“She is strong, Emily,” he said.

“She is my little sister, Adrian,” I said. “I was supposed to protect her.”

“You did,” he said. “You brought her here to keep her safe. This is Marcus’s doing, not yours.”

A sharp beep echoed from the laptop.

Adrian flipped the screen back up.

One of the blinking red dots on the map turned bright green.

“We have a hit,” Adrian said.

He tapped the trackpad, zooming in on the green dot.

The map resolved into a satellite view of an industrial area near the Chicago River.

It was an abandoned warehouse district, surrounded by rusted shipping containers and overgrown weeds.

“The digital signature from the ransom email just routed through a server at that location,” Adrian said.

“Is she there?” I asked, my heart hammering against my ribs.

“It is highly likely,” Adrian said. “That property belongs to a shell company controlled by Marcus’s associates.”

He picked up his phone and called Thomas.

“We have the coordinates,” Adrian said. “Gather the team. We are going in.”

“Sir, the syndicate might have guards on site,” Thomas warned over the speaker. “You should stay back.”