Chapter 250: Chapter 250: Zane's POV

Chapter 250: Zane's POV

I walked out of that club and didn't stop moving.

The door swung shut behind me and I was already pulling out my phone, already moving toward my car, already running through every piece of information I had in my head and calculating what the next twelve hours needed to look like.

The image of Olive on that screen was burned into the back of my eyes.

The way she had been fighting against the chair. The way her mouth had been bound. The way someone had struck her across the face like she was nothing and she had crashed to the ground and I had been standing in that room completely unable to do anything about it.

I had almost killed Simone right there.

The only thing that had stopped me was knowing that dead men couldn't tell me where she was. That pulling a trigger in that room with fifteen of his men surrounding me would have ended with me dead and Olive still somewhere in the dark with no one coming for her.

So I had walked out.

I had walked out and I had kept my face completely still and I had not let him see a single second of what was happening inside me.

I got in my car.

I called Walter.

He picked up on the first ring.

Of course he did.

"Boss," he said immediately. "Tell me you're alive and not in a body bag somewhere because I've been sitting here for the last three hours trying not to spiral and failing spectacularly at it."

"I'm alive."

"Oh thank God." I heard him exhale. "Okay. Good. That's good. That's the first good thing that's happened today. I was starting to think I was going to have to explain to people what happened to you and I really didn't want to have that conversation."

"Walter."

"Right. Yes. Sorry. You're alive. I'm focusing. What happened?"

"Simone has Olive."

Silence.

The kind of silence that only happened when Walter was processing something that had knocked every witty response straight out of his head.

"Say that again."

"Simone has Olive. He showed me on a screen. She's tied up somewhere. She was fighting, which means she's alive and conscious, but he hit her, Walter. Someone in that room hit her across the face."

Another silence.

Longer this time.

"Walter."

"I'm here." His voice had changed. The lightness was completely gone. "I'm here, boss. Just. Give me a second."

I heard him moving. The sound of a chair scraping back. The sound of footsteps.

"Okay," he said, and his voice was steadier now, the way it got when he shifted from Walter the anxious manager into Walter the man who had spent years learning how to function in the kind of world I lived in. "Okay. Tell me everything."

"He's been planning this for weeks. Maybe longer. He has devices connected to people's homes. Olive's family. Her mother. Grayson. Hunter. Brenda. He sent Brenda a message saying Olive needed her so she went to Grayson's house and now she's there too. Simone sent me the details and right now, I know he’s heading there as we speak."

“That son of a bitch.” He exhaled, I could perceive the fear in his voice even though he’s trying not to show it.

"Brenda's pregnant," Walter said again.

"I know."

"She's not in a good position to—"

"I know, Walter. I know all of it."

"What about Antonio and Sophia?"

"Snipers. Positioned in their direction. He has men watching everything."

I heard Walter mutter something I couldn't make out.

"And he wants what," Walter said. "In exchange for all of this. What's the game."

"He wants me to choose."

Silence again.

"Like," Walter said slowly, "choose between."

"Choose between Olive and everyone else. He's going to present it as a game. He has a solid setup in mind. I don't have all the details yet but I know enough."

"A game."

"Yes."

"This man," Walter said, and his voice had gone very flat, "is absolutely insane."

"I know."

"Like genuinely, certifiably, needs-to-be-assessed-by-a-medical-professional insane."

"Walter."

"Sorry. I'm focusing. I'm focused." I heard him take a breath. "What do you need from me?"

"I need you to get to Nikolai. In person, not over the phone. Tell him everything I just told you. He's going to want to argue about how we do this. Don't let him argue. Tell him I already have a plan and I need him moving, not talking."

"You know Nikolai's going to try to make this a committee meeting."

"That's why I'm sending you instead of calling him myself."

"Ah." A pause. "So I'm the human shield."

"You're the most efficient person I have."

"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me, boss. Truly. I'm emotional."

"Walter."

"Right. In person to Nikolai. Got it. What else."

"JT. I need him on the location. He's been tracking Simone's properties for the last two weeks. By now he should have a shortlist of places Simone would use for something like this. I need that list narrowed down in the next four hours."

"Four hours."

"Four hours."

"Okay." I could hear him already moving, the sound of keys, the sound of a door. "What about you. Where are you going right now?"

"I need to make one more stop."

"Does this stop involve you doing something reckless?"

"Probably."

"Great." His voice was dry. "Wonderful. Because the last twenty-four hours haven't been enough of a cardiac event. I really needed more. My cardiologist is going to retire early because of you, you know that."

"Walter."

"Going. I'm going. I'm already in my car."

I heard the engine start on his end.

"Zane." His voice shifted. Something quieter underneath the dry humor. Something that had been there since the beginning, since Klaus had made him promise to look after me, since he had spent years being my manager and my right hand and one of the only people in the world I actually trusted.

"What."

"We're going to get her back."

I didn't answer.

I didn't need to.

"I mean it. We're going to get her out of there and she's going to be fine and you're going to have to figure out how to explain all of this to her properly, which honestly is going to be the harder part. But she's going to be fine."

"Someone hit her, Walter."

"I know."

"They hit her across the face."

"I know, boss."

"And I was standing right there and I couldn't—"

"I know." His voice was very quiet now. "I know. And he's going to pay for that. Whatever else happens in the next twenty-four hours, he is going to pay for that. But right now I need you to stay in your head. Not in your rage. In your head."

I gripped the steering wheel.

Breathed.

"Four hours," I said.

"Four hours," he confirmed. "I'll have Nikolai and JT coordinated by then. Anything else."

"There's one more person I need."

"Who."

"Rhett Lexington."

A pause.

"The Falcons player."

"Yes."

"The one that looks like he was designed in a lab to be intimidating."

"Walter…”

"Ok…Ok… fine. But what exactly do you need Rhett Lexington for."

“You will know when the time comes.”

Silence.

"Boss," Walter said carefully. "I don’t know what this is about. But I want my daughter safe… and I trust you. So I will do whatever you say.”

“Great.” And I ended the call, I was playing a dangerous game, a very dangerous game, but I knew if I don’t do this, I will lose them all, and that was not in the plan.