Madam Mafia

-Edge

Ryder

We sit around Will's living room and wait for him to come downstairs.

The leather brown couches surround a small black coffee table and the walls are painted cream. It's usually a comforting space for me, but today my nerves tick uncontrollably.

Today feels as if it's never going to end.

Will stomps down his stairs, finally with his laptop in hand and we all look up at him. He comes and sits in his own small seat in the corner and we watch silently.

"Can you hurry up and talk? We're wasting time." Ethan says, the guilt he's feeling written on his face.

"Dang, ok. Why's everyone so tense?"

"Talk." Lucas says bluntly. Even his happy-go-lucky demeanor has disappeared. I'm glad they're serious now.

Will's eyebrow lifts but he opens his laptop.

"I broke through the firewall minutes after I called you. It was like...it opened. Anyway, their flight was to Brazil." He shrugs his shoulders and falls back into his chair.

"Brazil?" I ask. That's...weird.

"The last name 'Amor' means 'to love' in Spanish so I'm not surprised." Will reasons.

"Did you find anything else about Rose's father?"

Will looks down at his computer and types in something.

"I found a couple more things. He's from Italy and he's in alliance with multiple other branches, the main one being Busken."

"If Rose was taken by her father, why would they go to Brazil?" Ethan looks between me and Lucas.

"Rose was kidnapped?" Will looks around us and the room becomes quiet.

I nod.

"I have no idea." Lucas shakes his head, resuming the conversation.

Good.

But why? Why would they take her there?

"Did you find out if any of the branches are located in Brazil?" I meet his eyes.

"It's the first thing I checked, but I got nothing."

Then maybe...

"What if it's a-" Lucas begins.

"Decoy. Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing." I say, leaning back in my seat. I need to think with a cool head.

"They know we're coming after her. They're trying to be careful. Sneaky." Ethan chuckles.

"Do they not know who we are? We've dealt with shit like this, multiple times. They have to know that much." Ethan continues, sounding kind of offended.

"It was to throw us off. They didn't let me hack me through the system and only showed us the time of the flight, who was on the flight and what airport to go to. It was on purpose. Had they shown us where, Brazil, we would've figured it out before they left and caught up with them." Will explains.

"Not only did they manage to deceive us, they had been controlling what I could hack and the information we got from that. We're dealing with professionals." Will finishes, seeming a bit lost in his own thoughts.

I think about it for a minute and flinch up.

"You said you were able to hack through the firewall right after you got off the phone with me...that means they were listening." I watch as Ethan and Lucas sit up and go quiet for a minute.