Ash nodded. “I’ll get on it.” He pulled up the Airbnb website and immediately started scrolling through the Oakland listings.
Levi watched the screen. “The closing is soon—we have to confirm that this is where Hannah’s being kept. Ash, is there any update on the car rental?”
“Whoever rented it used one of those ‘special government liaison’ passports that you can get from Dominica for five hundred thousand dollars.” Ash didn’t look up from the screen. “Which just makes me feel more certain it’s them.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Levi cautioned.
“There’s nothing that would work on Airbnb—on to Craigslist,” Ash said, opening the other site.
Levi scowled. “Ew.”
“What’re you looking for?” I asked.
“A rental property nearby, one that we can take possession of immediately. There aren’t any hotels close enough—” Ash stopped and clapped his hands together. “Bingo—here’s a lovely, boxy condominium for rent, right in the same neighborhood.”
“Make sure you use a fake name to rent it, and pay cash.” Levi peered at the screen. “A lot of foreign investment companies own real estate around here—no one knows who the hell they actually are. I don’t want to give Li Na a heads-up that we’re moving into the neighborhood.”
I stood to go. “I need to let Lauren know what’s going on.”
“Of course,” Levi said. “We’ll brief her too. But tell her not to get her hopes up—not yet.”
Ash grinned at me as I climbed out of the van. “She can get her hopes up. I know what I’m doing.”
I heard Levi and him arguing about that, but I closed the door, shutting out the noise, anxious to get home. I couldn’t wait to tell Lauren that we finally had what appeared to be a viable lead.
She came home from Paragon, Timmy in tow, a few hours later.
“Babe.” I wrapped her in my arms and kissed the top of her head. “It’s so good to see you.”
Timmy cleared his throat. “I’ll just…leave you to it.” He hustled to the guesthouse.
Lauren poured us each a glass of wine and took a long sip. “Mimi White came to my office today. She’s the one who leaked the news of the sale to your distributors.”
“I know. Allen Trade called me earlier.” I studied her face, which was pale and tense. “How did it go?”
“She said she couldn’t bear to see us give in to terrorist tactics. She wanted to fight back.”
I rubbed her arm. “She has an activist streak, huh?”
“She’s probably right. I’m not helping with the big picture. I’m giving in to violence, which means I’m resetting the new normal to a very low place to conduct business.”
“I’ll say it again: it’s not your fault. What’re you going to do about Mimi?”
“She said I could bring a civil suit against her, but I declined. The only taste for revenge I have is the one I’m itching for with Li Na.” She raised her gaze to meet mine. “Is everything okay with the distributors? I can’t handle this deal blowing up right now. We’re so close.”
“I’ve got them all in line. It’s going to be okay.”
“Good.” She blew out a deep breath. “Thank you.”
“I have other news. My brothers found a lead.” I silently prayed that they were right—we needed this break. I reached out and took her hand. “They found a house in Oakland. They think it might be the guards who have Hannah.”
“How…?”
“Ash videotaped one of the guys, and he matched it to the surveillance feed from the night they broke into your house.”
“When you say matched—”
“I mean he used facial-recognition software. It was a match.”