Page 89 of Acting on Instinct
Jeopardy loaded the plane and asked for passports while White listened on audio, with her computer up, to identify the voices.
“White. I have AI verification that the first two men were in Kira’s hotel room during the kidnapping. Zip-tie them. Over.”
Ty wanted to be first man on.
T-Rex talked Ty out of that.
T-Rex told Ty that he was last on the plane because Rory was limping from his last two days of fun and games with the bad guys, and they needed to protect him. Ty knew that T-Rex was afraid that Ty would lose his mind and beat the men to death.
Which, honestly, might be exactly what Ty meant to do.
His hand gripped the door handle, and his foot jackhammered the floorboard, ready to jump off his X and move into play.
Ty was straining at professionalism in ways he wasn’t prepared for. It was a physical and mental battle to stay squared away.
Rory knew it. He was awake and standing on the passenger seat, every muscle in his body taut as he stared out the window.
“Echo Actual. The plane is secured. No joy with our missing person. Over.”
“White. Echo Two move into place with K9, standing by.”
Okay, screw professionalism. If Kira wasn’t screaming for help, she was endangered. Or … Ty wrestled the rest of that thought to the side as he flung his door wide and jumped out of Rory’s way.
Pointing toward the open door as Ty ran, he called, “Rory, find Kira. Go!”
Rory was a bolt of lightning as he bunched his muscles and shot forward, taking the stairs in a single leap and coming to a screeching halt at the top. His nose in the air, he sniffed left and right.
Ty made it up beside Rory to find the four men, sitting in the overstuffed leather chairs, zipped at the ankles, and held in place with zip ties attaching their wrists to the chairs’ arms. Echo stood guns trained, making sure that no one thought about doing anything stupid.
Ty moved to the cockpit and called Rory to the front of the plane so they could do a systematic search, not under the bar, not in the kitchen cabinets, not in the bathroom.
Rory got excited in the bedroom, his nose went to the floor and up in the air.
Ty checked the closet, then knelt to check if Kira had been stuffed under the bed, but it was a solid frame like in hotels.
Rory jumped on the bed and whined as he sniffed the covers.
She’d been there.
But the bed was now neatly made.
“White. Do you have her Echo Two? Over.”
“Echo Two. Negative.”
Ty shut the bedroom door and started to knock on the panels to see if there was a hidden compartment.
His mind went to the heavy-duty totes in the hold.
Yeah, they were big enough to fold a body.
He pushed that thought hard to the side.
“Rory, please find Kira. Find Kira.” Ty’s whole body begged for the miracle of having her back in his arms.
Rory scratched at the blankets, barking his own frustration.
Ty pulled the blankets and sheets back, and there was no blood, no signs of fluids.
