Page 115 of Lion’s Den

“Harlan will tell you he has an entrepreneurial spirit.”

“Are you telling me that Harlan would sink so low as to break Eddie’s kneecaps or outright kill him?”

Cam remained silent. He wished he could refute Dario’s conclusions, but they were true.

“Can’t see how you’d get your money back if the guy is dead. Anyway, how is this connected to The Collector? He’s a high-dollar assassin. I can’t see him lowering himself to work for a thug like Harlan.”

“I don’t know for sure, but I have a pretty good idea where this is going.”

“Don’t make me beg, Sims.”

He chuckled. “I won’t. I just need a few more minutes to chase a couple of leads. When I have the facts nailed down, I’ll tell all.”

“I’ll hold you to that. I don’t play the role of a chauffeur for nothing.”

“Copy that.”

Cam entered a command into his search engine, then sat back and watched. He shook his head when his search netted nothing. He changed his search parameters and tried again several times. Each search resulted in zip. Time to hit up the dark web.

After a series of commands, he sat back and waited for the results. Seconds later, his screen filled with information and a listing of websites where Simpson’s aliases had popped up in chat rooms. Since he wasn’t a computer expert, he figured Simpson had a few other aliases that law enforcement didn’t know about and Cam wasn’t tech savvy enough to find. He wasn’t pulling Rhys off the search he was running. Cam would rather find Sedona than add a few more charges to Simpson’s police record.

He clicked on the first link and settled back to read. The more Cam read, the more he worried. No way would anyone convince him that Sedona hadn’t been targeted. While others might believe she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, her second kidnapping in a week blew that idea out of the water.

He reached the same conclusion as he had before. Simpson needed Sedona for something. But what? Was Simpson using her as security so Cam and the others wouldn’t try to interfere? If so, he was in for a shock. That’s not how police investigative decisions worked. It wasn’t how he worked. Simpson had just issued a strong back-off-or-else command, and that was Cam’s cue to dig harder.

He considered the time element involved. An important date was driving Simpson. What could it be?

His phone buzzed. Cam glanced at the screen, swiped the glass, and tapped the speaker button. “Go, Rhys.”

“I’ve got something.”

Cam’s heart leaped against his chest wall. Yes! “Talk to me.”

“I checked all known Simpson aliases and different combinations of the names against property owners in the area where Sedona and Simpson fell off the map.”

“And?”

“I have a location.”

Hope burst into full force inside him. “What name did he use and where is his hideout?”

“Sullivan Arnold owns a four-bedroom cabin near the top of Lion’s Gate Mountain.”

The name of the man and the mountain settled into Cam’s gut, and he knew his friend had unearthed the information The Thunderhawks needed to find and rescue Sedona. Was that all, though? He felt as though he should know something more, but he couldn’t retrieve anything. His mind was a blank slate.

“I have others.”

“No, that’s it.”

“Are you sure, sir?”

“Yeah, I’m positive. It goes along with what I found in my research.”

“The uncle?”

“That’s right.”

“What about the uncle?” Dario demanded. “Hey, you promised to fill me in when you researched a couple of things.”