I found it.
Or at least I was pretty sure I had.
Tallman Laboratories and Pharmaceuticals. The address for headquarters was local. That was too close to be a coincidence.
It said on their website that they not only manufacture and distribute several of their drugs from that location, but that they also perform clinical trials for some of their new products. That could explain how he obtained the drugs he used to keep me sedated during my captivity. That could explain the unknown chemical found on the shop towel. It made sense that the man who took me and took Dalton would have legitimate access to that kind of stuff. That meant it was much less of risk to him to get it and use it.
But that also meant I could find him.
I sat in Gabe’s chair and stared at his computer. My mind ran a mile a minute. Plotted how I could get Garrett to use his position at the police department to request a list of employees at the laboratory. Planned how I would then narrow it down to a shorter list based on the first name and gender—males with a name starting in M. They would be my focus. If I could get a list like that, I could find him. I would track every name down until I found the one man who was keeping my son.
I told myself I would recognize something. Despite the dark and the modulated voice and the drugs, I would be able to recognize something. He couldn’t have thought of everything. There was no such thing as the perfect crime. He had to have slipped up somewhere, and I would find it. I would find that thread and I would pull it until his whole operation came undone. I just had to find the one thing, the one thing that he didn’t account for.
Even if that one thing really was me.
I didn’t move a muscle. Just stared at the company’s home page. But inside…inside, I was on fire. I’d fought to survive for my son, but that was nothing compared to the dogged determination I felt in that moment.
I would find the man.
I would find my son.
I would bring him home.
And then I would make the one who took him rue the day he ever laid eyes on me. It was bad enough that he tortured me. It was bad enough that he forced me to kill my best friend. But he took my child. Intended never to return him. That was too much. He crossed the line. I would find him and make him pay. With his life, with everything he loved. I would rain hell down on him if it was the last thing I did.
I didn’t fear death. I was at peace with it. I would gladly trade my life to see my son freed and vindicated. If I survived, so much the better. But if not, it would still be worth it. I would get my child back. Back in his room, back in his home, back with his family. Whatever else happened, I would find a way to live with the consequences.
Or die with them.
“Shannon?” Gabe’s voice jarred me from my thoughts. I spun in the chair to face the door. “What are you doing?”
I nodded toward the computer screen. “I found something.”
I saw his bright eyes turn dark. The pupils swelled. Overwhelmed the irises.
I didn’t have to wonder if he would be on board. I’d watched this tragedy take its toll on him. The days and hours and minutes had whittled him down, just not like they had me. For me, those millions of moments had shaved away everything except my purpose. They’d honed me into a machine. An animal. An assassin with a singular focus. They’d cut away every other reason, all other thought. There was only one thing that mattered—taking back our son.
And after that, retribution.