“But what if he really is bluffing about that? We could be sitting all day somewhere for nothing.”
“Then wouldn’t that be good? That he doesn’t know where we are?”
“But that still doesn’t take him off the table,” Mallette answered. “That still leaves him out there, being a pain in my ass, being a nuisance, destroying everything I’ve worked so hard to build.”
“There’s always the girlfriend, again. She’s still out there.”
Mallette put his hand on his chin. “She’s the one constant we know.”
“And today might be the day to grab her.”
“Why?”
“Well, if Jacobs is out there looking for us, then he’s obviously not with her.”
“That still leaves the other guy.”
Selby shrugged. “Maybe not. Maybe he’s out there with Jacobs sneaking around. Maybe it’s worth a shot.”
Not having any other clear options, Mallette agreed. “Fine. Make it happen. Take her.”
“Take her, or take her out?”
“Taking her out doesn’t get us any closer to stopping Jacobs at the moment. It only causes him more pain. And right now, that doesn’t help us either. We need her to bring Jacobs to us. We need her. Alive.”
“I’ll get it done. Take her to the warehouse?”
“Yeah. Take two men with you. I’ll get the rest over there and wait for you.”
Tiffany was just about to walk out the door. She would be alone for the first time in a long time. It felt kind of weird. It was nice, in a way, but that feeling didn’t last long when she remembered what was likely going to happen. She tried not to think about the risk that she was taking and focused on what the result would be after it was done. They could get on with their lives.
Jacobs put his hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes. “You’re sure you wanna do this?”
Tiffany grinned. “No. But it’s the best way. We both know that.”
Jacobs looked down for a second. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”
She kissed him softly. “I know that. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t have complete trust and faith in you.”
“I guess we should go. Everyone else is outside in the van.”
“Van?”
“Eddie got some type of van for this. It was the best way to get all the equipment and monitors in there, along with all of us, and it’s a car they don’t know. So we should be able to stay out of sight.”
They walked out of the house, immediately seeing the blue van parked out front. It had the name of some fake electric company on it for extra authenticity. Thrower was in the driver’s seat while Franks was waiting by the side door.
“Not taking Gunner?” Tiffany asked.
“He’s inside already,” Jacobs replied. “Hack’s in there too.”
“Oh. The gang’s all here.” She took a few deep breaths, looking as though she was getting nervous. It was one thing to talk about doing something like this, but it suddenly got more real when it was time to actually put the plan into action.
“You OK?”
Tiffany nodded, breathing out. “Yeah.”
“You don’t have to do this, you know. If you’re not feeling it, we can do it another way.”
Tiffany shook her head. “No. This is still the best way. I’ll be fine.”
“OK. I guess it’s time, then.” Jacobs gave her a kiss, then walked her to her car. Once she was in, he returned to the van and hopped inside.
“Ready to roll?” Franks asked.
“Yep. As soon as she pulls out, keep a loose tail.”
“Will do,” Thrower said. “I’ll keep it looser once we get to the school.”
Jacobs looked at the monitors again. There were six of them. “What am I looking at?”
Hack explained it. “This monitor here, as you can see by Tiff’s face, is the camera I put in the dashboard of her car. This monitor has the tracking device that I put in the car, so we’ll have that location at all times. This third monitor, that has a tracker inside her shoe, so if they take her, we’ll still know where she is. The fourth monitor is a little camera that I placed in her necklace. The fifth monitor is also tracking her location, also by a tracker placed in her necklace.”
“And the sixth?”
“Well, if they take her out of the car, they take off her shoes, they rip off her necklace, we still have one more tracking device that I put on the inside part of her pants. So we should never lose contact with her or not know where she’s at. We’ve got her every step of the way.”
Jacobs nodded, pleased that they seemed to have everything covered.
“Now all we gotta do is wait for the other shoe to drop,” Franks said.
They followed Tiffany to school, giving several car lengths distance between them. Once she pulled into the parking lot, they pulled over onto the side of the street where they could still observe.
It didn’t take long. As soon as Tiffany had parked, she’d barely got out of the car before being approached. It was Selby who came from behind. He was on her before she even knew it.
He had a hand inside his jacket. “I got a gun inside here. So you either come with me, or I can splatter you on the ground right here.”
“What do you want?”
“We’re gonna go for a little drive. Cooperate and you’ll live to see tomorrow.”
Even though she knew this was likely going to happen, Tiffany was still terrified. She didn’t have to act the part.
“Here we go,” Franks said, staring at the monitors.
They watched as Selby led Tiffany over to another car. There was another man waiting behind the wheel of it. Selby pushed her into the back seat and away they went. As soon as they pulled out of the parking lot, Thrower followed.
“Everything’s going perfectly so far,” Franks said.
“Remember,” Jacobs said. “Whenever they stop and get out, you get ready.”
Hack nodded. “I’ll be ready.”
“If we can, I’ll get Tiff out here and in
