Page 152 of Missile Strike
Sharp. Mineral. Familiar.
His body went still.
He’d smelled it before. At the gala.
When he’d taken Hassan down.
Danny wheeled, raking the room with a quick glance.
He yanked open the closet. Three men’s dress shirts and two pairs of trousers. A brown leather duffel on the floor next to a pair of men’s sneakers. He rummaged through the bag. Men’s underwear, socks. Toiletries.
Talia had housed her brother.
Protected him.
Until she’d murdered him.
Why? It made no sense.
What had Bella told him Hassan’s actual words to her were?
He said I was in danger and trusted the wrong person.
And then at the gala. The sins of the father shouldn’t be visited upon the child.
Hassan hadn’t been hunting Bella.
He stepped back into Talia’s bedroom, taking in the wall-to-wall photos. Using his phone to document what he found, he sent the photos to Nathan’s phone and to the homicide detective who’d called him the night before.
Hassan had been trying to warn Bella while still protecting his sister.
Because Talia wasn’t about to give up her obsession.
His phone buzzed.
Nathan. Relief loosened his chest.
“Lachlan and I just landed. Where the hell did you get those photos?”
“At Talia Collins’ apartment. I sent them to the Charlotte police. There’s nothing here that tells me where she might have taken Bella, and she took all her tech with her.” Nathan’s ability to hack into anything was his last hope. “Can you trace her phone if I give you the number?”
“I gotta find a place to set up my computer, but yeah. Give it to me.”
Danny rattled off Talia’s digits.
“Hang tight, amigo. We’ll be in touch.”
He’d just reached Bella’s home when Nathan called back.
“I’ve got a general area.” Nathan rattled off the closest intersection. “It’s a mix of residential, retail, and industrial developments. Unless I can get a better ping, it’s going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.”
Danny plugged the street names into Google Maps and scanned the area.
Too many options.
His gaze snagged on the wastewater treatment facility nearby.
And all the undeveloped wooded land surrounding it.
