If she makes it out of this alive. I keep hearing Ayer’s voice on repeat over and over telling her she’s not going to make it out alive this time. I have no doubt he’ll kill her.
There’s a knock at the door and Barry goes to answer it before Mom can. A man I don’t recognize enters the room. He’s older, in his late thirties, early forties maybe, but still very fit. His dark hair has some gray in it, but otherwise, Baas Rogers still looks the part of the goalie he used to play.
He nods to everyone and comes straight to the kitchen table and takes the remaining seat.
“Hutch, I hate that we’re meeting under these circumstances, but I hope we can talk when this is over.”
I nod as he pulls his laptop out of a bag and proceeds to boot it up. He opens several programs.
“Mara was able to hack into the surrounding ring cameras and traffic cams. We have the SUV and a clear picture of what happened in the garage from the business across the street. The police have been told to collect it. I did send someone to ask for the footage a while ago so we can legally hand it over.” He opens a tab and hits play on the video.
My heart stops. The three of them are clearly visible, if at a distance as an SUV pulls up to block their exit. It’s a miracle we can see in the garage but the angle the ring camera was set to has a clear line of sight opposite the SUV.
Ayers gets out and hits Daisy. She goes down. Will tries to stop him and is taken down. Several kicks to his head ensures he stays down. Lucy is also attacked and beaten. He drags Daisy into the back of the SUV and they drive off. It all happens in the span of a minute or two. It’s that quick.
“This image of the SUV gave Mara what she needed to look for and she was able to locate the vehicle on traffic cams. The phone is pitched out the window. She got the license plate number. It’s a Texas plate that belongs to a rental company, the rental registered to Duncan Montgomery, a relative of Brody James. Ayers has many, many calls to both of them, with the amount ramping up over the last twenty-four hours.”
“Do the police know this?” I ask.
“I told them it would be wise to check the phone records of the three of them, but since we obtained those records illegally, I can’t specifically say anything.”
I sigh heavily.
“The SUV information we could give police as we have the same type of access they do to certain databases and we found the vehicle through CCTV footage. I contacted the rental company’s owner at home. Woke his ass up and explained the situation, asking if the vehicle can be tracked. He has tracking on all his vehicles and gave me remote access. I’ve activated it and we have a location. My question now is do you want us to inform the police and let them go in or do you want my men to go in and retrieve Daisy?”
“Baas’ team has a higher success rate than the police,” Barry says when I don’t answer right away.
“I don’t want asswipe killed.” Collin’s voice is low and deadly. “I want him to suffer, to stand trial and go to jail for what he’s done. He’s obsessed with his image and his career. I want him to watch it all burn down around him.”
“We can make that happen,” Baas agrees. “We can incapacitate and contain him until the police get there. We’ll inform them when we arrive on scene and that we’re going in. They hate it when that happens, but I don’t give two shits. My purpose is successful retrieval, not molly coddling a police force who moves to slow. Might not be their fault, but people die when your hands are tied by red tape.”
“Why didn’t you lead with you knew where she was?” I bite out, my anger focusing on the man across from me. I’ve been sitting here losing my mind and he’s known where she was this whole time? What the actual fuck?
“Because I needed you to have all the information so we could decide on option A or option B.” He’s unruffled by myanger. “We’ll go with option B and call the police once we’re in place and we’ll go in first. I’m assuming you want to be there?”
His phone rings and he answers it quickly. “The tip is verified?” he asks after a moment. Nodding he hangs up.
“Lane has verified a tip that came through on Instagram of a baseball player here on campus. He lives in a house a few doors down from the house we identified Ayers being in through tracking the SUV. He saw Ayers enter the house earlier. He was alone, but this was well before the hockey game began. I’ve asked Lane to pass it on to the police once we are in place.”
“What are we waiting for?” I ask, standing. “Let’s go.”
Baas stares at me steadily. “We need a word first.”
“About what?”
“In order for us to go in and do our job, you need to stay out of the way. Once we’ve secured the situation, you can enter the premises, but not until. I need you to promise me you won’t interfere. One wrong move and it could spook Ayers into killing her.”
I swallow hard. “I won’t be the reason she dies.”
He nods. “Good, then let’s go. I have the address already plugged into my GPS.”
“Then let’s go.”
Mom looks worried, but I refuse to let that sway me as I follow Barry and Baas out the door, Dylan and Collin behind me.
I’m going to get my girl and if that fucker has hurt her, I can’t guarantee he’ll survive me.
CHAPTER 42
