Écarté (Lost Birds Book 4)

Part 30 Orders

The silence in the kitchen was daunting. No one moved. No spoke. No one even breathed as we waited for orders. Everyone watched Aydan, waiting, but the orders didn't come. Aydan's eyes were locked on the phone in Theo's hand and he appeared to be as frozen as the rest of us.

I had never met Aydan's sister, so I wasn't as connected to this as the others. Maybe that's why my thoughts were moving faster. I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that we couldn't stay here like this. We needed to move. We needed to get to work. We had to find her and we had to do it now.

"Aydan?" I tried stepping forward and taking one of his hands. I hoped that the sound of his name and the physical contact would help him become grounded again, the same way it always seemed to help me.

In a way it worked.

Aydan moved. His gaze shifted from Theo's phone to me. Everything in me wanted to cringe away from the devastation in his eyes. I could feel the crushing fear that engulfed him. The pain alone threatening to crush us both. His sister. His little sister had been kidnapped and he didn't know what to do.

Seeing Aydan so lost and broken sparked something in me. Suddenly I was angry. Whoever had done this to him, to us, wouldn't get away with it.

I squeezed Aydan's hand and turned my head to look at Theo.

"You and Aydan have to go talk to these boys. Obviously, they need you there and if nothing else you can retrace their steps and figure out what might of happened. We need details and locations." I said.

Theo glanced between Aydan and I before nodding.

I turned back to Aydan.

"Recon right?" I asked reminding him of the first step of any mission.

Aydan nodded slowly.

"You know these people. You know where to go and who to talk to. We get that boy to wake up, we figure out what happened, and we find her. You can do this." I said.

Aydan gulped and nodded again. Some of his usual determination settled back in his eyes letting me know that he could actually do this.

"Tao will drive. Cam and Sab will get started on checking security footage and names as soon as you can tell us where's or who's." I said glancing at the other three in question.

They each nodded as well.

"Ok, let's go." I commanded when no one moved.

In whirl wind of movement, they all moved at once. Within seconds I was left standing alone in the kitchen.

I followed after Cameron and Sabbatian just in case they needed my help. I also wanted to ask them if they could look into my parents. I had a heavy sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that this was another one of their moves.

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"It looks like they're at your house. They've been there all day." The first part of Cam's words was a total relief but the second seemed off. My parents were almost never home and I couldn't recall a single day where they'd stayed in all day.

"Do they have any other phones? Maybe something that's encrypted or maybe they altered their location tracking." I asked.

Cam tilted his head as he considered my words.

"They have many phones, but your father always takes his briefcase." Sab said.

I turned to look at him unsure what my father's briefcase had to do with anything. He was leaning back in his computer chair with his arms crossed. He looked every bit as angry as I felt but he was sure of his answer.