Zain kept hold of Pez's computer as he made his way over to Ray's office. "Boss," Zain called out to Ray. "Knock on the door," Zain instructed Pez, whose neck was captive in his other hand.

  Pez nodded and knocked on the door as he trembled. He didn't expect anyone to find out what happened so fast, and while he didn't tell Zain anything, Zain had put it all together himself.

  "Come in," Ray said from behind his desk after he hung up the phone. "What is it? Did you find her?" His eyes went over to Pez, who Zain pushed into the room in front of him, and then to the laptop in Zain's other hand.

  "No one has been able to find Grace, but I suspect he knows where she is," Zain said.

  "Oh? Is this true, Pez?"

  Pez bit his lip as he looked away.

  "We're going to have to work on your poker face." Ray sighed. "Well, fess up. Where is she?"

  "He refuses to talk, even when I threatened to torture him."

  Ray stood and slowly walked over to Pez, who flinched with the echo of every step. "I suppose I should be happy Gracey has someone loyal enough to keep quiet, even when he's trembling like a little bunny, but now isn't the time to stay quiet. She could be in danger. Tell us where she is."

  "About that." Zain opened up Pez's laptop to show him the map. "He won't admit it, but I think our little computer expert here put a tracker on her, and this is where she is."

  Ray looked at Pez for a moment before turning to look at the map. "Way up north in the city? But there's nothing there. Most of it has been run down... Wait, isn't that where the Kuros used to rule?" Ray held onto his head, scrunching his eyes closed as he tried to think back. "Then she... Was she kidnapped?"

  Pez didn't answer.

  "Did she leave on her own?"

  Pez's cheek twitched.

  "Why would she leave?" Ray swallowed hard and stepped back, away from them. "Is it because I set a date for the announcement? Was she unhappy here? I thought we had worked through things."

  "To be fair, we are trapping her here. She's used to her freedom, so we can't be too surprised if she ran."

  "I suppose you're right... but still; I hoped she'd stay here of her own free will by now."

  "So, what do you want me to do, Boss?"

  Ray turned his back to them and leaned forward, bracing himself on his desk as he thought.

  "Should we leave her be?"

  "But she could be in trouble." Ray dug his fingernails into his desk.

  "We know where she is, so we can drag her back here. Even without a hostage to keep her here, I'm certain we have enough people to drag her back."

  "Is that... Is that what you want to do, Zain?"

  Zain's eyes widened. Ray always seemed so certain of himself and made the important decisions on his own. Others trusted him to do it with ease. "I don't know what we should or shouldn't do, but I want her here."

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Ray glanced back at him. "So you admit you've fallen for her now?"

  "Yeah, I can't deny it. If this is where the Kuros family were, then she's probably with Roger. Taking that into account, I don't think it's safe for her to be there, neither with him nor that family, so I vote we drag her back here."

  "And you?" Ray looked at Pez. "Will you say what you want to do, or will you continue to stay silent?"

  Pez shook his head as he stared at the floor, staying silent.

  "Boss, what do you want?" Zain asked.

  "I want her here." He rubbed his face. "I want her to be as safe as possible, but I also want her to be happy and healthy. I want the best for my Gracey." Ray turned around and his eyes went to the map on the laptop Zain was still holding. "Where did it go?"

  "Hmm?"

  "The red dot; it's gone."

  Zain turned the laptop around to see for himself. "What does this mean?"

  Pez finally looked up and at the laptop. He froze. Even if she had found the tracker and tossed it out, the signal would still show where it was. "Either the tracker was destroyed, or she's somewhere that the signal can't get out of. It should be strong enough to show up even when she's in a basement, though."

  "So it's possible she destroyed it herself?"

  "Yes..."

  "How do we find out actually happened?"

  Pez thought for a moment and held his hands out. "May I?"

  Zain looked to Ray for permission and handed the laptop over.

  Pez sat on the floor with his computer on his lap.

  "We have chairs, you know?"

  Pez ignored them as he went into his audio files, where everything that the tracker would've recorded until it went offline were sitting. He couldn't help but wonder if the earpiece hadn't fallen out when he woke up, would he have known what was going on with her? He had planned to stay up at first, listening in, but he couldn't fight the fatigue.

  In the last audio file, Pez went to the end of it right before it cut short from the normal length it auto recorded, and then started a new one. Pez hesitated to let it play.

  What if she said something she didn't want Ray or Zain hearing? What if she made her choice?

  "What is it?" Zain asked, squatting down as he looked over Pez's shoulder.

  He jumped. He didn't even notice Zain was right there. "Um..."

  "It's an audio file; does your tracker have audio? Is that why you don't want to open it? I think we can handle whatever she might say about us. It might actually help us know the truth, so let it play."

  Pez cursed at himself. Zain was a lot smarter than he expected.

  "What are you waiting for? If you won't play it, I will." Zain reached over for the laptop, and Pez covered it with himself like a dome. "Really? I don't think that's a wise decision."

  "I'll do it; just step back, please."

  Zain retracted his hand. "Fine, but don't you dare try anything."

  "I won't..." Pez figured they might kill him if he did. He let the ending bit play.

  There was a rustling sound as Grace looked into the fridge. "I hope they don't mind if I steal a slice of this half-eaten cake for breakfast."

  "We mind."

  Thud.

  "Are you sure this is a good idea? The boss wants this lady for his own."

  "Who cares? She's a Bertolottis, and he never did anything about it. It's time we do something on our own."

  "What if he finds out?"

  "It'll be too late by then. We'll have her sold off before he's wise to it." He snickered.

  There was more rustling as one of the men picked Grace up.

  They listened to their steps until the audio cut off.

  Ray, Zain, and Pez all froze.

  "Did... that sound like what I think it sounded like?" Pez held his breath as he looked at the other men.

  "I'm afraid to say it probably was." Zain stood and turned to Ray, who was frozen as he stared at the ground in front of him with a lost expression. "Boss." Zain grabbed his shoulders and shook him. "Get a grip! Grace is obviously in trouble and needs help. As loathe I am to say it, Roger will probably help once he finds out what's going on, but we don't know how long that'll take. We have to save her. We have to storm that place even if it turns into an all-out gun fight—"

  "No." Ray shook his head.

  "What? You can't be thinking of leaving her there."

  "Of course not, but a war between the Bertolottiss and the Kuros is exactly what she wanted to stop. She's too kind. She wanted to save everyone, and ended up being taken because of me, anyway. Do we have a way to contact Roger?"

  "I have a number, but I don't think he'd answer to anyone other than Grace," Pez said.

  "Fine, we'll go there ourselves."

  Knock, knock.

  "Come in," Ray said.

  Bobby, one of Ray's capos, opened the door. "You have a visitor, again." He sighed and stepped to the side to let Vincent in.

  "I came to see Grace, only to find out no one knows where she is. What's going on?"

  "That's private—"

  "Come in and close the door. We could use your help," Ray said, cutting Zain off.