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“People don’t pay, I sell them. I need the cash back somehow.”
“Okay, so you sold it on to Nia.”
“She won it in the auction. I thought she was crazy buying that thing. It was full of shit.”
“Maybe not,” I mutter.
Harry told me the painting she recovered from the storage unit was worth a ton of cash. Maybe someone knew the painting was in there. Maybe that’s why Nia’s missing now—someone is trying to recover a million-dollar payout.
That could make this situation very dangerous. I just hope my girl cooperates and doesn’t do anything that might put her life in jeopardy.
I write down Mrs. Wellford’s details and tuck the note into my pocket. Then I wait for the guys to rejoin me. They take a little time, but when they do, they’re both grim-faced.
“Got what you need?” I ask.
They nod. “Okay.” I turn to the owner. “Thank you for your help.”
He waves this off. “Not like I have anything better to do, like, I don’t know, run a business.”
I ignore his bitching and follow Slider and Beanie out to the car.
“What did you get?” I ask as soon as we reach it.
Beanie pulls his phone out and shows me a picture of the CCTV monitor. There’s a man’s face on it.
“That’s our guy?” I ask, peering intently at it.
“That’s who beat on the owner, yeah,” Beanie says.
“Do you think that’s who took Nia?” Slider asks, his eyes scanning the landscape as we stand.
“I don’t know, but it seems a coincidence. He’s looking for the portrait Nia bought that just happens to be worth in excess of a million bucks? I’d say he’s involved.”
“Me too,” Beanie admits. “How do we find him?”
“If the portrait was in the storage unit, I’m going to assume he knows Mrs. Wellford. So, we start there and work our way back.”
“Okay, buddy.”
Slider runs a hand over his jaw and says, “We’ll find her, J-Dog. I promise, we’ll find her.”
“I know.”
I just hope we find her alive.
