Brody nodded.
“Alaska though…” Jude trailed off. Something about that niggled at him and wouldn’t leave him alone.
Then it hit him. Micah had set up property in Alaska. Between the western edge of the Denali National Park and Preserve and a tiny village called Nikolai.
Jude had thought Micah had met someone. Micah had mentioned it before that Beirut mission, had said Jude wouldn’t believe who it was when he told him.
“I think I know where she went.” Jude breathed out.
King narrowed his gaze on him.
“Micah and I both purchased property about three years ago under shell corporations Micah set up for us. We wanted off-grid homes where we could bury ourselves so deep nobody could find us,” Jude began. “I purchased in New Mexico. Micah bought property in Alaska.”
“I’ll start a search there. Can you give me coordinates like those you gave King for your property?” Vivi asked, making notes on her iPad.
“I don’t have them, only a general location,” Jude explained. “Look, Micah was my best friend, but when it comes to someone’s personal safety, or that of any family they planned on having, they don’t trust anyone with that information. It can be pulled out of even the strongest ally by the right person, by the right torture.”
King grimaced. “True. Can you give us the approximate location and let Vivi begin searching?”
“I’ll give it to her, but it’s a long shot. There are hundreds of thousands of acres out in that wilderness. I’m just throwing it out there, hoping it sticks. Micah had started dating someone, said I wouldn’t believe who it was, but we never got to talk before Beirut. He was always busy, and I was too,” Jude said, glancing at Ella.
She smiled, and her lips curved in that secret way she had. She’d told him earlier that she remembered every time they’d ever been together, and he thought she was thinking of one now.
“But he was preoccupied before Beirut.”
“None of that matters,” Brody tossed out. “Micah died in Beirut. I have no idea why, but they buried him in one of the only Christian cemeteries in Lebanon. He’s dead. Why would Nina head to his property? How would she even know about it?”
Ella shrugged. “Maybe they were closer than we can imagine.”
Brody’s gaze went dark. “I don’t buy it.”
“Me either,” Chase said. “Micah loved women. I seriously doubt he’d ever settle down, much less with a mouse like Nina.”
“Damn, Chase,” Knight grumbled. “Did you ever really look at Nina?”
Chase shrugged.
Black smiled. “She was actually beautiful underneath that faded-brown, dyed-from-a-bottle hair.”
“I never really looked, I guess,” Chase said, his tone clearly indicating his angst at the oversight.
“Let me run a search, and we’ll revisit this. I just wanted you all to know she’s alive, from what I can tell, and she’s in play again,” Vivi murmured. “Next thing up for discussion…Anna Beth Caine.”
The woman in question kept her gaze on the table, her hands twisting in front of her. Jude felt sorry for her. He wasn’t thrilled with her parental unit, but he felt bad for the daughter. He wanted a few moments alone with the Piper. Just a few.
“Anna Beth has been helping me crack the code for the thumb drive Ella retrieved in Russia. She tells me her sister had secrets upon secrets, and that she doesn’t know what those were because she was locked up in an institution the last four years,” Vivi recited softly.
“There’s a story there,” Brody murmured. “You’ll tell us eventually.”
No question. Brody punctuated his statement with a quick tap of his fist on the table.
Anna Beth Caine jumped and then glared at the big soldier. Well, that’s interesting, Jude thought.
“Anna Beth,” King began. “We need all the information you can give us about your sister, your father, and your brother.”
The woman’s head snapped up at that. “I—”
Ella glanced at Jude, brows raised, a question in her gaze.
“Don’t lie to me,” King said, his voice low with just a hint of a growl. “We know about Drake.”
“How?” she asked.
“Doesn’t matter. We figured it out. And I want everything you have on your brother. I know he’s dead. I want to know how he plays into this, and you’re going to give us that information.” King’s tone left no other alternative.
Brody glared at King.
Jude rolled his eyes. So much drama. “Brody, chill out. King, there’s no reason to threaten her.”
King speared Jude with a glare of his own. “It’s not a threat. We are all in play because we’ve been used as the chess pieces in her father’s personal vendetta.” He turned the full force of his gaze on Anna Beth. “I want everything you have, and you’ll give it to me, or I will make the creator of this team suffer. I want to know your relationship to Horace Dresden. I want your sister, I want your brother, and I want you. Soon. I’m giving you another twenty-four hours before we meet again, and, Ms. Caine, if I have to pull it out of you, I will.”
Anna Beth hissed in a breath. “You threaten me and talk crap about my father. But here’s a truth for you. He’s saved all of your asses. None of you would be here without him.”
“You’ll have to expand on that for any believability,” Knight muttered. “Because right now, the picture doesn’t match the sound.”
King glanced at Ella. “Don’t,” he warned her. “Anna Beth, I’m not threatening you. Stand down, Brody.”
Ella went red in the face. Brody’s fists were clenching and unclenching.
Jude thought shit was about to go nuclear, and then Anna Beth Caine defused the situation.
“He’s right, Ella. I know the truth, but you guys don’t. I’ll give it all to you, but I need to get it together in my head. I’ve been…” She trailed off and then seemed to snap back. “Look, just give me another day or two, and I’ll give it to you,” she said clearly.
King nodded. Ella blew out a breath. Brody sat back.
Vivi
