Maddie typed in the pass code Mothman had provided, and the elevator light turned green. “It worked,” she said into the headset.
“Great,” Mothman replied. “That’s the code that’s going to get you through most of the building. The exception is the top floor—Josh wasn’t given access to that, and I can’t find any overrides he might have tried to gain access.”
“Got it.” She sighed. “That means she’s been taken to the penthouse, doesn’t it?”
“That would be my guess,” Keith said.
The series of short clicks that Maddie had come to recognize as another person joining the call sounded, followed by a new voice. “Hey, Maddie, mind if I cut in on this conversation?”
Her knees went weak, and the world spun a bit. “Josh?”
“Yeah, it’s me, sweetheart.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. In front of her, the service elevator doors opened, but she was frozen in place. “You’re…you’re okay?”
“A little battered, slightly deaf, but otherwise fine.”
She leaned an arm on the wall next to the open elevator and let out a loud, ugly sob. “I was so scared.” She swiped at her tears and straightened her spine, just in case the code Mothman had given her hadn’t shut off the garage camera.
“I know, babe,” Josh said. “It was a close one.”
“I love you.” She didn’t care that everyone was listening in. Josh was alive, and she had to say the words. They were oxygen to her starved lungs.
“It was thoughts of you and Ava that helped me move the rubble in my way.”
She let out another sob. He’s alive. The bridge collapse hadn’t been a nightmare she could wake from, but also, talking to him now wasn’t a dream. Both were real.
“I love you so much, Maddie.” His voice cracked with emotion. “But we’ve got other priorities right now. Chase brought me up to speed on the situation. Said you’re going after Ava.”
“I just missed my elevator—”
“Good. Go back to my SUV and lock yourself in. It’s bulletproof and locks up tighter than a vault. You’ll be safe there. Chase and I are on our way.”
“Okay. Hurry.” She turned and sprinted toward the SUV, her vision slightly blurry from the tears, her brain foggy with the emotional overload.
Josh would confront his brother and get Ava back. Ari had no legal rights. This was a simple family dispute and would be over quickly. Then they’d get Josh to a hospital to have his wounds looked at, and she and Ava could both dote on him.
She was enjoying that fantasy when she circled the vehicle to the driver’s side and came face-to-face with Peyton Hoffman.
He gave her a nasty grin. “Well, well, well. Madeline Foster. Have you missed me?”
Before she could step back or say a word into the headset, his arm swung out. She saw the pistol in his hand just before it hit her temple, pain exploded, then she felt nothing at all.
“Maddie’s headset is offline,” Mothman said.
Josh swore even as fear ripped through him. What had happened? Two minutes ago, she’d told him she loved him and everything was fine, she was safely on her way back to the SUV. But she hadn’t made it.
“Has my SUV been unlocked?”
“No. Still sealed tight. If someone took Maddie, they probably haven’t figured out about the thumbprint to unlock it.”
Six months ago, it had been possible to unlock a Raptor vehicle without a thumbprint. It was only the engine that wouldn’t work without authorization. Then Nate’s girlfriend tried to take off in his company SUV. She’d failed, not knowing she needed Nate’s thumbprint, but she was a programmer who loved a challenge, and a few weeks later, on a lark, she found a way to bypass the thumbprint using the door lock loophole. Mothman had proceeded to close the loophole, and he’d been damn grumpy that anyone had been able to compromise his security, especially on a lark.
But that closed loophole told Josh something important. Maddie had been intercepted on the lowest garage level, between the service elevator and the SUV within the last two minutes. It was a narrow window of space and time, and thankfully, Chase sped through the garage like a race-car driver.
Josh wished he were at the wheel, but his bum eye was a liability and his ego was far less important than the two women who needed him now.
His daughter and the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
How had Ari found Ava? It couldn’t be a coincidence that he met up with her right outside the only operating hotel exit. He must’ve known where they were staying.
But nobody knew. They’d been damn careful. Ava and Maddie both knew they couldn’t tell anyone. Maddie hadn’t even told her parents.
Ari had claimed Maddie had orchestrated his release to get Ava out of the way. Josh saw right through that lie, but he didn’t doubt Ari had been sprung by Tisdale.
What was Tisdale’s role in this, and who had taken Maddie?
“We can override all security, go black everywhere, then take the elevator to the twenty-ninth floor. Stairwells will unlock if you use the earthquake protocol,” Chase said.
“I was thinking fire protocol. It’s easy to confuse the system by pulling several alarms nearly simultaneously.”
“We’re only two people. How are we going to do that?”
Josh held out his hand. “Give me your phone.” He’d lost his somewhere in the rubble.
Chase complied, and Josh quickly logged in to his Raptor account. “I set up a test for the system yesterday where I can set off alarms one by one from a phone and make it look like I’m on multiple floors, pulling physical alarms.”
“Nice. We’ll wait until we’re on twenty-nine?”
Josh nodded. “Let’s suit up.”
Chase had the standard gear in the back of his rental car. One M-4 rifle, two Sigs, a Taser, spare headsets, and a lot of bullets in multiple calibers. It would make Troy Kocher’s wannabe-security-guard heart envious.
Usually, Josh was against wearing so much hardware, but this wasn’t security duty. This was an op.
Armed and ready, Josh and Chase went to the service elevator. Josh could control it with his phone too, sending different signals as far as floor numbers visited back to the security system. It was appalling how lax Apex had let security go, but Simon Barstow had always been interested in doing the least amount of work possible. He was one step above grifter, in Josh’s opinion.
Right now, Josh wanted to thank the guy because, for all intents and purposes, Josh could seize the entire building with the overrides and backdoors he’d added to the system over the last few days. He’d planned to present a list of flaws to C-IV at their scheduled meeting tomorrow.
“Ready?” Chase asked.
Josh looked his friend in the eye. “I’m thankful to have you by my side in this, Chase. You’re a damn good operative.”
Emotion flashed across Chase’s face before he locked it down. “Thank you, sir. Now let’s find your family.”