“The first forty-eight hours are the most important,” Gabe said, his voice devoid of emotion. “We don’t usually get involved in a case this early, and while we have the time, we damn well need to be moving.”

“You’re involved . . .” Cross began, “because the abductor just up and called Dr. Jacobs. Odd, isn’t it? I mean, I think that’s odd.”

Jax was surprised the guy could think.

“Odd or not, it happened.” Sarah jumped from her chair. “Now are you going to do anything? Put out an APB? Go to Molly’s house? Hunt for her before that guy cuts her into little pieces?”

Jax saw Brent wince. It also looked like Brent was sweating.

“We’ll investigate,” Cross said through gritted teeth. “I do know how to do my job.”

“Do you?” Jax just couldn’t resist.

He didn’t think Cross’s jaw could clench much harder, but the detective muttered, “I’ll send a patrol over to the woman’s house right now.”

“And two of my men will go with that patrol,” Gabe said. He inclined his head toward a watchful Wade and Dean. “After all, we were contacted directly, so my team will be involved throughout this investigation.”

“That’s not—” Cross began angrily.

“Take it up with your captain,” Gabe snapped.

Cross flushed.

But at least the guy finally got moving. He stood and marched for the door. Jax moved a bit, placing himself closer to the exit so that Cross had to look his way. Disgust tightened his face. “So now you’re with them?” Cross asked Jax. “What are they doing, using a criminal to catch a criminal or some twisted bull like that?”

“You’d know,” Jax said, keeping his voice low so that only Cross would hear him. “Isn’t that exactly what you do?”

Cross wasn’t a cop with a spotless reputation. His flush deepened as he jerked open the door. “Excellent cooperation we have here,” Gabe murmured. “Amazing.”

Jax’s lips almost twitched.

“We’ll report back in once we get to the victim’s house,” Wade said.

Ah, so Wade was calling her the victim already. Based on the photo Jax had seen, the woman definitely qualified as that. He was curious to see just what the LOST agents and the cops were going to do to find her.

Because he already had his own plan of attack forming.

When Wade and Dean left the room, the door shut softly behind them. That left Sarah, Gabe, Victoria, and Detective Brent West in the room with Jax. He kept his shoulders propped up against the wall . . . and he waited.

“You want to talk to the brother, don’t you?” Brent said as he rubbed a hand over his face. “But until the PD can confirm that Molly Guthrie has been abducted, I can’t let you see him again. The guy has a lawyer now—court appointed—and no one but PD can see him.”

Then Brent glanced over at Jax. His head inclined slightly, just the faintest of movements.

“Now,” Brent murmured, “I’m going to see what I can find out about Molly Guthrie. I’ll talk to her brother, and if I learn anything—”

“You’ll let us know?” Gabe pushed.

Brent nodded. “And you let me know if you get any other calls.” The cops had confiscated Sarah’s phone as soon as she arrived and told her story. They’d done some tracking work and found out that Molly Guthrie’s phone had actually been used to text Sarah—and that was the number Sarah had called back.

Only now Molly’s phone seemed to have vanished from the grid. It wasn’t pinging on any towers, at least not according to the cops.

“I want us to work together on this,” Brent said, and there seemed to be sincerity in his tone. “Because I know just what your team can do, and my priority is to bring that victim back alive.”

Then he was striding toward the door.

While Sarah, Victoria, and Gabe talked, Jax slipped from the room. He strolled down the hall, and then he saw Brent, standing near an office on the right. They both ducked inside that office.

“What the hell is going on?” Brent demanded as he glanced toward the door, probably trying to make sure they weren’t being watched. “Since when are you working with LOST?”

Jax had plenty of eyes and ears around the city—and not all of those eyes and ears belonged to criminals. “Since I took a personal interest in them.” An interest in Sarah.

“What have you stepped in here, man?” Brent demanded. He blew out a hard breath. “First that kid Guthrie goes after the sexy shrink, then, this morning, he pretty much admits someone else put him up to the attack—”

“What?” Jax closed in on him. “Run that by me again, nice and slow.” Sarah had told him some about her little chat with Guthrie, but Jax wanted all the details.

“I—I let her back to talk with him for a few minutes. I know I shouldn’t have, but, shit, maybe it’s those big, dark eyes of hers. They just—they got to me, so I thought . . . what would a few minutes hurt? And she’s a professional after all! Not like I’m sending in some civilian off the street.”

The guy needed to hurry along his little story.

“So she gets to talking with the kid and the guy—Eddie—he’s all pissed about what her dad did. Says that’s why he attacked the shrink.” Brent gave a low whistle. “You’ve heard the story, right? Her father is Murphy Jacobs! Murphy the fucking monster Jacobs! Do you know how many people he killed?”

From the accounts that Jax had read, no one knew, not for certain.

“The kid went after her because Murphy killed his mother. Only when he’s talking, right there at the end, Eddie says, ‘He told me where you were.’ ”

“Who told him?” This was the part of the story that interested Jax the most. Sarah had brushed it off, trying to act as if Eddie had just been spouting bull. But if he was spouting BS, then why did Sarah seem so afraid when she first came into the hotel room?

“I don’t know! The kid shut down after that. Even after she left, I couldn’t get him to say more.” Brent nodded. “But someone sent him to that hotel. He was the weapon that someone else used. Just aimed him and fired him at the shrink.”

No wonder she’d been afraid. Despite her words to Jax . . . Sarah knows someone else is after her. Would that be the same someone who’d sent her that picture of Molly?

Brent cast another nervous glance toward the closed door. “I shouldn’t be talking to you here.”

Jax waved that away. “Just tell anyone who asks that you were threatening me. ’Cause we all know that shit happens all the time.” Plenty of cops swore they’d be taking him down.

They hadn’t.

But he’d sure sent away plenty of dirty cops.

“I want to know who sent the kid after Sarah.”

Brent hesitated. “This . . . personal interest you have in LOST . . . it’s her, isn’t it?”

Jax just stared back at him. “You’ll find out who sent the kid after her.”

“I’ll do my best, but if Eddie isn’t talking—”

“Make him talk, or I will.” So many people just didn’t seem to understand how far his reach extended. They would, soon enough. “All I’d need would be five minutes alone with the guy.”

Brent’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “You really think I could just take you right back to the guy’s holding cell? Because that shit would go over so smoothly with everyone here!”

Brent wasn’t getting the full picture. Maybe he needed a little help. “I’d go back to the cells, if you arrested me.”

Brent frowned at him.

“Like it would be the first time that happened,” Jax murmured, smiling.

Then Jax heard a knock at the door. Seconds later, that door opened and Sarah was there, edging carefully into the room. “Jax, I thought I saw you come in here—” She broke off, obviously catching sight of Brent. “Is everything all right?”

“Same shit as always,” Jax told her with a shrug. “Cops warning me to stick to the straight and narrow, but that’s what I do every day.” He saluted the cop. “See you around, Detective.”

Muttering, Brent hurried past them.