that too. I’m the only one who’s been with Carreon. I know what makes him tick. Whatever he says, I’ll be able to tell whether he’s lying or not.”
“She has a point,” Jacob said. “She should be there with us.”
“She has to,” Ike finally broke in. “Carreon insisted on it.”
Zeke frowned. “Why?”
Ike ran his hand over his mouth, then took a deep breath before continuing, “He’s threatening to murder a woman unless you and Liz meet with him.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered.
Zeke held back an oath. They followed Ike to the meeting room. On the table was a large monitor that hadn’t been there before. Kele and Diaz sat to the side of it, interrupted in their strategy to get Pedro. Next to them were Paul and the clan’s other young men who excelled in information technology. Their monitors showed what was on the larger screen. Both Kele and Diaz watched the transmission, their expressions troubled.
Zeke moved in front of the largest monitor and the camera that would transmit his image.
Carreon’s face filled the screen. His lobe was swollen and red from Liz having yanked off his earring, his throat and neck scored by her nails, his light eyes frosty with contempt. “Where’s Liz?”
She joined Zeke, standing next to him.
Carreon smiled.
Zeke took Liz’s hand. Her fingers were icy and shook slightly.
“I’ll make this brief,” Carreon said, then spoke to Liz. “You and your father are coming back to our clan. Where you belong.”
“Never,” Zeke said.
“Never?” Carreon mimicked, his smile deadly. “Don’t be so certain of that.” Again, he addressed Liz. “Do you want to see anyone die because of you?”
Zeke squeezed her fingers, a warning not to answer or play into Carreon’s sick game. “This transmission is over,” Zeke announced.
“Very well,” Carreon said. “If that’s the way you want it and you refuse to bargain, this is what’s going to happen.” He moved to the side, out of view.
Zeke put his hand up to keep his people from shutting down the transmission.
The camera showed a well-appointed office that could have been in a thousand places. In front of the desk was a brawny young man Zeke had never seen before. However, the black scarf in his hands was the same one from Zeke’s vision. The man had wrapped it around a woman’s throat. Zeke’s breathing picked up. He recognized the scene and her mouth. In minutes, her tongue would protrude from her lips.
The camera’s angle showed her from the waist up. Her breasts were bare, her eyes rolling into the back of her head from lack of oxygen.
“No!” Liz shouted.
“Liz, Liz, Liz,” Carreon crooned out of camera range. “You want this to stop?”
Zeke squeezed Liz’s hand again so she wouldn’t answer. The woman made gagging noises. Her face turned a dark red, but she didn’t fight. She seemed incapable of doing so, her arms hanging limply at her sides.
Zeke whispered to Liz, “It’s a trick.”
“No, it’s real,” she breathed.
“If it was, she’d be fighting.” Zeke recalled the scratches on the man’s hands in his vision. He looked for them now.
“Carreon must have drugged her,” Liz moaned.
He came back into camera range, standing next to the man and woman. “Do you want this to stop?”
“Yes,” Liz cried.
“Good. I want you and your father at my stronghold within—”
“Not going to happen,” Zeke growled. “Neither of them is leaving here.”
“Do you agree with that, Liz?” Carreon asked.
Zeke answered before she could. “It doesn’t matter if she does or not. I’m not letting either of them go.”
“I see.” He sighed deeply, then murmured, “That’s too bad. Do it,” he said to the young man.
Liz gasped and turned away as he finished strangling the woman.
Horrible noises poured from her before it was over. Zeke knew he’d never forget them or the way she’d fallen to the floor, her limbs flopping lifelessly.
“Still want to stay with Neekoma?” Carreon asked.
Liz shuddered. Zeke pulled her against him. He kept her face to his shoulder so she couldn’t see the woman’s body.
At Liz’s silence, Carreon inhaled deeply as though trying to control his irritation. “I’m giving you and your father twelve hours to return to my stronghold. If the two of you aren’t there when the time’s up, another woman will die.” He reached for something to the side.
Liz trembled. Zeke tightened his hold on her, then stared at the woman Carreon pulled into camera range. She was young, quite beautiful, her blue-black hair fanned over her shoulders, her eyes an unusual shade of green, given her warm skin tone. The camera revealed her bare breasts, just like the first woman. Had Carreon raped her and the other one? Had the young man? One of them had tied this young woman’s hands behind her back. Tears dripped from her sooty lashes. Her expression registered pure terror.
“She’s next,” Carreon said, “unless Liz and her father return to my—”
“Please do as he says,” the young woman cried out. “Help me.
“I’m giving you twelve hours,” Carreon said. “After that, it’s her life, then someone else’s. Perhaps I’ll choose a child next.” He gestured to the woman on the floor. “That one has—or had—two kids. Twins. Do you want to be responsible for those little boys dying too? Remember, it’s your decision.”
The monitor went black.
Liz moaned.
Zeke held her close and spoke to his men. “Did you get the location?”
Paul shook his head. “He has it set up so we couldn’t track it.”
“I can’t let someone else die,” Liz cried.
“You won’t,” Zeke said. “We’ll fix this.”
“How? You don’t know where he is. Where he has those women.”
“Why were they nude…at least from the waist up?” Jacob asked.
“He probably raped them,” Ike offered.
Liz whimpered.
“Maybe not,” Kele said.
Zeke frowned at her. “What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you notice their makeup? How heavy it was? Who looks like that?”
“Prostitutes,” Jacob answered.
“Or performers,” Kele said, then spoke to Paul. “Play it back. Stop when Carreon moves out of camera range.”
Zeke watched the recording as the others did. Once Carreon’s image was gone, Kele said, “Freeze it there.”
The frame filled the screen.
“Look to the left of that guy’s right shoulder,” Kele said, pointing her pen. “See that thing on the wall? Looks like a calendar to me. The kind used to promote businesses—maybe the one where they are. Could be it’s a gentleman’s club or a strip joint. Can you bring the calendar up?”
Using image-enhancing software, Paul isolated the area, blowing up the picture until a fuzzy blob filled the screen.
“Sharpen it,” Zeke said.
Paul tried. However, the way the light fell on the glossy paper had created shadows that obscured part of the wording.
“Lighten it,” Kele said.
Paul did. That only washed out more details.
