The Cocky Thief

Chapter 29

"Are you ready for the call?" asked Scott as he tried to see what Toni was doing with all those computers.

"It's eight fifty-five and the call is at nine. What do you think?" she snapped.

Scott reached up for the small button on the outside edge of his comm to mute it. "I think that a yes or no would be fine."

Her fingers were moving so rapidly over the keyboard until the screens suddenly lit up with various sized boxes, all showing different sections of the building. "I'm more than ready for the call," she said. "This is what I was trying to get done."

"You hacked into the security feed?"

She rolled her eyes. "No. I could've hacked into that joke in five seconds. I just piggybacked off their Wi-Fi signal to get the camera feed sent to us in an undetectable way so they'll never even know they were hacked."

"You're modest. I like that about you."

She turned around in her chair to glare at him. Scott had a feeling his sarcasm had hit a nerve.

"I'm not here to be friends with anyone."

"I noticed."

"I'm just here to get my sister and get out."

"What the fuck do you think I'm doing?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I think you're using my sister's kidnapping as an excuse to get revenge on the people who had your wife murdered."

Scott leaned forward, setting one hand on the desk in front of Toni and one hand on the back of her chair. "I think you should leave my wife out of this."

Toni didn't even lean away from him as he invaded her personal space. "That's impossible. This entire thing is all because of Catherine Hart. It's naive of you to think otherwise."

"Let's get one thing straight, okay? You say her name one more time, I will throw you and your equipment out of this van and I'll leave your sister to die. Got it?"

"I got it. And you've made it very clear that you're completely over her death. I'm glad we can agree."

Scott was half tempted to make good on his threats, but the ringing phone forced him to put his priorities in order. He just had to make it through this night and he would never have to deal with Toni Fucking Murray again.

He pushed away from the desk and snatched his phone out of his pocket while unmuting the comm with his free hand. "Are we doing this?"

"Who am I talking to?" asked the man on the other end. From the sound of it, it was Greg Stranger himself.

Scott signaled to Toni to start tracking the call. "I'm facilitating the exchange. Before we send you the necklace, we need proof of life. I want her to repeat a sentence back to me verbatim."

"No. We're going to do this—"

"No. The only thing you have that we want is Melody Murray. If we don't have proof that she's alive and in good enough health to speak, we're not giving you any damn necklace. What's it going to be?"

"Hold on," said the man on the other end.

Scott looked over to Toni and she gave him a thumbs-up, signaling that the trace was working. From the time that he had to wait, Scott would guess that Stranger had to take the elevator to a different level.

"What do you want her to say?"

"I want to hear her say 'Toni hates everything.'"

Toni gave him a questioning look and shrugged. It was something that was unique and would let her know that they had found her clue. Maybe it would offer her a little comfort.

"Shit," said Stranger.

"Shit? What happened? Where is Melody?"

"The drop is being rescheduled." He abruptly hung up.

Toni's eyes were wide as she stared at Scott. "What the hell was that?"

"That was a variable. Melody wasn't where he left her."

"So where the hell is she?"

Scott knelt next to Toni and motioned for the screen. "Were you able to track the call?"

"Yes. Based off the distance from us and him, he was either on the second floor or in the sub-basement. Based off the interference I picked up on the call, I'm ninety percent sure it's the sub-basement."

"Okay. So our game plan is staying the same. Weston, move into the sub-basement and search out Melody. You're not going to be alone, so keep your eyes and ears open. Isobel, where are you on the safe?"

There was silence over the other end. "Mom?" said Toni. "Where are you?"

"Isobel!"