- Chapter Nineteen -

Nine Out Of Ten Thieves Agree

As valuable a source of information as ever, he thanked his sister-in-law for her wisdom before getting off the phone. Orange Tiger Association, Triad, whatever the hell they wanted to identify as, he didn't like the situation, and he liked it even less that they might not have even been behind this. It went without saying that cities were dangerous places, but to add in a manhunt that seemed to be gathering more and more competition the longer things went on... That only served to complicate a situation that started as more than a smidge screwed up. A virtual bullseye for any amateur to pray upon, his naive little fish had gone from a pond with two predators to the whole damn ocean thanks to the idiots in the media.

For the record, those very same idiots should have been selling whatever crap Bai wanted the masses to believe.

Engine purring to life like the throaty whisper of a familiar lover beneath him, Sam took a final look back at the safe house before peeling out. Knowing the pawn shop where Dells had last been seen well enough, the best route would take him into a side street that was inaccessible for the jeep and would basically land him a few streets shy of where Chloe had lost the teen. Having the foresight to collect the supplies in case they had to make a quick escape from the concrete jungle - and considering how things had been going, that wasn't a particularly far stretch of the imagination - he still couldn't help but feel like he was forgetting something. Shaking his head at a fleeting notion, he closed his dark eyes for a moment before ignoring the gnawing sensation in his gut and gunned it.

Narrow walkways between rundown converted housing and various (mostly illegal) operations slanted inwards against the worst of the wind as it picked up, sepia-tone buildings and flooded streets all passed in a hazy blueish-blur as he cut through. Not a single face amongst the bundles of splinters and cheap steel, largely due to the hour, Sam allowed himself a moment to enjoy the damp yet biting breeze that blew through his hair and mussed with his collar.

Technically speaking the band of not-so-merry men weren't on lock down, so going outside was a very real and available possibility while Dells recuperated, however he had been so preoccupied with her wellbeing that he hadn't really taken full advantage. Billed as overtime, because he was trying his damnedest to protect his investment there was only so far he'd been willing to venture those first days. Subsequently, by the end there everyone felt glommed together, like they were all in hiding and just biding their time until they could move on with their lives. And as the days grew longer and longer in their relative isolation, the less booze there was on hand, the worse the feeling got.

Or maybe that was just him.

Surveillance tapes perhaps the best bet they had, one of the biggest obstacles to the lead was that the nearest camera was on the far end of the street where the road opened into a busier traffic flow. Even under the best of circumstances, getting the footage was going to take several minutes - surprisingly, the neighborhood wi-fi wasn't the greatest around. Chloe fully expected to have the video up on her phone before Drake had the chance to join the search party, however with each passing moment that it took to buffer, she was getting a little less sure.

Good thing they hadn't put any money down on it.

Nadine's pacing wasn't helping. Actually, speaking of things that the professional pickpocket/driver was not counting on was seeing her partner - the woman wasn't supposed to be in town for another day or two at best. Less for Sam's sake and more because she was concerned that the poolside head injury had brought out some beastly rage monster in the heiress, the woman had dialed a few contacts to get the word out about an important missing person. Not to diminish real missing persons cases, this was just rather personal for her associates.

"This is taking forever." The funniest thing about Ross and technology was that it couldn't be cowed into obeying her short fuse, although Frazer noted that there seemed to be more understanding for systems than for people. "I still think I should go over there and ask again-"

"Ask who?" Raising a thick brow at the other woman as she spun about on her heel for the umpteenth time, Chloe wished that the other would just sit down again, but apparently that window had closed. "The poor boy who almost had his brains bashed in? Oh yes, that's a lovely idea."

Name tag splattered with red, the young man had been loaded into a gurney and was currently on his way to the nearest hospital to see to the wounds, and the cops were all over the scene, getting statements about the victim. There had been one or two inquires into his assailant, yet once the authorities realized who it was that had attacked the young man, the topic had been dropped faster than you could say 'on the take'. Common sense might dictate that the police were lost in the Adler family wallet like so many others, however they just have easily could have been in anyone's back pocket, or even served multiple masters. Either way, neither woman wanted to take that chance, so they had agreed to make themselves scarce to gather intelligence discreetly.

Journey taking them from the laundromat to the one place that seemed like the real money-maker on the street, Chloe had nibbled absently on her food while she herself was already down to the crust; the pizza wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. Near the area in the first place to have a look at some rugs for her new apartment, Nadine had been on her way to a fire sale when she'd answered the summons. Initially she was sympathetic to hearing that a young girl had simply vanished off the street without a trace, yet hearing the identity of the girl changed everything.

Rafe...

Just thinking his name caused a knot to form in her stomach, and remembering that time in her life caused the rest of her insides to perform amazing feats the likes of which mankind had never seen before. First and foremost, there was only Shoreline and her struggle to prove not only the company but herself as both a leader and as a person. Scouted, vetted, and hired by a woman named Wen Bai on behalf of her employer, it had all started out as just a job, but as happened in these confined working situations, things happened that weren't exactly foreseeable.

Despite being able to bond over the fact that they were daughters raised in a man's world, the bespectacled woman came to view Nadine with resentment when Rafe began to prioritize the hunt for Avery's treasure over his "day job". Nadine one of the few around to see the situation rationally, Bai had been promoted for all her hard work and was in fact in a position few enough could achieve in their lifetime, yet she had been ruled by jealousy and didn't see it that way. Wen Bai was the stand-in and acting head, a link between the boss and the business, and Nadine Ross was his equal in their collaboration, his partner. Seeing it from the other person's perspective, it was understandable why that rankled.

Further adding insult to injury was the addition of Sam Drake into the equation - while both women had enjoyed a taste of what it was to be in absolute command without anyone to hinder them, the thief ultimately had replaced them both. Sure, Rafe would humor Nadine in most situations - especially while in public or when her armed men were around - however it was clear to see who held the real sway. Bai wasn't without say where she needed to be concerned, but with business slipping farther and father back in the operation, that didn't mean what it once had. As Drake had put it, one might assume that the cock in the hen house might strengthen their bond; in some ways it had, yet it wasn't enough. The fact they would never really be friends was nothing to mourn, especially when situations changed once more and Daniella was born.

But she hadn't been the first.

Another reason that thinking back to that time made Nadine sick was because Shoreline had come before anything else, even her own son. Far from maternal, she knew she had done the right thing by giving up her child for adoption, but no matter how many times she told herself that, it still broke her heart and left a gnawing hole in its place. To this day she could still hear his tears as the doctor took him away, feel the sting in her eyes as she fought back her own sobs, but she couldn't recall the smell of his hair or how tiny he had been the one time she'd held him for her own. Her line of work left no room for a child, and she herself would have been a cruel enough punishment to inflict, so there had been no other choice but to part ways with him.

It was for the best.

Steadily filling closer to capacity the later it got, the line for takeouts and deliveries had gotten long enough to wrap around and invade the dining space. Impressive as that may have sounded, it really wasn't much of a feat when you crunched the numbers. Door opening and closing so regularly that no one bothered to look up from the free wi-fi, the technology was almost at odds with the theme of the sectionals. Front of the store not so dissimilar from other fast food competitors, the back was almost generic and fashioned with a gritty noir vibe, the bulbs behind the heavy emerald shaders intentionally dim. Dark with speckled counters to hide how under-washed the tables were, the padded furniture was almost comfortable enough to doze off on.

Drake definitely like to get there before they could make any notable headway, Frazer went ahead and ordered for their ally and resident pain-in-the-ass. Granted that was title that never stayed with any one person for long. Keeping her eye on the phone as the site finally loaded, the dark haired beauty spoke while searching, "Should I really be surprised that someone almost died today?" Ross had a history with the Adler girl's parents, and unlike other people also in the know, she would be far less likely to color the situation to any one person's favor.

Honestly, Nadine wasn't sure how to answer that - Bai had seen to it that her precious little girl had been cloistered off from the rest of the world, so it was anyone's guess what the young woman was really like. Genetically speaking, it didn't seem so wrong to assume that the teen would be as poisonous an apple as her parents. Dysfunctional one way to describe the paternal line, she could only guess as what word or phrase covered the heiress's maternal lineage, especially after it came out that Bai was the daughter of Wen Zhihao.

"Clever stalling tactic." Forced into thinking about how to best respond to the inquiry, she finally stopped pacing in front of the table. They'd been at the dance too long to miss even the trickiest of beats, but bonus points for voicing a genuine concern.

Chloe smiled that placating grin of hers that made Nadine want to punch out all her teeth. It did its job to calm the other woman, true, but it was still infuriatingly cocky, and what was worse was that the cut-purse not only knew as much but savored it. "Well it worked, didn't it?"

Task made somewhat difficult due to the size of the screen and the crack running down the side, the duo took it in turns to view the video. Starting with the thief and the heiress pulling up at the pawn shop, before they even could enter the building the teen was caught tilting her head to the side and admiring something that wasn't for sale. Quite flattered at seeing the gesture now, the professional driver distantly wondered what Samuel would say about seeing that he had competition for the young lady's affections? In all seriousness though, there was no surprise to see the girl getting escorted out by ironic glasses number one and plaid jeans number two.

Furious and struggling to get back to pummeling the young man for whatever wrong he had done her, at first glance it looked like she was being bodily abducted in broad daylight, however if that was the case her mouth movements weren't conveying fear. Murder burned in her eyes, and they could almost feel the white-hot rage boiling through lousy camera angles and a great deal of distance. Whatever had happened to the young woman, previously mentioned cameras were positioned so that it looked like the trio had melted into the walls between the pawn shop and the laundromat.

Going back further to see when and which direction the kidnappers arrived from, at least they now knew they were searching on the right side of the road. That was a start, but not a great one.

That was as far as they got before Sam arrived.

"Bloody took you long enough." Sliding into their booth with a muffled bone popping as he sat, Chloe pushed her phone at him before he had the chance to complain about not being able to find them, or for that matter ask why they were even sitting at a pizza place when Daniella was still missing. As he was so fond of pointing out, Adler was his job. But that didn't mean that they were going to just leave her for dead. "Watch this."

Uncharacteristically silent as he obeyed the command to take the phone, their hands brushed in the trade; if she didn't know any better, the dark-haired beauty could have sworn that she had just touched a sheet of ice. Far from an exact science, there might have been something to that whole thing about warm hands, warm heart: light incarnate, her ex just exuded a tangible glow, yet his brother on the other hand... Perhaps there had been a time when Sam wasn't so aloof, but if it had ever existed life had robbed him. Not to say that he was a bad guy - he was there where it counted, and he had even risked a bullet for Nadine when they were less than cordial. Okay, so maybe they weren't the best of friends now either, but they'd come a long way from openly threatening to kill one another.

Caught up to speed on their half of the investigation as he defrosted from the damp that had seeped into his bones from the weather, the grizzled brunette replayed the clips for clues that they might have missed. Painting quite the picture, Frazer explained about the beating and that there had been two hipsters in the store, that the trio had vanished before charges could be pressed. It was also brought to light that the police didn't even pretend to do their job when the kid identified his assailant as the "the rich girl from the news". Running reconnaissance on the ground level while Sam got down there to join the search, Ross had been compiling a list of people that might know who the two were, or better yet, where they might be found. True, it was a long-shot they would be so lucky, but some criminals were just that dumb or narcissistic.

Face often in a place that was either entirely stoic or an open book (although no one ever said that it was an honest read), there wasn't room for any other emotion to even hint at what he was thinking when the video got to the arrival of Chloe and Daniella. Lines hard and deeper than time intended, at the moment Drake was set with single-minded determination to see this thing through to the end.

In truth, he had seen the teen cast similar glances at the woman during their interment in the safe house, so seeing the moon sigh softly again wasn't important enough to make a big deal over. Entirely possible that he would have found a way to bring it up anyways under lighter circumstances, the explorer was uninterested in their antics and was genuinely too concerned over the heiress to indulge in their time-wasting.

"Do I really need to remind you that if anything happens to that girl, her mother is going to deduct for every hair out of place?"

Nadine knew Bai almost as well as he did, so she could back him up on that if Chloe was still having trouble believing just how much of a harpy the businesswoman was. Speaking of the former head of the PMC, out of everyone that the responsible party could have asked for assistance, why did it have to be her? Charlie was in Argentina and rumor had it that Meenu was floating around the southern borders of France, but there were still other options that were just as good. Sure, sure, they were partners and frequently collaborated, but last he had heard, Nadine was taking some time off to work on 'personal matters'. Whatever that meant, he supposed that this was karma - the past spoke for itself, so out of everyone that could have been brought into the fold, Sam had no other choice but to concede that it made some sense to be her.

Straw nearly poking through her nose when she decided to take a drink and nod her head at the same time, the strict freelance muscle took it upon herself to reaffirm the type of person they were dealing with. A part of him was caught by surprise that she would agree with him about anything, however he wasn't the only one with Rafe in Scotland. "Wen Bai is..." honestly, Ross didn't even have a word for the other woman that was fitting, "not the sort you want to piss off."

Really? If that was all she was going to add...

"When we were first sorting out the contract with Shoreline, I came early to the office," punctuality was not at all a surprising trait in the former mercenary, "and I found her with a smoking gun in her hand. A bunch of suits had gathered at her request to discuss some kind of workers strike, and the way she told it, a CEO of some rival conglomerate had propositioned her in front of the others. Calm as death, she had asked him what his plans were for the strike since he was just so wise, and then she shot him because his terms were unacceptable. Knowing her reputation, she would have just had him dealt with privately for the harassment, but apparently the guy wasn't on an upward trend."

Eesh. Chloe didn't doubt that the mother of the heiress was a piece of work, not after the horror stories circulating around her late father, but she was in no rush to be present when it came time to collect. Although, maybe it would be best to focus on getting the teen back in their hands before they had to worry about their payment...

On the same page - at least for the time being - the trio of adventurers that really lived life looked to Sam for his contribution. "This might be Orange Tiger Association," pausing to note the look that passed between the faces of his cohorts, they knew the name, "under Deputy Mountain Master, Pan Yahui. Or," if one listened closely, they could hear the pause for dramatic effect, "these yutzes are the second coming of Shoreline."

Lids crashing over smoky grays with the weight of being the mature one of the three (what a world!), Chloe threw her head back and groaned at the paneled ceiling. Lamenting that it had been going so well up until that point, relatively speaking, to be fair it really shouldn't have come as a surprise that he'd bring up the defunct company. One of those forever kinds of things, it was just the sort of relationship the two had, even after all of these years.

However that didn't mean that Nadine was going to take it laying down. Glaring daggers through hazel eyes more murderous than they were beguiling (not to say that there wasn't something there when she let her guard down), her muscular figure had coiled back in the blink of an eye. Back in the day, she had had the speed and dexterity to lash out before anyone knew what was what, however time had taken off a sliver of that edge. Still a threat to be sure, there was now a window for Drake to brace himself for the bundle of rage as she lunged into his bubble.

All claws and fangs and everything else that made up nightmares, the woman sneered, "Only you would care enough about ancient history to bring that back up, Drake."

Word spreading like wildfire through the bush, there was a very easy target there for her to tear into, and crazily enough for just a moment she considered being the bigger person and refraining from taking such a low blow. Then he made the error of tempting fate by playing like he was waiting patiently for a child to finish their outburst, eyes blinking just as they had when he'd duped her men into grabbing the golden cross under the monastery.

So much for water under the bridge. "I guess it is true what they say about history repeating itself."

Absent during the whole beginning of the second Adler affair, by the time Nadine had come into the situation there had only been enough time for an abridged telling of events; unnecessary, watching the ex-con handle this mild inconvenience told her everything she needed to know. He could rest on the excuse of this just being a job - maybe he really had convinced himself of as much - but it was obviously much more personal for him. Drake might have taken this gig on out of guilt for his hand in Rafe's death, or maybe it really was just the money, however she refused to believe that his relationship to the multi-billionaire wasn't a factor.

Shaped into the charming lowlife that he was by necessity, the external influences of his youth, internal mischief, and society, Sam wouldn't trade his life for all the money in the world. And he had a pretty good idea of what kind of haul that meant refusing. Having said that, he could do without everyone he had ever spoken to and their grandmother dictating his reasons for putting so much into this job.

Blood beading over the imperfect pebble-pattern of her skin, the warm wetness welled up over her knuckles and ran down her fingers as the blade was wrenched free. Angel and Ashley seemed satisfied by her answer (and even more so by the renewed sobs that followed the extraction of the knife), but it also could have been that the time for them to have their fun had passed, because the next thing she knew one of them had cuffed her right wrist while the other began to undo the restraints. Mumbling under their breath about wasting their time, whoever had adorned the silver bracelet was clearly intending to bind the left was well.

Weakened from the ordeal and visibly shaken to the core, the heiress slumped forward once she was able; deep as the numerous cuts ran, it was the not knowing what to expect next that was affecting her the most. Ashley had gotten up and was busy rearranging things to keep the path clear, and Angel had come up behind the girl, knotting a firm grasp through the teen's hair that went root-deep. There's no rest for the wicked.

Daniella wanted to believe that they would be the worst of it, but to be a leader you needed some kind of an edge to keep your subordinates in line. Slack between the cuffs rattling with a metallic tinkle when Angel forced her to move out of the seat and through the pitch blackness, she would have stumbled forward if it weren't for the nails digging into her scalp to prevent such mishaps. Mind racing from the rising panic that was flooding through her body and inner eye reeling from the memories of her parents' tapes, the teen wanted to throw herself on the floor and just beg for mercy, but she knew that these two would never grant it. The boss on the other hand... Well, that all depended on what exactly it was that they wanted her for.