“Yes. My team looks to me to keep it together. To keep them going no matter what. I have to be confident in what I say and what I do.”
“And if the worst comes to pass?” Winters asked gently. “If you’re wrong. What do you think will happen to your team? To Dex? You’ve assured them they can bring Sergeant Maddock home. Should you be making those kinds of promises? What if you can’t deliver?”
Sloane thought about that. It would tear them apart, but… Sloane wouldn’t let them fall. He’d been in this position before. He knew grief intimately. Suffering was an old friend. One Sloane had turned his back on some time ago. He knew the path to darkness like the back of his hand. There was no way in hell he would let Dex or the rest of his family end up there. Sloane met Winters’s eyes.
“They’re strong. Whatever happens, we’ll get through it. Together.”
Winters opened his mouth to reply, but Sloane’s phone went off. “I’m so sorry, Doctor. I need to take this.”
“Of course. Good news I hope.”
“Fingers crossed,” Sloane said, getting up. “I need to go. Thank you for everything.”
“I’ll see you soon,” Winters said.
SLOANE LEFT the office and hurried out into the hall, his phone to his ear. “Talk to me, Austen.”
“I have the list of ingredients from the formula. As I suspected, it’s a homemade concoction created by a professional cleaner. I’ve got good news and bad news.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“The bad news is that they’re all common elements that when bought individually wouldn’t raise any red flags. I did a cross-reference across the three states, and as suspected, there’s no one place where all these ingredients were purchased.”
“And the good news?”
“The sale of these particular ingredients is higher in Jersey than in New York City. So if you’re going to start somewhere, start there. It’s very possible the cleaner is either located in Jersey, or he’s making the stuff there and bringing it over.”
“Thanks, Austen.”
“I’ll call you if I find out anything else.”
“Okay, well, we got somewhere to start.”
Sloane quickly sent Ash a text, and they met in the one conference room Sparks had set up for them. The only one that was secure at the moment. His team was in there waiting for him.
“Jersey,” Sloane said, before relaying the information he’d gotten from Austen. “You got the information I asked for?”
“You know how many abandoned places there are in New Jersey?” Ash asked, shaking his head and handing over the lists his team had compiled. It was lengthy. “They got almost as many as we do.”
Sloane took a look at the printouts. Shit. Even with all their units and those in other states helping, there were way more on the list than they could get to in time.
“Maybe Sparks can get THIRDS HQ in Princeton to accept some of our units over there to help,” Letty suggested. “Put a task force together.”
Ash let out a snort. “Come on, Letty. You know how fucking long that shit takes, and then it turns into a pissing contest, and we don’t got time for that shit.”
As his team discussed possible ways to expedite the search across multiple locations in the short amount of time they had, Sloane joined Dex and Cael in reviewing the recording of the Chairman’s conversation. He watched Dex pace as Tony’s voice filled the room. After the recording ended, Dex replayed the part with Tony as he and Cael both frowned. Finally, Cael spoke up.
“I keep thinking about what Dad said about Vegas.”
“What about it,” Dex said, folding his arms over his chest as he started to pace again.
Cael faced his brother. “Dad hates Vegas. Like hates it with a fiery passion. He would never volunteer to go there, not even to celebrate.”
Sloane went pensive. “Wasn’t Vegas where Tony had to go bail you out of jail?” he asked Dex.
“There’s that too,” Cael said. “Dex was arrested in Vegas. He’s banned from, like, half the casinos there. Why would Dad suggest going there?”
Dex’s eyes widened. “Holy shit.”