by Terri Reed
“It was Olivia who realized it first,” Daniel said. “Her instincts are sharper than mine about some things. She realized your kidnappers wanted her here, trapped inside the fence in this pen. Now, I still don’t know what whoever hired the Faceless Crew wants with Olivia. But I do know he wants to hurt her. I knew when I decided to take the risk of coming in here alone.” He took another step forward. “No matter what you say and no matter what you do, know that I won’t let them hurt her.”
“Is that what Olivia wants?” Sarah raised her voice until she practically screamed. “I know you’re out there, Olivia! I know you can hear me! Do you want me and Daniel to die while you hide in the bushes? Once this bomb goes off, you’re dead anyway. It’s big enough to take out the whole area.”
Olivia’s limbs were shaking so hard she could barely move. She looked back at the screen. Rake raised his gun.
“Enough of this.” Rake sounded angry. “I’m gonna count to five. Then I’m going to shoot Sarah in the head if that other chick doesn’t come out here. And if she falls, she explodes. We all die. Got it?”
“Yeah,” Daniel said. “I think I finally do get what’s going on here.”
Olivia closed her eyes and tried to pray. Ricky squeezed her hand.
“One…” Rake counted. “Two… Three… Four…”
“Wildfire!” Daniel slammed the laptop shut. The screen went blank.
Rake swore.
Sarah screamed.
A gun rang out.
But there was no explosion.
Olivia jumped up. Her hand clutched Ricky’s. “Come on! We’ve got to run. Now!”
“But I didn’t hear Trent give the order—”
As if either of them could hear anything now but shouting and chaos.
“Daniel gave it. Come on. For all we know this place might still explode.”
For a moment she started toward the path. But Ricky yanked her back. “That’ll take us right past them. We should take the road. It’ll be faster.”
He changed course and pelted toward the tree line.
“Hey, wait!” She ran after him. Daniel’s words echoed through her mind. Sometimes running is what keeps you alive. But sometimes running can get you killed. Shouting and static crackled down the walkie-talkie. Sarah was screaming, but Olivia couldn’t make out her words. The trees parted and they tumbled into a ditch beside the highway. A faint sliver of red brushed the horizon. A car was coming down the road.
“Hey! Hey!” Ricky started up the embankment. He waved his hands high over his head. The vehicle slowed. He glanced back, grinned. “It’s the cops!”
The car screeched to a stop. Were the roads finally reopened? Had Sarah managed to call the police after all? A cop got out of the car. Large shoulders, terrible blond beard, mirrored sunglasses even though dawn had yet to break.
“I’m so glad to see you!” Ricky ran toward him. “There’s a situation at the playground. We need your help—”
The uniformed man pulled out a gun and aimed at the young photographer. He fired. Ricky fell. Olivia opened her mouth to scream.
A hand clamped over her mouth.
Someone had sneaked up behind her.
The smell of something sweet filled her lungs.
The world began to swim out of focus.
Large hands lifted her into the air.
Desperately, she flailed at the man holding her.
The sunglasses fell off, showing a pair of cold gray eyes.
The fake beard came off in her hands.
“Told you I’d get my hands on you, sunshine.”
Her body was tossed into the trunk of his car.
He locked her in.
SEVENTEEN
“One…” Rake was counting. “Two… Three…”
Daniel felt the world freeze around him. The bomb wasn’t real.
He knew it deep in his gut with absolute certainty.
Maybe it was because Rake’s posture was far too relaxed for someone standing next to an explosive he knew was live. The so-called head of the Faceless Crew had always made sure he was far away from the blast radius before. Maybe it was because the mass of tangled wires looked too much like someone’s uninformed idea of what was supposed to be scary. Or maybe it was that even though Sarah’s cheeks were wet with tears, her eyes had that same defiant, petulant stare she’d adopted when she was barely more than a toddler.
Instinct is nothing more than your brain suddenly catching up with what your subconscious already knows.
The Faceless Crew didn’t want Sarah.
They wanted Olivia.
“Four…”
Daniel slammed the laptop shut and shouted for Olivia to run.
Rake froze. Daniel gripped the laptop with both hands and swung hard.
The blow caught the faceless thug on the side of the head. Rake stumbled back. His gun shot off into the air. Sarah screamed. In fear? No, rage. One swift punch to the jaw and Rake fell to the ground. The gun dropped from his hands. Daniel threw the laptop at Rake and leaped for the gun.
Then Daniel wheeled around, the gun safe in his grasp. “On your knees. Hands on your head.” Rake knelt. “Now take off the mask.”
The faceless thug pulled his mask off and tossed it into the dirt.
The sallow face belonged to a stranger.
Another stranger.
Where were the rest of the Faceless Crew? The back of his spine tingled. Lord, what am I’m missing here?
“Daniel, hand me the gun.” Sarah reached out her hands. “I’ll point it at him while you find something to tie him up.”
“No. I’m sorry.” He shook his head. The wire contraption had come loose from Sarah’s chest during the struggle and was hanging sideways. No timer. No detonator. No explosives. Just wire, duct tape and an empty box. It was all just a sick and violent charade. He yanked it off and she grabbed for the gun. But his other hand held it back at arm’s length. “I don’t know what kind of game you think you’re playing, Sarah. But it ends here and now.”
A sound like a gun blast echoed from beyond the trees. Then the distorted sound of Ricky screaming took over the walkie-talkie hidden by his shoulder. “Hello? Hey, Ricky? Is Olivia okay?”
Too late he heard the click of a gun. He turned back.
Sarah clutched a small handgun. Her arms shook, but she kept the barrel pointed straight at him. “Sorry, Daniel. I won’t let you ruin my life anymore. Now just keep quiet and let me walk out of here.”
I promised to be her guardian. No matter what. Lord, help me keep my promise now.
“Trent!” he yelled. “This whole thing’s a setup. Sarah’s working with the Faceless Crew.”
Sarah swore. “Trent’s a cop?”
Rake took advantage of their distraction to leap up off the ground. He started for the fence.
Trent ran through the gate after him.
Daniel threw himself at Sarah. The gun went off in her hands.
The kickback sent the bullet flying over his head.
Daniel tackled her, bringing his ward to the ground.
She dropped the gun. He reached for it.
Sarah kicked him in the jaw, squirmed from his grasp and ran deeper into the broken fairground.
“I’ve got him.” Trent was standing over Rake. With his one good hand he’d somehow managed to pin the thug in a headlock. “Doesn’t look as though the rest of the crew are here. Chloe’s gone to find Olivia and Ricky. Try to catch Sarah.”
This time, she wouldn’t be getting away.
Daniel turned and ran after her. She darted into the warped and broken remains of a mirror maze.
“Enough.” He caught her by the arm and spun her back around. “No more lies. You were the one who lured Brian into the parking garage that night, weren’t you? He told you he’d made a deal with the authorities.”
The rising sun was brushing the horizon now, rays of light hitting the fractured reflections around them. Sarah wouldn’t meet his eyes. “You don’t kno
w anything,” she argued mulishly.
She tried to pull away. But his grip held her fast.
“No, I know plenty. I just never put the pieces together until I saw you stand there and demand Olivia come out and turn herself over to killers to save your own selfish neck. Brian was never smart enough to pull this off on his own. But you, Sarah. You had all of your mother’s street smarts and your grandfather’s business savvy. Brian probably didn’t know half the things you’d gotten the company into. I’m right, aren’t I?”
“So what?” Sarah shouted. Her fists beat against his chest. “What are you going to do about it? Everyone knows you won’t let me go to jail. You think Mom stayed married to you because she cared about you? She wanted you to be my guardian because you’re nice. Because you’re a pushover. She told me, when she knew she was sick. She promised me that if I agreed to live with you, as my guardian, just until I could inherit my money, you’d protect me from Brian without messing up my life.”
Yeah, Mona had never understood his wedding-day promise to love her unconditionally. So she never would have understood what lengths he’d go to love and protect her daughter, too.
The fierce, anxious need to protect her that he’d felt ever since he’d first laid eyes on the tiny baby in Mona’s arms broke like a cresting wave and flowed like sadness over his chest. Her shouts rose until they were nothing but a wail of fury. Her hands beat against him, harder and faster, until so much anger surged through her frail form that she tried to claw at his face. Gently but firmly, he pushed her back against the mirrored wall. Then he turned to the walkie-talkie. “I’ve got her, but I need a cop to take over now.”
Her face paled. “You’re not going to tell on me or let them arrest me. You promised to look out for me.”
“I’m going to keep that promise by seeing you face justice.”
Her jaw dropped. “This is Olivia’s fault, isn’t it? He told me not to trust her. When I wasn’t sure I could go through with helping him kill her, he showed me a picture he took of the two of you all cozy inside the diner, holding hands. Told me if she didn’t die, she’d sway your heart, poison your mind against me and ruin everything.”
“Who, Sarah? Who’s him? What does he have against Olivia?”
“He’s the man who’s going to catch her and kill her. And I won’t tell the police anything to help stop him unless you agree to meet all my demands. You’re going to help me, you’re going to make sure I don’t go to jail and you’re going to promise me you’ll never speak to Olivia ever again.”
“I’m not going to be blackmailed, Sarah. You’re not calling the shots. Not anymore.”
Sarah spat in his face. Daniel just wiped his cheek with his shoulder without loosening his grip.
“Daniel!” Chloe appeared around the corner, gun in one hand, badge in the other. “We’ve got a situation. Ricky’s been shot and Olivia’s gone.”
EIGHTEEN
Daniel felt all the blood drain from his face. “What do you mean Olivia’s gone?”
“She was abducted by someone in a cop car.” Chloe’s face was grave. “A fake one, judging by what Ricky said about the markings.”
“So he got her anyway!” Sarah said. “Good. I’m glad.”
“Who?” Daniel’s limbs fought the urge to shake answers out of her. “Who’s after Olivia?”
“My boyfriend.” She grinned. “My hot, powerful, secret, well-connected boyfriend who my stupid guardian didn’t know I had.”
The world spun around him. He closed his eyes. He’d tried so hard to steer her in the right direction and her path had ended up even more crooked than he’d feared.
Lord, how did this all go so wrong?
Anger battled inside him, and for a moment he was afraid it would take him over. Then he remembered the fierce determination he’d seen so often burning in Olivia’s eyes. She didn’t fear her emotions. She harnessed them and turned them into strengths. He took a deep breath and focused on the feeling of the solid ground beneath his feet.
“Who is he?”
“I’m not telling you that!”
He opened his eyes and let her see the depths of emotion burning inside them. “Sarah? Your so-called boyfriend is nothing but a violent criminal who’s mixed up in organized crime and used a vulnerable teenage girl to launder money through her family business. He’s not here for you now—he left you to get caught and turned over to the police. That tells me he doesn’t care about you at all.”
“He loves me!” She was trying to sound so tough, but all he heard in her voice was the wail of the same self-destructive girl he’d spent the past four years trying to keep out of jail. “And he’ll come back for me once Olivia is out of the way. He has big plans and really dangerous friends. He was only at Leslie to sell drugs for his boss. But he figured out how we could work together to use the company to launder money. When I get control of my inheritance, he’s going to help me run the company. We’re finally going to be together and I’ll never have to go back to your horrible country house. He says the only person who can link him to Brian’s murder is Olivia. He’s going to kill her and bury her body and then burn everything down around her so you’ll never, ever find her.”
Chloe tapped Daniel gently on the shoulder. He stepped back and released Sarah. Chloe snapped a pair of handcuffs on her. He followed them out. Sunlight brushed the top of the trees, showing him the tears that glinted in the depths of Chloe’s green eyes. Eyes that looked just like Olivia’s.
Ricky was sitting on the ground leaning against the fence. “Hey, I’m sorry. I let him take her. I should’ve been able to stop him.”
“It’s not your fault.” Daniel crouched beside him.
Trent walked over, pushing Rake in front of him. The thug’s hands were cuffed behind his back and his eyes were focused on the ground. The other two members of his Faceless Crew were out there somewhere, and something told Daniel getting Rake to talk wouldn’t be easy.
“Vest stopped the bullet from killing Ricky,” Trent said, “but he’s probably looking at a couple of broken ribs. Northbound highway’s open. Chloe’s going to drive Ricky to the hospital. I’m going to drop this joker off at a station. Can you drive Ricky’s car? Then we’ll all meet at the hospital, loop in our colleagues and strategize a plan for finding Olivia. Don’t worry. We’ll bring her back alive.”
Daniel walked back to the motel like someone sleepwalking through fog. His brain told him he’d been awake for almost twenty-four hours. His heart ached as though he’d never sleep again.
He drove, barely aware of what he was doing. The highway had been reopened for over an hour, and now an endless stretch of bumper-to-bumper traffic was inching forward slowly. Chloe and Trent had flown up the shoulder with emergency vehicle lights on the tops of their cars.
But Daniel could barely do more than ease his foot on and off the brake.
Lord, I can’t remember ever feeling so powerless. I need Olivia to be safe. I need her to be okay.
A morning sunrise filled the sky in a fresh wash of blue. He could barely take it in. His heart felt like someone had burned it out from the inside leaving nothing but ashes. Split trees and downed power lines dotted the forest on either side. Even if his house had survived the blaze from the garage explosion, there could still be a storm-toppled tree or two through his roof.
I’ll never have to go back to your horrible country house… He’s going to kill her and bury her body and then burn everything down around her…
Sarah’s foolish bragging flashed like lightning through his mind.
Then he remembered Olivia’s words after the Faceless Crew had blown up the garage. He said the client might even make them go back and torch your house…
His house.
The Faceless Crew had taken Olivia to his house.
He pulled out of traffic and did a U-turn into the lane heading south. His foot pressed the accelerator. He was heading home. He had no proof that was where she was, no weapons and no way
to call for backup. Just the strong, sudden impulse to act, burning through his veins like wildfire. Every synapse of the man he’d always been told him it made far more sense to inch his way to the police station and let the cops form a sensible, practical search plan.
But that could take hours. Olivia didn’t have that long.
And he knew without a doubt that she’d have done the same for him.
He flew past the motel and turned onto the road that would lead him home. It was inches deep in water. The spray rose up like curtains on either side of Ricky’s car. He passed the small ghost town where he and Olivia had stopped to escape the storm, then continued until he was less than a ten-minute walk from his home. A ramshackle barn appeared ahead on the side of the road. He parked behind it and popped the trunk to see if there was anything in there that might double as a weapon.
Ricky had a toolbox. A small knife went into one front pocket. A screwdriver went into another. He slung two bungee cords around a wrench and a roll of duct tape. He attached them all to his belt. Then he slipped into the trees and started running.
Lord, I’ve never felt so unprepared and unequipped. I don’t even have the cover of darkness to hide me. Help me get Olivia out safe. I really don’t want to imagine life without her.
The familiar walls of his house loomed ahead through the trees. It was still standing. His footsteps slowed. There was no sign of movement. Not a single vehicle parked in the driveway. An ugly pile of twisted metal and ash lay where his barn garage and truck had been.
Had he guessed wrong? Was Olivia not here after all?
No, wait. A short faceless figure dressed all in black was pacing the lawn, a gun in his hand. Shorty was guarding the front door. Daniel crept around the side of the house and saw a flash of red in the side window. He raised his head just enough to look in.
