Secrets of Mine (Of Mine #2)

46. Oz

46

OZ

“ F reya? Freya, do you read me?” Jude fiddles with the volume control.

“Reach out to one of the other agents,” I tell him without looking away from Layla. I was already a complete wreck inside but with Freya not responding my nervous system is pretty much shot now. I didn’t sleep a wink last night, honestly, I hardly even blinked.

Once I’d found Layla, I couldn’t let myself take my eyes off of her.

“No one’s responding.” Jude’s foot jitters against the metal floor of the van. “He must be jamming the signal somehow.”

“How?” I ask.

Jude shakes his head. “Probably swiped some of the FBI tech before he ran.”

I look away from Layla to watch Freya sit down at the chess table on my other monitor. “She was right then. It’s Zach.” I click the pen in my hand.

“We’ve still got eyes on her. And on him. We should give River the go ahead,” Jude says.

I nod and he sends the signal.

I watch through the camera located on the front of the safehouse as River, Eli, and their SWAT team approach the front door, then I turn back to Layla.

Briggs sits on the sofa. His gun is across his lap, but he’s not paying attention to Layla. He’s not the mastermind behind this. Our team should be able to overpower him easily enough.

On the other screen, Zach shows Freya his phone. She goes tense.

I don’t like not being able to hear what they’re talking about. I didn’t expect him to have tech sophisticated enough to jam our radios but Jude’s right, he had access to a lot working at the FBI.

Including information about us.

My neck itches and dread creeps over me.

“Zach knows I can hack into pretty much anything,” I say, thinking out loud.

“I guess so.”

Slowly, I twist my neck to look at Jude. “Then why would he keep the cameras on?”

The color leeches from Jude’s face. “Shit.”

I sit forward and turn back to the screen with Layla on it. There. “There’s no light coming through the curtains. It’s daylight, there should be light.” I push away from the desk in frustration. “We’re on a loop.”

“Call River,” I say, because whatever is stopping us from hearing Freya is jamming our radio system too.

I tap at the keyboard, searching for whatever program is blocking me from seeing the live footage. Now I’m looking, it doesn’t take me long to find it and I dismantle the code with lightning speed. The true image appears and my stomach drops. I spin, grabbing the phone from Jude’s hand.

“River, get out of there! It’s a trap. Get?—”

An earsplitting explosion rips down the phone and I yank it away from my ear.

The quiet that follows chills me to the bones. I stare at the numbers on the screen, counting the seconds of the call. My blood slows.

Jude stares at me.

“River,” I say into the phone. “Are you there? Can you hear me?”

Jude shakes his head. “No. No,” he mutters.

“Come on, River.” I turn the volume up on the phone, trying to hear something, anything.

Jude’s hands tangle in his hair and he looks away. “Oz,” he says.

I can’t answer him. I can’t do anything except stare at the phone, my heart barely beating.

“Oz,” Jude says again, more insistent this time.

“What?” I snap.

“Freya’s leaving the park.”

I spin around to see him watching the monitors. The one that used to have Layla on has gone black, the feed destroyed in the explosion.

Jude’s eyes are set on the other screen, where Freya is walking beside Zach as he leads her away from the park.

I look back at the chess table. Her gun is sitting among the pieces.

“Why aren’t the agents engaging?”

“She waved them off.”

“Well get them back on,” I shout.

“The comms are still down.” Jude sounds numb.

“No,” I say. “No, she is not leaving with him.” I grab Jude’s arm and pull him up. We stumble out of the van just in time to see a limo pull up beside the far exit to the park.

Freya stops in front of it, Zach’s hand on her shoulder.

“Freya!” I scream.

She looks over at me for a moment.

Then Zach opens the door to the limo.

They’re too far away for us to get to.

All I can do is watch as Freya looks away and gets into the car.