Nate rushed into Sophie's loft.
"Sophie" he shouted, but received no answer. He adventured further inside. "Sophie" he suddenly stopped when he saw the woman sitting on the floor, her arms holding tightly to a stuffed animal that they had bought the day before.
"Soph…" he whispered while kneeling down in front of her.
The grifter slowly lifted her head up and Nate could see her red eyes and tears streaming down the curves of her cheeks. "What happened?" he gently cupped her left cheek.
"She's gone, Nate" she sobbed. "She…" she took a deep breath. "I went to wake her up for breakfast, but I couldn't find her anywhere."
"Okay" he got up and looked around his daughter's room. "She hasn't run away." He muttered.
"How do you know? Maybe I'm such a terrible mother that she couldn't wait a day to run away from me"
"No, no…" he shook his head. "Her clothes and bag are still here" he started thinking out loud.
Sophie mentally kicked herself. In her panicking she didn't look for details. She got up and followed the mastermind's train of thoughts.
"And I've also had to put the alarm code to come inside" Nate continued. "No, something happened" he walked out and went into the bathroom. "The bathroom window is open." He examined. "and they are signs of someone crawling through it." He put his head outside and looked up. "They came down from the roof"
"She's been kidnapped?" she gasped. She didn't know what was worse, her daughter running away or Amy being in danger.
He nodded. He took his phone out and speed dialed his team. "Eliot, call the others. We've got an emergency. Come to Sophie's house" He close the call, no other words were needed.
"Nate…" He could see that Sophie was barely keeping it together.
"It's going to be okay" he put his arms around her and brought her body close to his. "We'll find her." He muttered in her hair as she clung to him desperately.
"It's all my fault" she said, her words muffled into his chest.
"It's not, Sophie, don't blame yourself for something you had no control over. We didn't know that something like this was going to happen." He gently stepped back to look at her. "If you're to blame, so am I. I knew that she wasn't telling us everything, but I let it slide for now, instead of insisting."
"But it happened while she was under my supervision"
"It could have easily happened at my place." He reassured. "Let's not think about it. The only thing that matters now, it's finding our daughter and bringing her safely back to us. Okay?"
She quietly nodded.
He leaned his forehead against hers and he kissed her, a sweet, delicate kiss to give her the strength to get through this.
Before she got the chance to come out from her shock and deepen the unexpected kiss, there was a knock at the door. Reluctantly they let go of each other and Nate went to open the door.
"What's wrong?" Eliot stormed in followed by Hardison and Parker.
"Someone kidnapped Amy" Nate told them closing the door. His first instinct was to get in his car and find his daughter and make whoever took her pay for it, but they needed a plan. They needed to know who they were up against with.
"Wait? What?" Parker exclaimed worried.
"I'm afraid to ask…" Eliot frowned. "but are you sure she hasn't simply run away… she's not exactly…"
"We've checked. Her things are still here and they are signs of someone entering through the bathroom window" Nate interrupted him.
"Okay" Hardison put his laptop on the kitchen table and sat down. " I can access all surveillance cameras from last night around this area and see what we got" he started tying.
"We went to bed at about half past ten…" Sophie tried to help giving him a time frame.
"If he were a professional, he would have waited about an hour before going inside" Eliot added. "to make sure that they had fallen asleep."
"Got it" Hardison exclaimed. They saw a man entering the building at half past eleven and then coming down with Amy on his shoulder passed midnight. Sophie's street wasn't really busy, so nobody saw anything. Then they saw him opening the back of a van and throwing the girl inside. Sophie hissed at the image. The next thing they saw was the van taking off.
"Can you see the plate numbers?" Nate asked from over the hacker's shoulder.
"Sorry man, I can't get a clear image." Hardison shook his head. "But" he rewinded the feed. "I think I can get an image of the guy" The others waited patiently as he worked in getting an ID on the man. "Got it" he exclaimed. "Wow, I got a hit on my computer."
"What does it mean?" Nate asked.
"It means that I've already did a research on this guy, when you asked me to check on your daughter's past." He answered with a solemn gaze.
"Who is he?"
"His name is Travis Black, he is… or was… or…"
"Cut the chase, Hardison" Eliot hissed.
"Well, he's Amy's foster dad. I guess, he still is since she technically ran away from their house"
"Why would he kidnap our daughter?" Sophie demanded. "Why follow her here?"
"I don't know…" Nate mused "but he's not going to get away with it"
"Well, I did make that research you've asked me and…" he paused "here's what I've found" he showed them Amy's file.
Sophie and Nate read Amy's carefully, suddenly Sophie gasped. "Oh, my poor baby"
Amy had been in the car with her adoptive parents when they had the car accident. The same accident that had killed them. She had been injured too. She had a couple of heart surgery and by the time she was in full health again, no one had wanted to adopt her. That's when she entered the foster system care. The last family she had been staying with were the Blacks.
"I don't know who checks out these families, but this guy is a right mess. He's wanted in Texas with another name for trafficking. He seems like trouble."
"He is" Nate agreed.
"Foster families aren't always good" Parker commented having had bad experiences too. "But some are nice"
"Can you see where the van stopped?" Eliot asked Hardison.
"No, I've lost it when he went to a part of town without surveillance or traffic cameras. This is the last known location"
"This is…" Sophie exclaimed frustrated. "This is pointless . For all we know, they're already on their way to L.A."
"Sophie, I've told you we will get her back and we will" he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
In that moment Nate's phone began to rang. It was an unknown number.
"Hello" he answered.
"Dad" he heard a fainted voice. "Daddy"
"Amy" he shouted. "Amy, where…"
"Not so fast Mister Ford" an amused man's voice interrupted him. "Before you can see your daughter again I need you to do something for me"
"What do you want?" he barked.
"Oh, just a quarter of a million dollars in small notes. Let's see how much you care about your daughter"
"If you…"
"Ah, ah. I don't think you are in any position to make threats. You've got two hours to gather the money. I don't care if you're rich or if you have to rob a bank to get it. I'll then text you the address where to deliver them. Two hours or I'll… well I don't need to finish the phrase, do I?" and he terminated the call.
"Hardison?"
"Sorry man, I didn't have time to trace to call"
Everyone stayed in silence, lost in their thoughts.
"Now what do we do?" Parker suddenly asked.
Nate was angry, his eyes a shade of dark blue. "Now, we do our job. We make the bad guy pay."
A/N Sorry for the wait, I've been a bit busy. Thanks for keeping reading and reviewing. How will the exchange go? Will they manage to save Amy?