Finding Carly (SEAL Team Hawaii #5)(92)

It was a shit piece of luck that, even though downtown was crowded, no one had been in the garage with them when he’d made his move.

While the footage wasn’t the best, Baker easily recognized the man who’d kidnapped Carly. He knew everything about every single one of Keyes’s friends.

Gideon Sparks drove a tan Cadillac which matched the vehicle that had been following Carly, and there was no doubt—with his pot belly and familiar uniform—that it had been Sparks who’d snatched her.

Determination rose within Baker. The man was better than he’d given him credit for. He hadn’t even been near the top of Baker’s suspect list. He was a loner, didn’t have a lot of friends, and as far as Baker knew, didn’t have a boat. But there were many ways to get access, and obviously he and Carly’s ex had done so for their nefarious plot that had gone so wrong.

Baker didn’t know what the motive was for Sparks, but it didn’t matter. The man had Carly—and he needed to let Jag and the others know what happened. The more eyes they had on the lookout for Gideon Sparks and his car, the better.





Jag was more hyped up than he’d ever been during a mission. He couldn’t sit still. He couldn’t do anything but worry about Carly. She could literally be anywhere. There were thousands upon thousands of acres of wilderness on the island where she could be dumped, miles and miles of water. And now it was nighttime.

He shivered at the negative thought of her lying somewhere, in the dark, hurt…or worse.

“She’s alive, she has to be,” he whispered in an agonized tone. His team was scrambling to find any scrap of information that could help them track her last steps. Slate was arguing with her cell phone provider, trying to convince them to tell him the last location where her phone pinged, to no avail. Alani still hadn’t answered the last time they called, Pid was trying to get access to traffic cameras, and the other guys were also on their phones, doing what they could to try to get a hold of Shawn’s friends to verify their whereabouts.

It all felt like too little, too late.

When Jag’s phone rang, he looked down, praying it would be Carly calling to tell him she was fine. That she’d gotten a flat tire and had no cell reception somewhere. It was almost crushing to see Baker’s name on his screen.

“Jag.”

“Gideon Sparks,” he said without preamble.

It took a moment for Jag’s brain to catch up with what his friend was saying. “What?”

“Gideon snatched her from a parking garage downtown. I finally reached Alani—her phone was off—and she explained the favor. Took a while, but I found her car on security cameras and watched Sparks knock her out and put her in his trunk.”

Jag gestured frantically to his teammates. “Fuck. What was the favor?”

“She was bringing food from Duke’s to the downtown Food For All. Even with all the people being around for the festival, Sparks grabbed her in a parking garage. No one else was around.”

“Shit! Has anyone talked to Sparks today?” Jag asked his teammates.

They all shook their heads.

“What’s going on?” Mustang asked. “Is it him?”

“Baker saw him take Carly on security feeds,” Jag said. “Baker’s headed downtown to where her car is located.”

“Tell him we’re splitting up. You, me, and Aleck will go to Sparks’s place. Pid will call Detective Lee. Midas and Slate will meet Baker at the parking garage. The zoo is closed right now, but if we don’t find Sparks, we’ll check in with his coworkers first thing in the morning when they open. And if we do find Sparks…we’ll take him to Slate’s house for a chat.” Mustang’s tone was deadly and determined.

It was a risk to basically kidnap a man so they could interrogate him, but everyone was done fucking around. They’d get Sparks to tell them exactly what he did with Carly, by any means necessary, then they’d get her back.

“I heard him,” Baker said in Jag’s ear. “We need Sparks alive if Carly isn’t with him,” he warned.

Jag nodded even as bile rose in his throat. “I know.” Too much time had passed. Carly had been snatched hours ago. When Carly had needed him most, he’d been clueless and sitting in a fucking meeting, his phone turned off. And now she was out there somewhere, with someone determined to do her harm. And on top of everything, it was fucking raining like a bitch again, after a brief break in the storm.

“Keep me updated,” Baker ordered.

“Will do. Thanks.” Jag owed the man. Again.

“Later,” Baker said, ending the connection.

Jag quickly told his teammates what Baker had said and he felt better at seeing the looks of determination on their faces. He was relieved Mustang was sending him to Sparks’s house. If Carly was found, hurt—or worse—he needed to be there.





Jag was more than frustrated.

He was in agony.

Last night, he’d been so sure they were on the verge of finding Carly. They knew who had taken her, what Sparks’s car looked like, and everyone was looking for her.

And yet here it was, almost ten o’clock the next morning, roughly twenty-four hours after she’d gone missing…and they were no closer to finding Carly or Gideon Sparks than they’d been last night.