The Law of Motion (Law Series) (40 page)

             
I followed behind him through the lobby, towards the conference room, and before opening the doors he cracked a sarcastic smile. “Who knows maybe storming the mountain and saving her might tip the scale a bit.”

             
“Yeah right man.” I scoffed entering behind him.

              It took almost three hours—well into the night —for us to form a basic plan. Right around three in the morning, we all started getting punchy and drunk with weariness, so Doc sent everyone off for a few hours sleep, at least until the four extra men arrived in the morning, we were back at it then.

———————

              I walked into the computer room with a bag of different things and a cup of coffee placing them on Tink’s desk next to her. She and Jackson were the only ones that didn’t leave last night, staying at the office in case someone called with a ransom amount for Alyssa, or something came up. She looked up at me grabbing the cup, taking a few sips before exhaling with an exhausted “Thanks.”

             
“No problem. You look tired.” I noted picking one of the sandwiches and unwrapping it, forcing her to eat something of substance before going for the snack food.

             
“I look like shit.” She corrected taking a bite of food. “But Chance needs me.”

             
“She needs you at your best,” I corrected. “Not passing out from exhaustion.”

             
She shook her head, her spiky cut moving side to side a second later than her actual head. “She needs me to keep you all from killing each other.”

             
“I’m sorry about last night.” I sighed again, lowering my voice as everyone else piled into the adjoined conference room.

             
She nodded accepting it, her almond shaped eyes still sad. “I just have never seen us fall apart this much.”

             
“It’s Alyssa.”

             
“I know which is why we need this to go as planned—” The shrill ring of the office phone made her jump. She looked down at her screen and then urgently grabbed her laptop, and pushed her chair from her desk, rolling into the conference room. “Don’t pick up!”

             
Everyone looked up at her as she did it, the ringing phone only on the second ring. She hit a few keys on her laptop and a map of the U.S. filled the big screen behind her. When she was done, she picked up the phone snapping, “Gravity.”

An unfiltered male voice demanded angrily, “Put on Adrian Harris.”

              “Asshole.” She muttered sliding the speakerphone over to me before looking up at the screen, watching the signal scramble the towers trying to find a source of origin.

             
"Harris,” I snapped looking around at the rest of the room when Tink urged me to answer.

The voice wasn’t the dick that snapped at Tink, but a somewhat excited voice belonging to Alyssa. "Hey, baby!"

              "Shut her up," the guy demanded and I froze listening to the background.

             
There were some muffled grunts before a man’s cries of pain echoed over the phone. "Alyssa?" I called somewhat relieved to hear she was alive, and worried when there was nothing but silence.

             
She sounded a bit more strained when she responded still sounding far away. “Hi honey! How’s your day going?”

             
That got a weak laugh from Macon, because it sounded like she was the victor of a struggle. I could hear the guy ordering someone to help the man but he seemed to refuse, as if he were afraid.

             
“No way man, so she can break my fingers too.”

             
Dario smirked. “Sounds like
Giselle
  is making things difficult for them.”

             
The last thing we heard before the phone went completely silent, as if it were muted was the guy ordering, “Shoot her if you have to.”

             
“Where the fuck did she go?” Hunter asked after ten seconds went by of nothing.

             
Tink looked up at the map and then back at the computer. “The calls still going, he must have silenced the other end. Stay on.”

             
“Honey, are you alright?” I called louder. Sound filled the room again and my heart restarted.

             
“I’m fine, just teaching little Myles how to keep his hands to himself.” She informed before there was another cry.

             
My dad whispered to me, “Son, maybe you should encourage her to just stay put, we don’t want these guys to hurt her before we get there.”

             
I agreed, because even though I wanted her to kick everyone’s ass in there, if she got shot in the process it wouldn’t help things. So I halfheartedly chided. “Stop attacking your captors, Honeyface.”

             
"Well, now you have proof of life, asshole,"  the guy snapped over the phone. "She fucked up, Harris. She was supposed to come alone, not to mention she just fucked up Myles’s hand."

             
I couldn’t help my own chuckle with that one, "And you were supposed to bring those boys but...you didn't.

             
"I assume you've got them now," He snapped back.

             
I tried to hide my amusement. "Oh, I do, and I have a message for Myles."

             
"What's that?” Another far away voice yelled, and I recognized it immediately.

             
"I will personally see to it that you die," I swore.

             
"Who the fuck are you?" The other guy asked again, this time more angry.

             
"People you should have never fucked with," I replied. "Now, give me your demands for the return of Alyssa, and I'll think it over."

             
"Thirty million.  Thirty million and you'll get her back."

             
It’s a good thing we had a full crew of trained killers, because Alyssa and I didn’t have thirty million. Five or ten, maybe but thirty no. But I couldn’t let them know that. “We’ll see...but know this... If one hair is out of place on her head, if there is one bruise on her, if she has a fucking paper cut, I will see to it that you suffer. It will be long, slow, and very, very fucking painful. I shit you not."

             
There was silence over the phone for another second, because I wanted him to know that I was in control. “Call me back in twenty-four hours with the time and place, and you'll have your answer," I left one more message for the love of my life. "And
one day
, Alyssa...I'll do it again. I did it when we met, and I'll fucking do it again. Warn them if you want, Honeyface. It won't matter."

             
I hung up completely certain that I’d get her back. Us getting together had been a war with a shit load of obstacles, and this was nothing compared to that. This was known territory; this was doing what I did best. Extraction.

"Thirty million?"   Kristen asked no one in particular. "Damn."

"He won't see a dime," my dad answered her, placing a hand on my shoulder as I hung my head. "She sounded okay, son," he soothed softly. "Tomorrow night," he stated, turning to the room filled with fucking people. "By the time this asshole calls again, we'll be on his front doorstep."

“We can pay it, if you’d like.” Tink mused aloud. “But he would probably just screw us over again.”

Doc scoffed, “And how are we going to do that?”

Kristen agreed with her. “Chance would kill us if we went to Paul.”

“We wouldn’t have to go to Paul,” Tink informed. “I have it.”

Everyone’s mouth dropped at this information, including Jackson’s. “Sugar, you have thirty million dollars?”

She looked around at our faces, “A bit more.” She replied sheepishly as if she said something wrong.

Macon repeated what she said. “A
bit
? I need to ask Chance for a raise.”

Tink just nodded before going back to her work. It was my guess that she used the money she took from the New York Stock Exchange as a child and flipped it enough times over the years to make probably a shit load of money she didn’t use. The money that she refused tell anyone what happened to it. “Thanks Tink, but these guys have to die. No questions about it.” I responded. “So let’s get back to work.”

———————

When everything was planned down to the last detail, we all turned in for a few hours of rest. I plopped tiredly on the couch after throwing my keys on the table. There was a part of me that knew I'd sleep better in my bed—funny enough that voice in my head sounded like Alyssa's— but I just couldn't find the heart to sleep alone in a bed that I shared with her. The mere idea made a hole crack open in my chest.

I heard a shuffle of feet from the hallway, and I glanced up to see Juan standing there in his pajamas, Mr. Bear firmly clutched in his arm. Ross and Doc were still asleep in the other guest room.

"Hey man, what are you doing up so late?" I asked softly, opening my arms when he ran to me.

"I miss Tia," he mumbled, crawling up into my lap.

I sat back on the sofa. "Me, too," I whispered, tossing his hair. "But she wouldn't want us upset, little buddy."

He frowned up at me. " Mommy says you're going to find her."

"I'm going to try," I said, trying not to promise anything, because I was trying my damnedest not to get my own hopes up, not to mention his. "In fact, your mommies are too, and we need you to be brave and stay with Miss Joanne tomorrow."

"I want to go wif you, guys," he stated, not at all pleased.

"You can't, buddy," I groaned, realizing that Doc or Ross should have probably had this talk with him. "I need your help here."

His eyes widened and he tilted his head at me. "Wif what?"

“You have to keep Joanne company, because Poppy is going, too," I explained. "So she'll be very worried, and you have to take care of her. Makenna is going to be there too because Uncle Macon is going to need you to keep her safe. Can you do that for me?"

He frowned again, his little brow wrinkling, but he studied Mr. Bear. Finally, he nodded. "Okay."

"Okay," I sighed with a nod. "Good boy," I praised softly. "You should be in bed."

"I'm not sleepy," he said, as a large yawn erupted from him.

             
"Hmm, I see that," I snickered, reaching over to grab the remote for the TV. "You want to stay with me?"

             
He nodded bleary and silent as I flipped through the channels. “Will you tell Tia I did what she said?”

             
I nodded rubbing his head again. “Juan, that will be the first thing I tell her.”




I opened the door upstairs, taking my keys out of my pocket. It was one open room that extended the length and width of the lobby beneath us. It was set up with a bed, a bathroom with a shower, and on the other side a workspace for Doc in case of medical emergencies, which was pretty much now a place where she and Tink could experiment since there were no medical emergencies. Along the far back wall was a line of double locked cabinets—cabinets that had nothing to do with Tink and Doc’s hobby.

"Okay, load up," I ordered, stepping away from my own personal cache of weapons, Kevlar vests, and ammunition.

"Excellent," Macon hissed, dodging past me to start handing out equipment to everyone.

I grabbed my own things, including an automatic rifle, ammunition, and a long, sharp bowie knife. I tossed my keys to Macon, telling him to lock it back when he was done. I walked back downstairs, setting my shit down on the conference table. I was about to retrieve my Glock from my office when Cam piped up.

"We have a problem," he stated, spinning around from his computer. "Well, two problems."

"What's that?" I asked, glancing up at my father and Victor, who were readying their own personal weapons, but we all gave Cameron our attention.

"We've got a storm moving in on that area," he said, pointing to his screen. "Heavy rainfall, very little wind, and possible hail. It'll make traversing that mountain difficult."

"So we get wet," Victor grunted, shrugging a shoulder and strapping on his harness. "What's the second problem?"

"Still no sign Of Chance’s GPS chip," he sighed, looking rather forlorn. "I don't know if it's because she hasn't activated it yet, or if the signal isn't coming through the lead of that bomb shelter."

"Is there still activity around it?" I asked, tucking my black cargo pants into my boots and lacing them tight.

"Yes!" Tink called over her shoulder from the computer room. "I really think she's in there, Adrian."

I nodded, lacing up my other boot, and stood up straight. "I trust you, Tink. It's mine and Macon's number one destination. Jackson, Ross, and Dario are taking the barn."