Page 64 of Jack

The door opened and Roz walked in, looking around and taking note of everything. “Jack.”

“Roz. Thank you for coming.”

Bebe, Laverne, Pax, and a heavily pregnant Evelyn were with her.

“Evelyn, you do realise Alex would lose his mind if he found out you were here?”

Evelyn patted Jack’s chest. “Chill, big guy. I’m here for support only, as is Pax.”

“Thank God.”

“Show me to the war room.”

Jack started walking. “War room?”

“That’s what you military guys call it, isn’t it?”

Jack shook his head. “If by war room you mean the operations room, then no, we call it the operations room.”

Roz waved her hand around. “Whatever. Have you heard from Frederick?”

“Yes, Astrid called and said he’s going to call me at noon tomorrow and to wait to hear from him.”

“Did she sound pissed?”

“Yeah, she did.”

“Good. She never should have allowed him to get the drop on her like that. I trained her better.”

Jack tried to bite his tongue, not wanting to get into it with Roz when he needed her help, but he was damned if he was going to stand by and let Roz get away with her words. “Listen, if you’re going to bad mouth her, you can leave. That is the woman I love, and nobody gets to say anything negative about her in front of me.”

“As it should be. Now, shall we get to it?”

Jack took his place behind the wide desk that held all the equipment while Roz and the others spread out. Will took his place at the computers and began bringing up images from around the hospital.

“We know he got her away at gunpoint, but she was walking in this image and got into the car on her own accord. We assume he threatened my mother or one of us, so she went willingly. He confessed to poisoning my mum, which means he wanted us at the hospital and we played into his hands without knowing it.”

Roz raised her perfectly arched brow. “Wow, and I thought my father was an asshole.”

“The CCTV picks them up heading out of town. Once they hit the countryside we lost track, so we don’t know where he took her, but my guess is somewhere close. He’s a creature of habit and will work with what he knows best.”

Evelyn leaned back in her chair, her huge bump making the naturally graceful woman look awkward. “You couldn’t trace the call?”

“No.”

“Hmm, and is there anything out that way that you know of? A house or residence of any kind?” Pax crossed her legs as she spoke, looking a little paler than usual from her pregnancy and Jack was proud these women had stepped up for Astrid.

“Not that we know of and believe me, we’ve been looking.”

“He has to be somewhere though, and close if he’s been making visits to your mother’s home undetected.” Roz rolled her throwing stars through her knuckles as she spoke.

“I know.”

“Is he alone?”

“We believe so. He seems to have sent all the men he has working for him to London. My guess is he thinks he can talk me around and doesn’t need force, especially when he has Astrid.”

“So, he’s an idiot who underestimates his sons a lot. Got it.”