Chapter 3 - SOMEONE WAS ALREADY IN THE HOTEL

Naomi’s agents reached the hotel through the underground parking entrance.

No uniforms.

No marked vehicles.

Three men and two women dressed like business travelers.

I watched them on a private security feed while Catherine ate soup with shaking hands.

Penelope slept in my bedroom surrounded by enough armed protection to guard a head of state.

Then my head of security, Luis Ortega, called.

“Mr. Kincaid, we found the tracker signal.”

“Where?”

“Moving.”

My stomach tightened.

“Inside the hotel.”

Someone had picked up the tracker after Catherine removed it.

Luis switched cameras.

A man in a gray coat entered the service elevator on the sixth floor.

Catherine saw his face and dropped her spoon.

“That’s Nolan.”

“Who?”

“One of the men from the estate.”

I leaned closer to the monitor.

Nolan had the heavy shoulders of a former soldier and the calm expression of a man accustomed to hurting people without witnesses.

“He used to bring food,” Catherine whispered. “And warnings.”

“What kind of warnings?”

“That if I ever escaped, Penelope would disappear first.”

I looked at Luis.

“Do not confront him in public.”

We watched Nolan ride to the penthouse floor.

The elevator doors opened.

He stepped out.

Then stopped.

Two federal agents appeared behind him.

A third stepped from the stairwell.

Nolan reached beneath his coat.

Luis tackled him before his hand came out.

The struggle lasted six seconds.

When they searched him, they found a pistol, plastic restraints, a syringe and a photograph of Catherine taken that morning.

But that was not the worst part.

Inside his phone were twelve missed calls.

All from a number saved as D.

Naomi entered the suite ten minutes later.

“We can arrest him now,” she said. “But I’d rather make him think he still has a chance.”

Catherine stared at her.

“You want him to call Daria.”

“Yes.”

Nolan was offered a choice in a locked conference room.

Help us, or explain the kidnapping equipment to a federal prosecutor.

He laughed at first.

Then Naomi placed Penelope’s tracker on the table.

His smile disappeared.

“You people don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

“I know exactly who,” Naomi said. “Daria Kincaid.”

Nolan leaned back.

“You arrest her tonight, you’ll lose the girl.”

Catherine went rigid.

“What girl?”

Nolan looked through the glass directly at her.

“Not your daughter.”

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He smiled again.

“The other prisoner.”