In The Dark

Chapter 40

Dominick

"Hello?"

"Where are you?"

"At the hotel. Zach and I were just looking at the cameras in Ty's hideout."

"Good. Put me on speaker phone."

It took some time to get situated. I didn't know what he was going to say and who it should be said to. Nathaniel had taken Kais and gone to pick up Byung-chul and Ren. Cory was acting like the world was crumbling around him. Zach wasn't even paying attention. His phone was sitting on the desk facing down.

"Zach," Dean called out. He didn't answer. "Zacharias Matthews!"

Zach's head snapped up at the sound of his government name. "What?"

"What is going on inside your head? I have things to discuss with you."

Even settled down and listened in on the conversation.

"Right now I'm on the plane heading to Milan," he said. "Trixie is dead, but she did tell me about Ian. After I searched some more, I found out Ty left Vegas and went back home. He knows we're gone and I think anytime now he'll come after us. I purchased multiple tickets under your name to New York. Then I purchased my ticket here to Milan under some random name. He shouldn't realize we're there until it's too late.

If I am correct, the plane should be landing in less than seven hours. I ordered some of our men to load your other private plane with all of our important paperwork and come here. A cargo plane should be here with our cars in two weeks."

"...Is that all?" Zach asked.

"Of course it is. I'll be there soon. Don't do anything fun without me."

"Wait. What about my dad?"

"What about him?"

Zach rolled his eyes and sighed. "Is he doing all right?"

"Of course he is. Never been better. He said when you settle, he'll come and visit."

I picked up my phone and put it to my ear. I know that's not all he had to say. I could have relayed that message back to Zach on my own.

"What else?" I asked.

"Are you alone?" Dean countered.

I excused myself from the office. "Now I am."

"Jae's alive. I think she's on the plane with me."

I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at it. Did I hear right? She was on a plane with Dean? How is it that she can travel safely and Ian was kidnapped?

"Okay. She's not running away?"

"No, she doesn't know that I'm on. If she does, then she's pretending not to see me. If it were all up to me, I'd drag her all the way to the hotel."

"...Don't do that. No, please do that. Even though Cory may not want to know that she's alive, at least have her close enough to seek her out."

"I'm going to try to convince her to come here. If she doesn't recognize me, she'll immediately think I'm going to kidnap her. Or at least she's just pretending not to know." Dean muttered something to himself. "If she does recognize me, then we might get some leeway. If she still loves Cory, she'll follow me."

"That's a very small chance, Dean. You sure you can get her here?"

"More than sure. If Cory doesn't know she's alive yet, don't let him know anything about what we're doing."

If he doesn't know. Then what if he does know?

"If he does know...just don't tell him that she's on a plane with me."