Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
17
Jack
Under normal circumstances, I would have been delighted with the house the Dombrusos had rented. It was big, kitschy, and midcentury-modern, with multiple levels and a lot of period details from the 1960s.
In my current condition though, I barely noticed any of that as I made my way from the front door to the cream-and-mustard-yellow couch in the sunken living room. A pair of college-age guys were sitting on the matching loveseat. They looked up from their laptops and a crackling police scanner when Vincent said, “Jack, this is my son Josh and his fiancé Darwin. We brought them along because they’re good with technology, and because they wanted to help. Boys, this is Jack Granger, Adriano’s boyfriend.” A moment later, Dante called to him from across the very large living room, and Vincent went to join his brother.
“Good to meet you,” Josh said. He had shaggy dark hair and glasses, and he looked at me curiously as I curled up in a ball at one end of the couch.
“It’s nice to meet you, too. I’ve been shot and I have a concussion, so forgive my manners. I just need to shut my eyes for a second.”
Darwin, who looked sort of goth with his pale skin, black hair, and black T-shirt and jeans, asked, “Can we get you anything? A glass of water, maybe?”
“I’d love that, and about six hundred Advil,” I mumbled.
When someone put a blanket over me, I raised a lid and gave Nana a little smile. “I’ll get you that stuff,” she said. “That way, the boys can keep working.”
I thanked her, and after she left the living room I told my companions, “She bought me this outfit. It’s not exactly my style, but my clothes were blood-soaked. Compared to that, the Care Bears are a big improvement.”
Josh started to say something, but then we all fell silent to listen to a message coming in over the police scanner. Darwin shook his head after a moment and said, “It’s just a robbery.”
When I thanked them for helping, Josh said, “I wish we could do more. We’ve been compiling a list of vacant buildings in the city and relaying that information to Dante’s teams in the field, but it’s a total long-shot. The bad guys probably took your boyfriend to a property Greco owns, but we just don’t have any information to go by.”
“I have a local expert on the way,” I said, as I pulled the blanket up to my chin. “He may be able to help you narrow the search. One thing he mentioned was looking into isolated houses out in the desert, which seems like a good idea.”
While Josh started clicking away on his keyboard, Darwin said, “That actually makes a lot more sense to me than an abandoned building, because think about it. If I’m a thug who’s just taken someone hostage, I want to be comfortable, right? I mean, I don’t care about the prisoner, but me? I want air conditioning. A bathroom. A kitchen with a coffee maker. Guarding somebody around the clock requires a few basic amenities.”
“Makes sense to me, too,” Josh said. “On TV, it’s always an abandoned warehouse. But why not, like, an office building, or a house, or whatever? The only requirement is that it doesn’t have a lot of neighbors, because they’ll rat you out to the police if they hear someone screaming or see a bunch of dudes with guns.”
I sat up when Nana brought me the water and ibuprofen. As I washed down the pills, Vincent and Dante joined us. “I think we might have a lead,” Dante said, as he held up Reno’s blood-smeared journal. “Turns out, Adriano is big on research. There’s not just stuff on our family in here, there’s a whole section on Mario Greco. It looks like he was trying to find this guy before Greco found him, and there are four pages of addresses and business names. I’ve sent photos of the list to my people, and they’re dividing up and heading to the first three locations as we speak.”
Josh held out his hand and said, “Let me see.” When Dante handed over the journal, both he and Darwin glanced at the list, then began clicking away on their keyboards.
I stood up shakily and asked, “So, what are we waiting for? Let’s go check out the rest of those places.”
“We’re about to,” Dante said. “Vincent and I will let you know what we find. Meanwhile, you need to rest and gather your strength.”
“No, I’m coming with you.”
Dante shook his head. “We can handle this.”
I tried to think of a convincing argument for including me, and all I came up with was, “But I have some skills that might prove useful. I’m a thief, so I’m good at getting into places others can’t.” Never mind that breaking and entering was hardly my specialty. I was reasonably sure I could pull it off if need be.