CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The delivery truck lurched forward as Tony pressed harder on the accelerator, the speedometer needle climbing steadily.
Riley clutched the edge of her seat. The distance to Raven’s Leap Cliff was shrinking, and with it, the possibility of their survival.
The explosives attached to the crazed driver were still controlled by the cell phone on his wrist.
“I’ll bet you didn’t see this as my endgame,” Tony muttered. His eyes flicked to the empty space beside him, then back to the road. “No, of course not. That’s the beauty of it.”
Riley watched him carefully and realized he wasn’t talking to her. Tony’s head tilted slightly, as if listening to a voice only he could hear. His expression shifted—softened momentarily—before he chuckled and shook his head.
“I know, I know. But trust me, it’s perfect,” he continued, speaking to no one Riley could see. “It all comes full circle here. Where you fell, we’ll both go out in a final blaze of glory.”
A cold realization washed over her. The twin. Jay.
Tony wasn’t just talking to himself—he was having a conversation with his dead brother.
The brother who had died five years ago in a climbing accident at the very place they were now racing toward.
The brother whose death had fractured Tony’s mind and set this entire bloody sequence of events in motion.
There are three people in this cab, she thought. Not two.
This must be how Tony had lived all these years since the death of his twin—with a second presence in his mind. He probably believed that Jay was watching, correcting, sharing the one life that they still had.
But Riley was no stranger to unusual perceptions. Her own had helped her solve many cases. If Tony believed his brother was present, perhaps she could use that delusion. Perhaps she could reason not with Tony, but with Jay—or at least, with Tony’s perception of him.
“What does your brother think of your endgame?” she asked calmly.
Tony’s eyes widened in surprise, darting briefly to her before returning to the road. “What?”
“Jay,” she said, watching his reaction carefully. “What does Jay think about all this?”
A tremor ran through Tony’s body. “He... he loves it,” Tony said, but his voice wavered slightly. “Of course he does. In just a few minutes, we’ll be together forever.”
The truck swerved slightly as they rounded a curve.
“Are you sure that’s how this is going to work?” she pressed, keeping her voice perfectly normal. “Maybe you should ask him directly.”
A strange stillness came over Tony. He made no immediate reply, and in that silence, Riley knew she had found a crack in his delusion, a fault line she might be able to exploit.
She’d hit the right nerve.
*
Tony felt Jay shift inside him, a sensation he’d grown accustomed to over the years.
But now his brother’s presence seemed even stronger after the FBI agent’s words.
Did she know that Jay was there too? Had she somehow heard him speak?
No, impossible. Only he could hear his brother.
Only he had been granted that gift, that curse.
“She’s got a point, you know,” Jay’s voice came to him, clear and familiar. “What exactly is this endgame of yours?”
Tony blinked, confused. This wasn’t the response he’d expected. He’d thought Jay would be delighted by the surprise he had so carefully prepared for him—his amazing endgame.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Tony whispered, ignoring the fact that the FBI woman could hear him.
“I’m going to hit the trigger on the way down.
It’s going to be big, Jay! We’ll be legends, like John Raven, only bigger.
People will be in awe of this place forever, all on account of us.
I’ll bet nobody will even dare to climb the cliff again. ”
Jay’s voice took on that impatient tone he’d always used when Tony missed something obvious. “This wasn’t what I expected, Tony. Not at all. And I’m not happy about it.”
Tony’s mind whirled. The cliff was getting closer, the guardrail now clearly visible against the blue sky beyond. He pressed the accelerator harder, as if speed could outrun the sudden doubt in his mind.
“What’s wrong with it?” he asked aloud, his voice rising.
“For one thing,” Jay said, “you’re not killing the one who failed to deliver the compass. She’s the reason I died. Wasn’t that the point of all this? To make her pay?”
Tony shook his head, frustrated. “An FBI agent is just as good. Better even. She’s important. Her death will mean something.”
“But that’s not what we agreed on,” Jay’s voice was stern now, like when they were children and Tony had broken a rule of one of their games. “And what’s more, you’re going to kill yourself too? What is the point of that?”
The road curved sharply, and Tony followed it mechanically. This wasn’t how their conversation was supposed to go. Jay was supposed to be proud of him. Grateful.
“So, your brother isn’t happy with how this is going?” the FBI agent’s voice broke into his thoughts again. “What happens to him after we go off that cliff?”
“I already told you,” Tony said impatiently. “Jay and I, together forever.”
Jay’s laughter filled the cab of the truck, but it wasn’t warm or comforting. It was hollow, tinged with sadness. “Tony, we’re already together. I’ve been with you every day since I died. I never left you.”
Tony felt tears burning behind his eyes. The certainty he’d felt moments ago was crumbling.
“But this way—” he started.
“This way nothing,” Jay interrupted. “Don’t you get it? If you drive over that cliff, if you die like this, you’ll kill me too. For good this time. Whatever part of me that’s still here with you—that will end. We’ll both be gone.”
Tony’s breath caught in his throat. The possibility had never occurred to him—that his desperate attempt to join Jay might instead destroy what remained of his twin.
*
Riley heard Tony’s argument with his invisible brother grow more heated.
His face was contorted with confusion and pain.
His mutterings became frantic whispers, punctuated by sharp gestures at the empty space beside him.
Meanwhile, the railing at the edge of Raven’s Leap Cliff loomed ever larger through the windshield, and the truck’s engine roared as Tony’s foot pressed harder on the accelerator.
“No, you’re wrong,” Tony hissed, his eyes darting sideways. “This is how it has to be.”
“Listen to your brother, Tony!” Riley said sharply, taking a chance on what this killer had been hearing.
“Stop trying to confuse me!” Tony screamed at the empty space. “I’m doing this for you!”
The truck lurched as he floored the accelerator. Riley’s hands gripped the seat, her mind calculating desperately—jump out now and risk Tony setting off the device early? Wait and certainly die in the explosion he intended to accompany the fall? Every option seemed impossible.
The guardrail was close now. Twenty feet. Fifteen. Ten feet.
“OKAY, YOU WIN!” Tony shouted, slamming on the brakes with such force that Riley was thrown violently forward against her seat belt. The tires squealed in protest, leaving thick black streaks on the asphalt. The truck shuddered violently, skidding toward the edge.
They stopped mere feet from that guardrail. For a moment, there was only the sound of the idling engine and Tony’s ragged breathing.
Then he collapsed. His forehead pressed against the steering wheel as violent sobs wracked his body, years of grief and madness finally breaking through the surface. “I’m sorry,” he kept repeating, though Riley couldn’t tell if he was speaking to her or to Jay.
She moved carefully, deliberately, like approaching a wounded animal.
“Tony,” she said softly, “it’s over now. Jay was right. This isn’t the way.”
His tear-streaked face turned to her, naked vulnerability where calculation had been moments before. He looked younger, suddenly, lost.
“I need you to disconnect the phone from the explosives,” Riley continued, keeping her voice gentle but firm. “You can do that for Jay, can’t you?”
Tony’s movements were almost mechanical as he reached for the cellphone still on his wrist and punched three numbers. Then he unplugged the cable and turned off the cellphone and removed it from his wrist. With tears streaming down his cheeks he handed it to her.
Riley took it, exhaling a long breath. She reached forward and switched on the truck’s hazard lights, then located the two-way radio mounted on the dashboard. Without her earpiece, this was her only connection to the outside world.
“This is Special Agent Riley Paige,” she said into the radio. “The threat is contained. Please inform Sheriff Rich and his deputy they can approach the vehicle safely. Suspect is cooperating.”
The dispatcher’s voice crackled through, confirming receipt of her message. Riley kept her eyes on Tony, who sat motionless, staring at his hands.
In the distance, sirens wailed, growing louder. Only then did Riley allow her mind to shift from crisis negotiator back to FBI agent who had just wound up a case.
“We need to step outside now,” she said, opening her door slowly. She got out and moved around to the driver’s side. Tony offered no resistance as she helped him out of the truck. She secured his wrists behind his back with handcuffs, the metal clicking into place.
Only then did Riley allow her mind to shift from survival mode to what came next: debriefing, paperwork, for sure. But after all that, she could walk through her front door to her husband and daughters—to the life she’d nearly lost now waiting exactly where she’d left it.