Page 92 of Reset

For Sarah.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Callum focused on Elle—the pixie-faced genius. “You’ve found his phone, but no’ the GPS implants?”

She shook her head. “Just the phone. But it’s here, in Paris, and it’s on the move. Someone has it. Someone else, not Ryan, because there are no other signals setting off alarms.”

“And it’s definitely Ryan’s?” Lake asked.

“Definitely.”

“Dimitri, Megan, Lake, you’re with me.” Callum grabbed his weapon and shoulder holster from his duffle. “Where we heading?” he asked Elle.

“Corner of Rue Daguerre and Rue de Grancey. About fifteen minutes from here.”

“Keep me up to date on the phone’s movement.” Callum strode to the door. “Julia, call down and tell them I need my car brought round.” He glanced at Lake as they rushed for the elevator. “You got a gun?”

Lake pushed back his beige denim jacket to reveal the holster on his hip.

It took a millennium to get out of the hotel, into the car, and drive to Montparnasse. Callum abandoned their vehicle near the Metro entrance at the end of Rue Daguerre, and they walked up the long, narrow street.

A café on the corner had tables spilling out into the road. Not that it mattered since there wasn’t any traffic, only pedestrians shopping at the market stalls lining each side of the street.

“I know he isn’t here, that it’s just his phone, but this is exactly the kind of place he’d gravitate to.” Megan pointed at the Fromagerie, with its bright red stall covered in hundreds of different types of cheese. “There’s a patisserie up there, a crêperie, cured meats... This is Ryan’s Nirvana.”

She wasn’t wrong. Callum took out his phone and called Elle, his eyes scanning the crowd, looking for anything that might lead him to Ryan.

“Where is it?” he asked when she answered.

“It’s stopped moving. Gimme a sec.”

They passed a fish shop, its stall loaded with mussels. Then a fruit stand, piled high with all colors and kinds of fruit. The smell of fresh strawberries merged with warm baked croissants as they hit the patisserie.

“If he’s here, just eating his way along the street, I’m gonna kill him,” Dimitri muttered.

“Okay,” Elle said in Callum’s ear. “You’ll never believe this—the phone is in a McDonalds. No way this is Ryan. He wouldn’t walk past French food to get a cheap mass-produced hamburger.”

“Where’s the bloody burger place, Elle?” Callum was seriously losing his patience.

“Sorry, on the right. Just past the florist. It’s bright red; can’t you see it?”

“It’s no’ red. They tried to make it blend.”

This McDonalds was beige and gold. And it still looked out of place. Especially seeing as it took up the ground floor of a classic French apartment building, complete with ironwork balconies and wooden shutters.

They made their way past the many buckets of brightly colored flowers covering the pavements. “I’ll text when I need you to call Ryan’s phone,” he told Elle.

“I’ll be ready.” She hung up.

“You can’t call yourself?” Lake asked as they pushed through the doors into the long, narrow fast-food restaurant.

“No, we need the ringtone Ryan gave Elle.”

Callum glanced at Dimitri, who nodded and led Megan through to the back of the restaurant. Together, they’d block any chance of escape from that direction. Lake lazily leaned against the wall beside the door, pretending to check his phone. No one could leave without having to get past him.

That left Callum to find their prey.

The room wasn’t packed, but it was busy. Mainly with teenagers and American tourists. None of them looked like they had any reason to have Ryan’s phone. Flicking a text to Elle, Callum scanned the diners and waited.