Page 46 of Protecting Bree
Smiley didn’t know what to say. To do. His first instinct was to get in his car and start looking for that black SUV. But he didn’t know where to start. Riverton itself wasn’t a huge city, but it was close to others in Southern California. They could be anywhere by now.
Tex had notified border control, and they were on the lookout for the vehicle and the men who’d taken the women. But Castillo wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t attempt to simply drive across the border in the same car he’d used to abduct the women. Also, Smiley knew for a fact that Bree wouldn’t just sit in the back and not scream her head off if there was a chance someone could hear her. He figured Fiona and Julie would do the same.
No, Castillo would have to subdue the women in some way—and that was what worried him the most.
“Fuck,” he swore.
Kevlar tightened his grip around Smiley for a moment, then straightened.
“All right. Tex already confirmed the damn trackers are malfunctioning—which means the kidnappers almost definitely did something to them, since all three women were wearing at least one, and no way in hell do several trackers malfunction at once—we can’t just head straight to their location. Which fuckingsucks. But we also can’t stand around with our thumbs up our asses either. So we split up. Some of us will check out the roads leading to the border, others will go to the coast and the shipyards. We should also take a look at the truck stops. He’s going to tryto take them out of the country, we all agree on that, right?”
Everyone nodded.
“He could go east until he gets to a crossing that he feels is less hot,” Dude suggested.
“What about airports? This asshole has the funds to be able to hire a pilot, right?” Preacher asked.
Smiley hadn’t even thought about that. With every word out of his colleagues’ mouths, his tension increased tenfold.
“We have to find them. Fiona can’t go through this again,” Cookie said, sounding distraught.
“We’re going to find her. All of them,” Wolf said sternly, clapping a hand on Cookie’s shoulder and holding on.
“You heard Tex. He’s pissed. Mostly at himself. He fucked up, and he knows it. If we’d known about Castillo before today, we could’ve locked down the women,” Benny said.
Smiley was done. He couldn’t think about what Bree and the others might be going through as they all stood around and talked about how fucked up this was. He had todosomething. Turning, he headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Mozart called out.
“To look for Bree,” Smiley barked without slowing down.
He heard footsteps, and he braced himself to fight whoever was coming after him if they tried to stop him.
Instead, he heard Cookie say, “I’m going with him.”
“I’m driving,” Blink told them.
“Give me one second, Smiley,” Kevlar said.
“No.”
“Damn it! Stop for a fucking second. We need to be methodical about this. We don’t want to miss them!”
Kevlar sounded pissed, and Smiley heard the order in his tone. Taking a deep breath, he stopped, turning to look at his friend. He’d give him one more minute, out of respect, but after that he was out of here.
Kevlar quickly grabbed a notepad that was sitting on Safe’s counter. “Okay, Smiley—you, Cookie, and Blink head east and check out the truck stops on the way to I-8. Hurt, Wolf, and Flash, you go south, look at the stops near I-5 heading toward Tijuana. Safe, Preacher, Dude, and Benny will head to the shipyard. See if you can talk to a foreman and look at security tapes. I’m sure Tex and his crew will get to them eventually, but if we can get a head start looking at them to see if a black SUV unloaded anything into a shipping container, that’ll be good.
“MacGyver, Mozart, Abe, and I will check out the regional airports.Everyonestays in control. We’re all pissed off about this, but going off half-cocked isn’t going to help Fiona, Julie, or Bree. Got it?” Kevlar asked.
“What are we telling the women? Caroline’s been blowing up my phone. She knows something’s up because of the way I left the house so abruptly,” Wolf said.
“The truth,” Smiley said, before anyone else could offer their opinions. “They need to stay alert. We have no idea if Castillo has eyes on any of them.”
“Fuck!”
“Shit!”
“Damn it!”
