I looked past Oren to see Xander, Thea, and Rebecca incoming. Xander was holding an enormous metal shield that looked like it had been lifted straight off the arm of a medieval knight.
“I swear to all that is good and holy,” Thea said under her breath, “if you say one more word about LARPing right now, Xander—”
I stepped around Oren. “I appreciate the ‘rescue,’ Xan, but you couldn’t answer your phone?” I looked to Rebecca. “You, either?”
“Sorry,” Rebecca said. “My phone was on silent. We were blowing off some steam.” Her green eyes slid to Thea’s. “Playing pool.”
I glanced at Thea. Her sweater was ripped at the shoulder, her hair markedly less than perfect. The two of them might have been in the billiards room or arcade, but there was no way in hell they’d been playing pool. But at least Rebecca didn’t look like a shell of herself anymore.
“What’s your excuse?” I asked Xander.
He held his shield to the side. “Step into my office.”
I rolled my eyes but joined him.
Xander used the shield to block us off from Oren, then led me around the corner. “I went down the rabbit hole of doing a deep dive on Vincent Blake’s holdings, current and past,” Xander admitted. “Blake was the sole funder of the VB Innovation Lab.” Xander paused, steeling himself. “I recognized the name. VB is where Isaiah Alexander worked right after he was fired.”
Xander’s father worked for Vincent Blake. That thought was like a domino in my mind, knocking down another and another. There are three characters in the parable of the prodigal son, are there not?
The king, the knight, and the bishop. The son who’d stayed faithful.
“Does Isaiah Alexander still work for Blake?” I asked Xander, my mind whirring.
“No,” Xander said emphatically. “Not for fifteen years. And I know what you’re thinking, Avery, but there’s no way Isaiah had any involvement in Toby’s abduction. He’s a mechanic who owns his own garage, and the other mechanic who works for him is out on maternity leave, so he’s been pulling double shifts for weeks.” Xander swallowed. “But still… he might know something that could give us the upper hand. Or know someone who knows something. Or know someone who knows someone who knows—”
Thea placed a hand helpfully over Xander’s mouth.
The file. The domino chain in my mind hit its conclusion, and I sucked in a breath. Isaiah Alexander’s file was empty, and Xander didn’t take the page.
What were the chances that the missing page had mentioned Vincent Blake?
Eve took it. That might have been a leap. It might not have been fair. I couldn’t even tell anymore.
My entire body buzzing, I stepped around Xander’s shield and looked to Oren, who—not surprisingly—had followed us around the corner.
“Jameson, Grayson, and Eve are on their way back here?” I asked, clipping the words. “They’re secured, under the watchful eyes of your men, and will be for the next three hours?”
Oren’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “What are you going to do if I say yes?”
That gives us three hours. I looked to Xander. “I think we need to talk to Isaiah. But if you’re not ready—”
“I was born ready!” Xander brandished his shield. He smiled a very Xander Hawthorne smile, then let his bravado falter. “But before we go, group hug?”
CHAPTER 59
An hour later, we were parked outside a small-town mechanic shop with a large security team in tow, having given the paparazzi the slip on the highway. There was only one man working inside the shop. He was under a car when we walked in.