The Law of Motion (Law Series) (23 page)

             
If you want to see these two boys ever again, you'll follow the steps below to the fucking letter, or I'll personally see to it that these kids end up in a shallow grave. Now that I have your attention, you have two days.

1. Come to the train station in Philadelphia at noon this Wednesday.

2. Come alon
e

no Feds, no cops, no Ken doll. The first sign of someone with you, and I'll put a bullet in the their skull, and your money can‘t fix that.

3. Bring the fifty thousand in unmarked bills, placed in an inconspicuous bag, with you. No tricks!

4. No weapons!

5. Leave your cell phone behind.

6. Sit down at the north end of the station and wait until someone approaches you.

7. Come quietly, or the two boys will not be released from a different location inside the train terminal.

If you follow these simple rules, the two kids will be left at the train station to be found by the authorities, because I’m sure an Amber Alert is in full effect by now. Deviate even once from this plan, and not only will you live to regret it, but those two kids will pay the price...along with everyone at that train station. I will destroy the entire building and all that's in it if you don't follow my rules. Don't bother searching for a bomb. You won't find one.

No need to email back, or bother tracing the IP address. You won't find anything.

Good luck.

              “Looks like they want Alyssa after all.” Ross sighed running her hands through her hair.

             
Macon groaned. “We’re fucked then.”

             
I looked at my friends around the room, apparently this possibly was discussed before. The issue of trading me for Juan and Cedrick. “Why are we fucked?” I asked looking to Adrian for answered.

             
“Because what they want is the one thing they aren’t getting.” Adrian declared with finality.

Chapter 9- Discussions

              Alyssa took a deep breath, but looked to Cam, holding up the paper. "This isn't them.”

             
He turned to face her. "What makes you say that?"

             
"Because... They are not this smart and organized.” she stated, looking back to the letter, and then up at me. Her face was the cold calculating mask of a soldier. The one that I hated. "Liam’s right. You and Ross have to fly for this," she whispered, her brow furrowing. "You have to be close, whether they know it or not. They might know you and Ross have a pilot license, but not your own means of flying."

             
My first instinct was to protest, because I wanted to be by Alyssa’s side, but she had a point; the chopper was registered like their safe houses were: for privacy.

             
"You might be right," Cam stated with a shrug. "about it not being them. Someone else may have planned this part." He spun to Tink. "Any luck with the IP address?"

             
"No," she sighed, shaking her head. "They were right. It bounces and bounces all over the place, only to end up at a free email account set up in a net cafe. Could be anyone, anywhere, and I’m ninety percent sure they don’t have the know how."

             
"The chopper is a for sure thing, Ross," Cam said, giving us a pointed look. "If this drop goes smoothly, we can move in on the whole crew and take them down..."

             
"No!" Doc and Ross interrupted.

             
"No," my dad groaned this time, shaking his head. " they'll spot your men, Cameron!"

             
"And they'll spot anyone from Gravity," Alyssa groaned, getting up from my lap and beginning to pace.

             
"They’ll know them, maybe, but not the boys, Danny, Jeff, Victor, my dad, Hunter." I added the last one with a bit of force, looking up at my girl as I leaned my elbows on my knees. "We could plant Jeff in that train station."

             
Her nose wrinkled at the thought. "A Fed can be spotted a mile away, especially by people who are used to running from the cops."

             
I looked to Cam, raising an eyebrow at him, because she was totally right. "Us in the air is fine, because I can land to get the boys. I could have Jackson and Dario with me, but I can't get the boys and watch Alyssa," I pointed out, looking up at my dad.

             
"I
will
have a crew there," Cam snapped, "because we can catch these assholes! I can't have a fucking threat on a public building, Adrian."

             
I sighed, sitting back in my chair raking a hand through my hair. I shook my head, looking up at Doc, whose face had gone dark and angry.

             
"This..." she breathed, shaking her head. "this could go so wrong," she mumbled as she studied the email. "I just have a really bad feeling about this. They picked a public place for a reason."

             
"Alyssa...what about..." Tink spun in her chair, her eyes wide, but Alyssa stopped her with a single shake of her head and a furrow of her brow.

             
I was just about to ask both of them what the fuck that was all about, but Cam jumped up from his chair.

             
"Here," Cam offered, pulling several sheets of paper off of the printer and walking to the conference table. He sorted them in order, the plans for the train station terminal appeared before our eyes. "This...is the north end of the station. This is where you're suppose to wait. Here and here," he noted, pointing to two different spots on the plans. "Those are two employee entrances. I could plant men there. This is the garage. Liam, you could be there with Macon.  Jeff, Danny, and Victor in different levels. Depending on which escape route they take to get away, we’ll be prepared." He looked around the room, his eyes landing on me. "Adrian, you're right. If you take Jackson with you and Ross, he could spot them from the air, using his scope."

             
His eyes finally landed on my father. "I'll call the office, get them in there now, so that way they won't stick out like a sore thumb. I'll have bomb dogs do a sweep of the whole area. They'll wear employee uniforms, blend in. They'll already be there when everyone shows up."

             
"So we're just going to do everything the exact opposite of what they’re telling us, with my son and best friend’s life in the balance? With innocent civilians stake?” Doc seethed, standing slowly up from her chair.

             
"Cameron they aren’t getting Alyssa, and this plan will put her at risk ..."

             
Alyssa's hand landed gently on my chest, calming me.
"
Wait," she muttered, giving me a warning glance, before turning her beautiful, but stern face to the room. "I'm okay... I mean, I can handle myself. And lets say on the off chance they get lucky, and they take me. I can deal. I just want those kids in our possession. You all can find me later. I think we can...come up with a way around these rules...these steps, without having the entire FBI show up at the train station."

             
"Jesus, Alyssa!" I snapped, shaking my head. I wanted to fucking grab her and shake her. My hands were in fists in order not to steal her away from the room. My mind and heart couldn't wrap around my girl walking into this fucking bullshit.

             
My dad held up a hand, his face sympathetic, but he turned his attention to Alyssa. "What do you suggest, sweetheart?" he asked, leaning against the table and folding his arms across his chest.

             
"The email said no cell phone, so I'll wear a radio earpiece; something I can dump if I had to," she stated with a shrug. "Tink I’m sure, can come few ideas that will allow us to mark the money and will load me up with something that can be hidden on my person. I want to prepared for this going completely wrong. I need to assume that all of hell opens up at that train station, and I can'
t
won't
allow Juan and Cedrick to get caught in the middle."

             
Her breath hitched when she said that last sentence, and I couldn't help but reach out and wrap an arm around her, kissing the back of her head. She was so very brave and strong in many, many ways, but I knew this was hard for her. She was basically suggesting walking in there and handing herself over to these assholes in order to get the boys bac
k

in order to get her godson.

             
The whole room froze in anticipation, but my dad stood up straight, biting the inside of his cheek before he spoke. "I'd like Ross in the chopper with Adrian and Jackson, because he's just as good behind a sniper rifle. I think Alyssa is right," he sighed, turning his gaze to Cam. "This is a trap. They want Alyssa, the money, and total control. I don’t mind cutting our losses on the money, if we can get the boys back, but giving them Alyssa would tip the scale too far out of our favor. Any news on that face yet? ”

             
"Nope,” Tink sighed shaking her head.

             
"So we have to ask ourselves, who the fuck is he? Because it's no coincidence." My dad shoved his hands into his pockets, studying the plans for the train station again, taking a deep breath. "They are way too fucking comfortable in thinking that they can just...
take her
. They've got some place that will hide them all..." he muttered, rubbing his mouth with his fingertips.

             
The room was silent with that last statement, but Victor spoke softly from the back of the room. He was on my side, he wouldn’t let Alyssa be taken anywhere. "You can't send a bomb squad, or even the dogs, Cam. We have to step outside of the legal box that you're stuck in. We need to treat this with military precision a
black-op
, if you will. We’re not about to offer her up to someone when we don’t even know who
really
wants her, or how to find her."

             
Cameron started to protest, but he held up his hand and walked slowly to the front of the room. He pinned the train station plans to the board so everyone could get a good view of it.

             
"You've got to consider the absolute worse case scenario here," Vic sighed, facing the room. "There's an unstable group of people. You've got ex-cons solely out for money." He pointed to the pictures of Myles, Terry and David. "And a young woman who is just as crazed. Not to mention who knows how many other people." he continued with a sigh, pointing to the picture of the unknown man. "Last, but definitely not least... the unknown player in this game..." He turned to Cam. "Son, you don't know what that man's motivation is yet. That's our problem. Yes, they want Alyssa...or even Juan, too, but they  may have ulterior motives, another fucking agenda, using these idiots as the driving vehicle, and I can't see any other way but to treat this like...a crash and grab."

             
"Or we wait to see what they want," Tink suggested.

             
"There's no time for waiting," Dario argued gruffly. "We've got two fucking days to figure out how we want to approach this, get to Philly, and set the whole thing up."

             
Alyssa spun in one spot, her gaze landing on Doc as she bit her bottom lip. Her eyes were glazed, but she finally blinked. "Tink...do another search on the Grubbs.  Dig deeper. Maybe there's some connection between Neil Industries or Paul or something.... There's more there than meets the eye. There's got to be a damned good reason."

             
"On it, on it, on it," she sang, pulling two keyboards to her and using them both to type furiously. "Doc," she called over her shoulder. "Come tell me who we see..."

             
Doc said nothing, but launched up from the chair she'd been silently sitting in, taking her place at Tink's side, their conversation now hushed and focused.

             
"We have to make this plan," my dad said, narrowing his eyes on the bulletin board. "Cam, the arrest is your
s

if you have someone to arres
t

but the operation is ours."

             
"Shit, Liam," Cameron complained, shaking his head. "I need this as legal as possible. I've got two missing minors, a ransom, and four suspects in a fucking kidnapping! It was a fucking miracle that the arrests last year were legit, after all the shit we did."

             
"I'll cover for it," Hunter offered, not even looking at the room, waving a hand over his shoulder and dialing on his phone. "This shit..." He suddenly turned around. "Babes is right, there's more to this shit than we're seeing."