Page 97 of Deserving Maisy
He wasn’t surprised at his friends’ questions. “Ry gave me trackers,” he told them. “I’ve got one, and I gave one to Maisy. Well, I didn’tgiveit to her. I slipped it into her pocket this morning. It looks like a quarter, but it’s not.”
“No shit?” Brick asked.
“No shit. I talked to Ry, who apparently consulted with Tex. He suggested the tracker.”
“Well, that’s not a surprise. The man does love his freaking tracking devices,” Tiny said.
“Exactly.”
“How’d you know you’d need it?” Brick asked.
“I didn’t. I mean, I hoped I wouldn’t, but if her brother was willing to go to the extreme of kidnapping a complete stranger and incarcerating him for three months, then probably killing him, just to get his hands on Maisy’s money…I wasn’t taking any chances.”
“So he took her?” Tiny asked.
“I don’t know. But I’m guessing probably not. He wouldn’t want to chance having his face on camera anywhere, so he could claim he didn’t know what was happening. Ry’s working on hacking into the surveillance cameras here at the hotel, so we’ll know for sure. Butultimately it doesn’t matter. He’s got her. She’s at the house.”
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go get her! We can definitely take that asshole!” Tiny exclaimed, heading for the door.
“You guys aren’t going anywhere,” Stone informed them.
“What?” Brick and Tiny asked in unison.
“I need you to rally the troops. Maisy laid the foundation today when she told her story to the detectives. I need you guys to contact one of them, tell him that Jason’s got Maisy and is holding her under duress to try to get her money, then come to the house.”
“And what are you going to do?” Brick asked.
Stone narrowed his eyes. “I’m gonna go get my wife back.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Brick warned.
“The hell it’s not. Look, she’s gone because I was a dumb fuck. I let that asshole get to me.”
Brick glared at Stone. “If you’re referring to his fucking speech about being weak, he was talking out his ass.”
“Yeah, I realize that now, but I took his words to heart at the time. Look, I’m not like you and the others. Neither is Owl. We’re damn good behind the controls of a chopper, wouldn’t hesitate to fly into a sandstorm or a fucking hurricane, but boots on the ground isn’t our thing…obviously. I fought when our chopper went down overseas, both Owl and I did, but it didn’t matter, we were still captured and tortured. When Jason’s goon did his thing, I didn’t have a chance to fight back because I was hit from behind. And he was right, when I was in that trunk, I panicked. I didn’t even try to escape. I’ll have to live with that, but in the end…I got the best thing that has ever happened to me out of the ordeal.”
“Maisy,” Tiny filled in unnecessarily.
“Exactly. What happened, happened. Jason played dirty, and it’s time I beat him at his own game.”
“What’s your plan?”
“While you and Tiny are convincing the cops to get a search warrant—which shouldn’t be hard once we get the footage from the hotel cameras from Ry, and they see the map with the tracking info, combined with the shit Maisy told them today—I’m gonna walk right up to the front door and demand to see my wife.”
“What? That’s insane!” Tiny exclaimed.
“Actually, it’s perfect,” Brick said with a nod. “You said you don’t have boots-on-the-ground skills.”
“Jason could shoot him,” Tiny warned.
“He could. But I don’t think he will. He wants to see his sister suffer as much as possible. If we time things right, Jason will be too wrapped up with Stone’s arrival to even think about it being a trap or wonder whereweare. By the time he does, it’ll be too late and he’ll be done for.”
“And if he hurts him? Or Maisy? Can you live with that?” Tiny asked Brick.
Brick met Stone’s gaze head on. “I trust Stone. He can handle shit at the house until we get there.”
His words meant the world to Stone. Brick was right. Jason could shoot him in the head the second he saw him. That would definitely hurt his sister in a way nothing else could. But even though he was taking a risk…he agreed with Brick. Jason was crazy. And with Stone at his mercy, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from gloating to his sister about how he had all the control. It would be his downfall. Stone would bet his life on it.
