’s tracker to find him. One team on the kid with the money, another extracts Mrs. Kagan.”

  I swallowed as Roth handed the chain back to me. “Is that a good thing?”

  “You just became more than bait, kid. You became the whole trap.”

  Five

  He couldn’t be in the same room as his brother—Ian. Not his brother. His brother was sitting beside him. Ian was a piece of shit who’d brought chaos into his life and might have killed Margo.

  No.

  No, she was fine. They had to be. Margo and their little lemon drop.

  She was strong and wouldn’t take any chances. He was the hothead, not his girl. She thought things out and knew how to deal with crazy fucking people. She loved him, after all.

  Nick turned him away from the projector screen that had a video up of what Aidan and the rest of Roth Defense were doing in the war room. Or whatever the crew wanted to call the hub of technology and military-looking dudes that had three percent body fat and were five hundred percent badass.

  They had been outfitting Ian with some sort of listening device when suddenly, things changed. He couldn’t get the whole story from this viewing room, but it had lasted only a moment. Then the nerd brigade had descended and Ian had been deposited on a seat in the corner of the room with Zoe at his side.

  As if he should be allowed any fucking comfort.

  “It should be me going.”

  Nick leaned forward, his elbows braced on his knees. “I don’t think we have a choice on this one. If we want Margo back, we have to use—”

  Simon gripped the arms of his chair. “That little shit was in on it. What if he…”

  He couldn’t voice it. It would make it real.

  “What if he’s still in on it?” Lila asked from the doorway. The unflappable woman they always counted on looked drawn and exhausted. Her long hair was usually pulled back and ruthlessly neat, but now it flowed over one shoulder, making her seem younger and unsure.

  But there was still some fire in her eyes. “I’ve been digging into everything I can find about him and his mother. And it’s not fucking much.”

  Nicky stood and went to her, sliding his arms around her tightly. In a rare show of emotion, Li buried her face in Nick’s chest. Simon had to look away from the intimate exchange. Because if Lila was feeling hopeless, then they were so very fucked.

  Nicky sat back down, dragging his wife onto his lap so the three of them were huddled together at the conference table. It was just as rare that Lila would allow such a move while at Ripper.

  But nothing was the same as it had been. Absolutely nothing.

  “Did they call again?” Nick asked as he rubbed her lower back absently.

  “Just the once,” she said.

  “Do they know?” Simon’s voice was hoarse.

  Maybe this time, their secret was a blessing.

  “What?” Her voice gentled. “About the baby? I don’t know.” Lila closed her eyes. “How could you not tell us?”

  Simon picked at his cuticle on his ring finger before fisting his left hand. His wedding ring glowed in the low light. He had to focus on that and not the worst case scenarios screaming in his brain.

  He knew Lila had been running around doing everything she could for him—for them. Because she loved Margo almost as much as he did. But talking about this felt bigger than he could deal with. “At first it was because we knew the tour was important to all of us and we could be jeopardizing it.”

  “Fuck the tour.”

  Simon’s eyes widened at Lila’s harsh voice. “You say that now, but remember how adamant we were about Jazz and Gray holding off on getting pregnant? Then we’re the assholes? We felt like shit. It wasn’t planned.”

  “We figured,” Nick said with a humorless laugh.

  “She told me right around the time the Ian thing happened. Everything was such a mess and then there was this thing that was just…”

  “Yours?” Lila covered his hand.

  Simon blew out a slow, shuddering breath. “Yeah. Just ours. And we were going to talk to you guys about it right before all this happened.” He laughed. “We were looking at houses, for fuck’s sake. Being all grown up and teasing each other about it and then she was just…” His voice faded away, ground to dust.

  “Oh, Simon.”

  To go from pure joy to pure terror in a second. It felt like a million years ago, not just this morning.

  His gaze locked on Ian, who was tucked in tight with Zoe. “And now I’m supposed to trust this piece of shit to get my wife back? My pregnant wife? Why did they have to go after her?”

  Why wasn’t it me?

  The commotion on the screen dragged his attention back from the guilt and shame spiral. It had been a long twelve hours since they’d taken her. Hours to obsess and plot Ian’s murder.

  To wonder where she was.

  If she was okay.

  If they were hurting her.

  If his lemon drop was still safe and warm.

  Donovan turned toward the camera they were watching through, his phone to his ear.

  Simon stood. “Turn up the volume.”

  Lila popped up off of Nick’s lap and scrambled for the remote.

  “I understand.” Donovan’s voice was low and even. He held up his hand to Simon as if he could see him tearing for the door.

  Hell, he probably had a camera in the room they were in as well, for God’s sake.

  Ever since the Snake incident, Donovan had been near obsessive about security. And for once, Simon was grateful.

  “No, we haven’t contacted the police. I’d like to speak with Margo, please.”

  “Fuck this.” Simon scrambled for the door, ran down the hallway, and into the communications room. He crossed to Donovan and tore the phone from his ear.

  Donovan whirled on him, his icy eyes flashing rage and surprise. Simon didn’t have enough time to process that. All he knew was he needed to hear Margo’s voice.

  “Put my wife on the phone.”

  “You’ll speak to your wife soon enough, Mr. Kagan.” The voice was British, but polished with fake gold instead of Donovan’s effortless sheen.

  “Now. Not a fucking dime unless I know she’s okay.”

  “We both know that’s an empty threat.”

  The phone went dead in his hand. He curled his hand around the slim phone until he heard a pop from the seams.

  Goddammit.

  He stalked to Donovan, who had already moved across the room. “Don’t you ever presume to think you can take care of my affairs. That’s my wife and you’re cutting me out of everything. ‘Put Simon in the little room so he does’t freak the fuck out.’ I’m not some fucking pawn.”

  The room was deadly silent save for the odd beep and whir from the machines.

  “Let’s discuss this next door.” Donovan’s features were stony, but there was compassion in his gaze.

  Simon hated him for being so cool while he was borderline insane.

  “What does he want?”

  “Money.” Donovan’s expression changed, his eyes narrowing with fury. “He’s an opportunist in every sense of the word. Which is dangerous, because he’s looking at angles instead of sticking to a plan. So, I need you to trust that I won’t let anything happen to Margo. She’s mine as well. I know you think of me as the man in the tower with too much money, but let me be clear. You don’t know me. And I do whatever is necessary to keep me and mine safe.”

  Simon swallowed. That was probably the most he’d ever heard Donovan say at one time. He always seemed to come lording in and out of their lives, but for the most part, he trusted them musically. Trusted Lila to keep them on an even keel.

  Only lately had things become so incredibly out of control.

  “Let’s go next door and I’ll explain what’s happening. I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of things going on in here that you don’t understand.”

  Rather than answer, Simon handed Donovan his mangled phone.

  Donovan arched his brow at him before slipping it into his pocket. “Come, let’s talk.”

  Simon glanced at his brother, still sitting with Zoe. Ian’s fingers were locked together, and eyes so very much like his own were stark with too many emotions for Simon to process.

  How could Ian look so much like him? It was like looking into a mirror from five years ago if there’d been no laughter and love in his life. Ian might be twenty-five, but his eyes were so much older.

  But he couldn’t feel bad for him because he didn’t have any room for that right now. There was only rage and ice warring inside him.

  He turned his back on his brother and followed Donovan into the hall. He couldn’t look at all the people working on his behalf. If he did, he’d fall into the chaos that was swirling beneath his feet. Everything was so beyond his control right now.

  “How can you trust him with Margo?”

  Simon picked up the pace at Lila’s shrill voice. Christ, all of them were falling apart.

  “Shut the door, Simon.”

  He did it without complaint only because he wanted to hear what was going on. Slamming the door—or Donovan’s head into the door—would be counterproductive. And he could be a fucking adult.

  For Margo.

  It was all for Margo. He just had to keep telling himself that. Everyone’s goal was to get Margo back.

  “All right, first of all, the transfer will be at a remote location which Jerry will be calling us with at dawn.” Jerry’s name was said with such derision Simon almost smiled. The distaste on Donovan’s face was clear for everyone to see.

  “Dawn? What is he, a Bond villain?” Nick folded his arms.

  “I don’t think you’re far off, Mr. Crandall. I believe he thinks he’s far more intelligent than he is. Unfortunately, that also makes him a bit of a wildcard.”

  “And these Call of Duty dudes? Do you think it’s smart not to involve the cops? Not that I’m the first one to call on the boys in blue,” Nick finished when Lila gave him a look. “What? I can be smart about stuff.”

  “While not eloquently stated, you’re not wrong. Aidan Roth and his team are very professional. He’s a former SEAL with a lot of high profile clients. They are no stranger to kidnappings, I’m afraid. Though their particular talents lie in extraction mostly. We’ve discovered a few things while speaking with Ian.”

  Nick arched a brow. “Did it include waterboarding? I’d have been interested in watching that.”

  “He’s been very forthcoming.”

  “He got caught.” Simon leaned against the door. “He’s saving his own ass.” He pushed off the door. “Did you talk to Margo?”

  “No, I was attempting to facilitate that when—“ He cleared his throat. “Well, we will work with what we have, won’t we?”

  Simon fisted his hands. “How do we know he isn’t just going to kill her?” Asking it made his entire body throb from his hair to his toes.

  He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t survive it.

  “It’s always been about money. This Jerry person fancies himself a businessman. Ian is convinced his mother is more in control of Jerry than the man realizes. I don’t have enough information to know if that’s accurate.”

  “You’re not sure he’s telling the truth?” Lila asked.

  Donovan let out a slow breath. “It’s not that. Each of you knows your own truth. It doesn’t always line up with an outsider’s perception, now does it?”

  Each one of them looked away. Because that was the heart of everything in the end. They’d all had secrets at one time or another, but only his brother’s included something life and death.

  Ian.

  Simon dug his fists into his blurry eyes. He’d been awake for close to twenty hours and he hadn’t managed to eat anything. Hell, he’d only drank half a bottle of water all damn day.

  “While we were digging through Ian’s background, my Lewis Corp. security found something that might help our situation. Not in any physical way, but perhaps it will set minds at ease.”