Owen had never been so frustrated.
His older kids were safe, but he wasn't certain about the newest one. Annika kept touching her belly in that way pregnant women did. Except she'd only started doing it two days ago. Owen was always afraid something was wrong. With all the previous pregnancies they'd shared and only two actual children to show for it, he didn't like the odds on this one.
Randall Holder was with Duffy and Duffy had cuffed the wife. She'd stayed that way all day with just her husband to help her. Mr. Holder was pissed. Apparently Duffy threatened to leave them chained to the radiator and let them fend for themselves. The fact that there was a radiator to chain them to told Owen they were in an even shittier place than this vomit-colored-door no-tell motel.
"Why do you think it was Churkin?" They'd known since the woman had taken over as Ann Evalyn that it was a distinct possibility. But now Sin was convinced.
"The genetic testing." Her gaze was solid. The idea never wavered for her.
"We didn't test the blood against anyone." Owen shook his head. Annika and Nick looked at her and the kids sat quietly in the corner hopefully not listening to discussions of which assassin had committed which crime.
"You can now." She held out a baggie with a piece of blood-smeared gauze inside.
Owen took it from her and nodded. His lip curled involuntarily as he saw that some little something clung to the threads, too pink to be blood. He didn't want to think about it. Though he'd been to more gory crime scenes than he could count, unlike his lab friend Nguyen—and now apparently Sin—he didn't go around collecting parts.
"I'm sure it's her though."
Owen waited while she explained.
"All that weird genetic testing your friend did on the blood so we could find the perp? I think it made a difference." She shoved her hands in her pockets, an uncharacteristic gesture that worried Owen. "We know she's female, probably with dark curly hair. That's Churkin—"
Sin held up a hand to stop his protest. "I know. There are a ton of curly-haired brunettes in the world. But there are only a very small, small handful who could get into my cabin."
Owen wondered at her use of "my" for the cabin. Had she already discounted Lee?
"You said she's cilantro averse." Her mouth quirked up. "While it's ridiculous, I noticed her eating a handful of chips at the party. No salsa." Her head shook softly. "It doesn't mean anything. But it adds up."
She turned to Nick. "She outlasted you in a battle for air." Then she turned back to Owen. "You said the woman in the cabin was a sprinter."
He was putting the pieces together now.
Sin and Lee had always thoroughly vetted their targets, never taking out anyone they were unsure of. The only exception had been self-defense. She wanted enough to know she'd gotten the woman at the cabin—that she was done with that search.
"What do you mean she 'outlasted Nick'?" He asked.
"They had their hands around each other’s necks—"
"I even started first!" Nick's anger showed through as he pushed his fists to his hips and walked a tight circle.
"But if she's built for sprinting that would explain it. . . ." She turned to look at Nick, "You're more of a distance guy. You'll depend on a steady flow of oxygen. Sprinters are made for working without it." Somehow the physiology lesson calmed Nick and she turned back to Owen, as he asked a tongue-in-cheek question, trying to lighten the mood.
"Did you see her drink milk? The woman in the cabin should be lactose intolerant."
"I didn't get a chance to check her fridge. There was someone in the house when we left."
"What?" Owen started. He hadn't heard that before.
Nick jumped into the conversation more then. "I'm pretty sure it was the Mechanic. Whoever it was was skilled. There weren't many footsteps, we didn't hear them come in the door or anything."
Shit. It was the first Owen heard of them meeting up with the man. "Can you confirm it was him?"
"Mostly." Sin answered. "I saw him from the top of the stairs as he checked out the lower floor. He went by the staircase."
"Me too." Nick added. "It wasn't well lit, but I think given his body type and the way he moved that it was him." He paused a moment. "It makes sense that Churkin would have called him. We went out the roof vent and down a tree."
The glare he sent his sister suggested that was a much easier route for her than him.
But Sin only nodded and gestured to the bag Owen had already tucked out of sight. She had an agenda there, he understood. "You have enough information to test it against the blood in the cabin. I know those tests get expensive."
"I would have tested it anyway."
A slow nod was the only thanks he expected. What he didn't see coming was the slight, grim smile. "I want to be able to tell Lee that she's gone. That the people who breeched the cabin don't exist anymore. It has taken so long to find him, . . . I need to have something to show for it."
That was something Owen understood. He'd never needed to chase Annika's demons—she'd done that on her own. But he had more than once needed to close a case, to finish it, before he would be able to walk through the door of his nice home as his complete self. Somehow he understood this woman better than he'd ever thought he would. Somehow his life had become entwined with hers, with a killer's, with a cop's, with Nick's . . . For the first time he saw the other side and wondered how he'd steeped in it all those years and never really examined it.
It was Nick who stepped up next. "We need to find Lee."
"You checked everywhere?" It was a stupid question, but no one seemed offended. Stupid questions often garnered the best results.
Nick started listing all the locations as Owen rifled through his bag and searched for the paper map he'd marked before. While Nick stated what they found at each place, Sin helped mark the spots.
Owen sighed. They had hit everything.
"There's a trail." Sin pointed and Nick leaned over the map as did Annika, her hand once again quietly covering her lower belly.
Trying to be discrete, Owen glanced her way, but she only shook her head slightly and moved her hand away. He had no idea what that even meant, but as his heart started racing at the possibilities he reminded himself that Lee was very much alive—at least they thought so—and needed to be found.
"See?" Sin pointed. "Here's the oldest evidence." She moved her finger to two more locations, then a third. "This is the most recent."
"We hit them in fast enough succession that he couldn't have moved around too much." Nick put his hands flat on the table to think.
As Owen watched, he and Nick came to the same conclusion at the same time. It was Owen who spoke first. "If he was at Churkin's at the beginning of the night then he found her after you guys left."
"And he contacted Nikki Holder . . . When?" Nick looked to Owen.
"Probably about five a.m.? Anni?" He looked to his wife.
Annika shrugged. "I checked the clock at four-forty-seven. That's the last time I remember seeing. She came in with the gun sometime after that."
"It was at four-fifty-one." The voice was quiet but firm. The older boy spoke from the corner. Apparently he'd been listening to everything. "That was the time on the hotel clock when her phone buzzed. I don't think she knew I was awake."
Owen's heart broke. The kid was somewhere between fourteen and seventeen—hard to tell sometimes—and he'd seen his home raided, his family shot at, and his mother go dark. He still stepped up and did the right thing. Somehow the boy had assessed the situation on his own and decided to help, even though his parents were basically Duffy's hostages somewhere across town.
Sin put the pieces together now, too. "So he didn't have time to move anyone tonight. He probably didn't even have time to go visit while we were out hunting him."
"Which means we missed one." Owen sighed. There were so many sites, so many possibilities. How did the bastard have another one?
"Money." Sin responded before Owen even realized he'd said it out loud. "He has his own money and the Kurev money. And the Kurev holdings."
"We checked the Kurev houses." Nick blew out a frustrated breath.
"Then we missed one!" Sin growled it out, as close to losing her cool as Owen had ever seen. From the way Nick jerked back at the words, it was probably more than he expected, too.
"So how do we find him?" Nick asked the room at large.
Owen did not want to be a part of this. Legally, it was a web that could tangle him and bring him and Annika down.
But he needed to be a part of this. He'd been loyal to the law out of belief that it was the thing that maintained what order existed. Now he knew that Sin and Lee would always have his back. "Anni? Take the kids and—"
"No."
That was it. Just 'no.' Annika wasn't going anywhere. His shoulders dropped as the weight of trying to convince her lifted. Her stubbornness at least made her participation easier to bear.
"So how do we find him?" Nick asked again. "Can we bait him?"
Sin looked at the far corner, irritation and defeat starting to color her features. "I don't know how to find him except to watch the places we already know. And I don't know how long that will take. He knows we're after him. He doesn't have to ransom Lee . . . And now that the Kurevs are gone . . ." Her voice caught.
Shit. Owen hadn't thought of that possibility. The local police scanner and Agent Pillow had kept him somewhat up to speed on the happenings of the night. Both the remaining Kurev boys were dead in a raid on the Kurev mansion. No one else was hurt . . . At least not beyond the burning eyes and lungs and one spot of blood on the carpet that the crime scene guys couldn't match to anyone.
With Kaspar and even Roman out of the picture—and finally with Churkin gone, too—there was no one left to pay the Mechanic.
The clock had been ticking before, but they were in countdown now. Unless the Mechanic reached out to them for money . . . But ransom wasn't his style. He was pay for kill, and play for fun. Shit.
Owen leaned over the now useless map. "If he reaches out to us, great, but we have to assume we need to find him. We don't know where to go. So how do we get him out?"
"My mom has his number." The voice from the corner again.
Still Owen didn't call the kid over to join in the conversation. This wasn't a place for a kid. Especially when Owen started considering using Nikki Holder as bait. "We took her phone."
Actually, they destroyed it.
Owen loved the thought that there were no bad ideas in a brainstorm. Though the truth was some ideas were pure shit. Just sometimes those shitty ideas were the spark that led to great ones. So he threw it out there. "If Mrs. Holder knows his phone number, I could get the FBI to triangulate his phone."
It was a bad idea and one that Nick rejected right away.
"I don't trust the FBI. Plus, if they know where the Mechanic is, we can't go in and get him. Best case, they save Lee and bust him for being Lee. Worst case, the Mechanic . . ." He just stopped talking. No one wanted to say the worst case out loud or discuss the possibility that it was already done.
It was Sin who spoke up next. Whether her voice was steady because she was remarkably resilient or because talking kept her from imagining the possibilities, Owen couldn't tell. "Can we get Nikki to call him from a pay phone and bait him?"
Oh lord. She'd gone there . . . And in front of the Holder kids. Sin obviously didn't have children. But not being an idiot, she picked up on it and added on quickly. "We get her out of there and somewhere new, ASAP. Then we wait for him ourselves."
Nick shook his head again. "We don't actually want him. I mean we do, but the Mechanic isn't our priority. He's job two. And he won't crack. I don't doubt for a minute that we can hold him forever and he'll never lead us to Lee."
Owen took a deep breath and he could hear the same from Sin. He added his two cents. "I don't want Nikki Holder in on it if we can help it. I don't trust her. She seems to think the Mechanic is her best bet."
A short nod confirmed Sin's thoughts. "She doesn't know she's dealing with the devil."
But then the room went quiet. And quiet was bad in a brainstorm. There were no ideas to throw onto the table. There was only breathing. Nick walked another tight circle while Sin stood stock still. Owen searched the map for clues but none came.
He breathed in. Breathed in again.
Nothing.
"Who else can search the phone records? Triangulate a particular cell without permission?" Annika's voice was soft, simple, and finally offering up something worthwhile.
Owen didn't know anyone who could do that . . . Not off the grid. Everything he did would involve an agency. But he looked to Sin first—she had all those IDs—then Nick. It was Nick who was nodding.
"I can find someone. But it's a crapshoot."
"Why?" He either knew someone he could trust or he didn't.
"With the Kurevs down, the people I know are going to be scrambling. Some of my guys are my guys so that they aren't truly Kurev guys. They may not need me now." He shrugged.
But Sin's face said to go with it and Owen generally agreed. They didn't have time for a better idea or a safer route. The whole city was in flux with the "Kurev Massacre" that he'd seen in the news feed on his phone. Never mind that only two people had died. Journalism had gone to hell and the definition of the word "massacre" had been greatly exaggerated. Needless to say, it was going to be a bitch.
It was also the perfect time for Nick to insert himself as head of state. He could easily gain control of Chicago, link it to Atlanta and . . . Owen didn't even know what the 'and' might entail. He looked to Nick. "Are you still in for a deal?"
It had to be asked.
"Yes." Nick didn't hesitate, didn't falter, and Owen's respect for him went up. Nick wanted out. Even when everything he'd seemingly worked for had fallen into place, he was still willing to get out. Though he added sharply, "Don't know how excited I am to go work for the organization you don't trust."
Owen took that with a grain of salt. "Every branch of law enforcement has its dirty members."
Nick changed the topic. "What if we get Nikki's phone and turn it on enough to find the number? Then we trace it."
Duffy was supposed to throw the pieces out the window near the hotel, so it wouldn't look much like she'd moved. "It's gone."
The voice came from the corner again. "She'll know it."
Owen looked over at this kid, wondering where he'd found the very thing his parents lacked. Must be innate. "You sure?"
It didn't matter if he was sure. Owen was calling Duffy and Duffy was getting the number out of Mrs. Holder. It was their best chance.
The kid nodded, and Owen turned to Nick. "Find us someone."
He called Duffy, and quickly got a return call with the number. He didn't know what Duffy had said to make that happen so fast but whatever it was, Owen was glad. He would have left Nikki Holder to rot had she not had three kids depending on her.
Before he could hang up, Nick asked for his phone.
Surprised by his reluctance, Owen handed it to the other man. It felt odd enough to be working with Nick, to be on the same side of things. But handing over his phone or anything of his own felt foreign and wrong.
Nick nodded his thanks and ran his choice by Duffy.
A good call. If Duffy was clean—or as clean as anyone working with Nick could be—then he would know who else was.
"Thanks man. I'll check with him." Nick already tucked his first phone away and had a second phone out. The fingers of his left hand were turning on the other phone as he wiped Owen’s phone clean and returned it. The movement was so natural that Owen felt he was getting a glimpse into the life of a man who ran everything underground. He wouldn't talk on the same phone twice, didn't leave his prints behind.
It was a smart move, Owen thought. Having Nick on the home team would be a boon. The FBI would be able to put his techniques to use against others. Owen told himself that's why he was doing this. He almost believed it as he tucked the phone away and Nick made his next call, handing over the number they'd gotten from Nikki Holder.
Nicolae Stelian was a smooth operator, staying on the line while the number ran.
Owen waited with him. They all did: Annika sitting on the bed, her hand once again straying to her lower stomach. Sin watched the movement through tired eyes but didn't react. Her own hand never moved. She never touched her belly or really acknowledged the life inside her. Owen almost wondered about the outcome, but the live children in the corner distracted him.
The toddler had fallen asleep in her big brother's arms. The middle kid fiddled with a small toy in his hands and the older one watched the adults, far more wary than he should have to be.
"Thanks man."
The repeated words brought everyone's attention around to Nick again as he hung up the phone. But it was Owen Nick looked to.
"You aren't going to believe the address."
Owen shook his head, the look on Nick's face was bad, worried, and too obscure to be understood.
But Nick didn't hold out. "He—or at least his phone—is at the Kurev Mansion."