Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

Did they all know the two of them were lovers now?

“Do you think Marge survived?” Nicole asked, changing the subject.

“Yes.” Chris seemed confident that it was true.

“But she wasn’t wearing a mask,” Nicole reminded him.

“I know,” the network head acknowledged. “The first thing the pilots would’ve done after donning their oxygen masks would be to descend as quickly as possible to 10,000 feet so there would be more oxygen for anyone still on board. She might have suffered frostbite or incurred a few injuries if something hit her on its way out the door. Otherwise, she should be fine.”

Sean stared at him. “How do you know all that?”

He shrugged. “Before I became head of the East Coast division of the network, I worked in special ops and was a team leader. I wanted to be prepared for any eventuality, so I learned how to fly helicopters and pilot just about every kind of plane.”

David smiled. “I don’t think there’s a land, air, or sea vehicle Chris can’t operate. He can even captain one of those small subs that marine biologists use to study oceanic creatures.”

Nicole blinked. “Wow.”

“I’ll second that,” Sean said. Chris went above and beyond no matter what job he performed.

“After today,” Nicole mentioned, “I wouldn’t mind learning how to fly a plane.”

“Me either,” Sean added.

“I can arrange that,” Chris offered absently as he wrote on his notepad. “So, as it stands now, we know nothing more than we did before they kidnapped Nicole, and we’re waiting to see where they take Marge?”

“Actually,” Sean said, “we know quite a bit more. I had a little talk with Marge after I kicked the other guys’ asses. She told me the name of her boss and someone she referred to as his henchman.”

Chris stopped writing and looked up. “Do you think she told you the truth?”

“I’m pretty sure.”

Nicole nodded. “I don’t think she was lying. She thought Sean was going to turn the tables on her and torture her son to get answers out of her.”

Seth frowned. “Who is her son?”

“Kent, the man who punched me.”

Chris shot Sean a look. “Did you torture him anyway?”

Sean frowned. “I didn’t get a chance to. But I did kick his ass.”

Lips twitching, Chris returned his attention to his notepad and held his pencil poised over it, ready to write. “What are the names she gave you?”

“The henchman she claimed to deal with is Alan Danvers. And the ringleader is Augustus Benford.”

“Augustus Benford?” Chris repeated.

“Yes.”

Seth studied Chris. “It doesn’t sound familiar to me. Do you know him?”

“I know of him.” Chris set the notepad and pencil down and picked up his phone. “He and Roubal fought together in Vietnam and kept in touch over the years. So far, we have found nothing to suggest a close relationship between the two. They weren’t best buddies who got together often or anything like that. They invested in some of the same stocks. But that’s not uncommon with men of their means.” His thumbs danced over the phone’s screen, but Sean couldn’t tell whether Chris was looking something up online, making notes, or sending a text. “The special ops team Sean ditched earlier followed the dark gray SUV that was used to transport Nicole to the airport after it left. It led them to a location marked Private Property.” More tapping. “We’ve been unable to determine who owns the building on it. It doesn’t show up on any maps we’ve searched.” He shook his head. “If it’s one of Augustus Benford’s holdings, we should’ve already found it in our investigation. The fact that we didn’t—and the difficulty my team is having digging up information on it and this group—leads me to believe that Benford has far more resources at his disposal than we suspected. Even Roubal wasn’t this secretive.”

Seth nodded. “It only took the network a few hours to conclude that Roubal was involved with Kayla and Oliver’s kidnapping and provide us with likely locations to search.”

“Exactly.” Chris tapped some more on his phone. “We found multiple business and personal properties owned by Benford. But I don’t remember seeing anything near the airport the private jet is currently headed toward.”

“That may not have been their original destination,” Seth murmured. “Do you have the plane’s location?”

“Yes.” Chris tapped the screen several times before turning it so the rest of them could see it. “They’re landing here.” He pointed to a blue dot on a map.

“Show me a satellite view,” Seth ordered.

Chris switched the map to a satellite image.

“Zoom out.”

Chris did.

“All right.” Seth rose. “I’ll head over and see what I can learn from them.” He glanced at David. “Care to join me?”

Nodding, David rose and glanced toward the door.

A moment later, Darnell entered. His face and smooth, brown head carried a faint sheen of perspiration. His muscled chest rose and fell beneath his T-shirt as if he’d been exercising vigorously. In one hand, he held a katana with a blunt edge.