Prologue Dana
A foggy weight settles over my body as broken words filter into my consciousness. The baritone in Michael’s voice urges me awake, and the skin on my arm prickles where his hand rests as he jostles me.
I blink once, twice, three times to bring the room into focus, but it’s no use.
It’s still dark outside.
“Michael, I—” A yawn consumes the rest of my thought, and it’s just as well. His presence here at this time of the morning is out of place, and I struggle to piece together what it means for Jessa as I reach out to grab his arm, squeezing a few times to make sure I’m not dreaming.
Over the last few days, getting to know Michael, or Grizz, as his teammates call him, has left me with a foreign feeling. On first impression, his height and defined muscles are intimidating. His ability to school his emotions behind a stony mask is staggering. Yet, out of everyone here, I feel the least like a prisoner when he’s around. Maybe that’s why I’ve sought him out while Jessa’s been away from me these past few days.
Regardless of how oddly secure I feel around him, there is still that incessant thought deep inside my head, a nagging whisper, reminding me of how everything really is:
We are being held.
We are prisoners.
Cop-killer’s kid.
Echoes of last night’s laughter and sitting around the table for dinner bring back memories of dinners at Jessa’s house when we were younger. Her family became my family, and I miss them. Listening to Jessa and Travis joke around with each other and Jessa’s mom going around the table asking everyone what was new at school. She would even ask me, and the family would listen intently, adding follow-up questions before Jessa’s father started in with his dad jokes. We would all groan and roll our eyes, but now I wish I could remember just one of them.
We’re so far removed from those good old days that sometimes it feels like a punishment to remember how happy we were. How blissfully unaware we were of the real monsters lurking in the shadows, the ones we spent the last ten years running away from.
We aren’t innocent in all of this. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and it doesn’t matter why we did the things we’ve done; it only matters that we did them, and I’m in this with Jessa all the way down.
“Dana. You need to come with me. Now.” Michael is firm, his tone detached.
I recoil instantly, pulling my hand to my chest as my stomach knots. I don’t want another interrogation. As much as I fortify myself, Logan still manages to get under my skin. Jessa was right when she said we have to assume that no one here will help us.
Her name in my mind, I jolt up in bed and glance around.
Jessa fell asleep here last night. The noise should have woken her up too.
My eyes adjust to the dark, and the furniture across the room becomes prominent. The moonlight stretches across her empty, unmade bed, and my arms go heavy, sinking into my lap in confusion.
I’m alone.Something is wrong.
“Where’s Jessa?” My cheeks heat as the sting of tears threatens to build. I hold my breath, biting my lips between my teeth, willing the tears to go away as my hands start to shake on their own.
Michael takes a deep breath at my question, and I catch him pinching his nose in frustration. “Dana—NOW!”
His lack of answer is absolute. He won’t be giving me any information.
As a lump forms in my throat, images of Jessa from the video fill my head. She’s in trouble, and this isn’t the Michael I thought I was getting to know.
How could I have let my guard down and been so naive?
The fact is, we have something they want, and it is us versus them. We’ve been walking a fine line since we got here, and judging by the look on Michael’s face, we’ve done something to cross it.
Reaching across my midsection, I grip the edge of the sheet and fling it off my legs before pushing him out of my space. I jump out of bed and move past him to grab my pants and sweater, then point silently at the door, telling him to lead the way.
If he won’t give me an answer, I’ll find someone who will. Jessa is all I have left, and I’ll tear apart every one of them until someone tells me where she is and what is going on.
Shades of azure fill the sky, announcing dawn’s imminent arrival as I step outside. The crisp morning air causes my breath to hitch. Michael pauses for only a moment until my breathing evens out, finally leaving my lips in little clouds. Without a word, he turns to jog across the yard toward a main building, and I fall into pace behind him with worry for Jessa swirling around in my head.
She and I spent years under everyone’s radar before Jack and his team found us, and I know we aren’t just hanging out waiting to be picked off. Jessa wouldn’t admit it to me when I asked her, but I knew.
She has a plan.
I know she keeps things from me, and I understand her reasons. Much like she and Zane don’t share their locations, there is a delicate balance between not knowing enough and knowing too much.
After watching Maxwell’s video and seeing what he is capable of, I would welcome a quick death compared to what she lived through. Jessa carried that burden herself so I wouldn’t have to.
A flash of Maxwell’s video gnaws into my head, and a wave of nausea hits me. This is one of the first things Jessa and I will talk about when we get out of here, although I have no idea how we’ll be making our exit any time soon.
Michael stops outside of the building. When he looks over his shoulder, his eyes meet mine. His brow furrows as he turns his attention forward and pulls the door open.
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up at the unwelcoming environment before us. There is darkness where the lights should be, the halls lit only by the occasional red light, as if to announce danger. It looks like they are working off backup electricity; the normal hum of their working systems is gone.
Michael moves quietly and quickly down the hall in front of me.
My face flushes at the reminder of the night in his room.
His demeanor then is a stark contrast to how cold he is right now.
He’s closed himself off, and the only thing I sense from him now is the name his coworkers call him by: Grizz.
I’m back to being their prisoner, the enemy.
I’m lost in my head, trying to catch up to my racing thoughts, as my face hits his hard back and I come to a stop behind him. He takes another glance back at me, and I don’t know him well enough to know what that look on his face should mean.
I’ve been so stupid.
My stomach twists in on itself as anger and disappointment settle in. Whatever is happening now, it’s not good for me or Jessa.
The door creaks open, and Grizz steps back to let me walk through. I can’t run away. I have nowhere to go, and I don’t know where Jessa is or if she’s even alive, but I won’t leave here without her.
She has to be alive. Jack would protect her, wouldn’t he?
My own end could be waiting on the other side of the door, and I have no choice but to walk through and accept whatever it is. My shoulders slump, and I look to the floor. I don’t have it in me to face what’s on the other side, but I will.
Taking a deep breath to settle my stomach, I enter the room, then look up to meet the backs of Jack and Logan as they stare through a window in front of them. Neither of them turns to look at me, and their bodies are blocking my view.
As the door clicks shut, Grizz steps into the room behind me, and confusion sets in, replacing my fear. No one is looking at me. Leaning to the side, I try to look between them and into the space they are watching so intently.
“What’s going on?” Both men startle and turn at the sound of my voice, revealing a small counter in front of them. My eyes instantly focus on something I haven’t seen for days. “That’s my phone.”
I walk into the room and turn the phone over but leave it on the counter. Neither of the men stop me.
My stomach heaves into my throat as my eyes focus on the room in front of us. Maxwell is on a large monitor, and he has Jessa and Hunter in the room with him.
“Jessa?” I lift my hands to the glass to try to get her attention, but Logan’s voice stops me.
“She can’t hear you. She’s turned off communication. If you know anything, now is the time, Dee.” My anger flares at my nickname. He’s treating me like the enemy, and it’s not necessary. I’m pretty sure I know less than they do right now.
The trepidation in Jack’s eyes sobers me. He’s silently pleading with me to give him something I don’t have. He looks like he’s about to unravel. I’ve never seen this side of him.
“I don’t know anything. What’s happening?” I beg Logan to give me something to go on, and as he opens his mouth to answer me, Jessa’s voice cuts into our conversation.
“I’m bringing Zane online in one minute.”
The room around me tilts on its axis, and my head spins.
Something is horribly wrong. Jessa is not supposed to be able to connect to Zane on her own. She set it up so I’m the one who contacts him, and she’s the one with the codes to initiate access. The only way she could keep me safe was to make me valuable. This, right here, was my value to all the people who hunted Zane.
“Hunter tells me I have your word, Maxwell.” Jessa speaks into the monitor while Hunter, off to the side, leans against a wall.
Hunter isn’t being held with Jessa. He’s holding her captive. He’s working with Maxwell. Heat fills my face as the pieces fall into place.
How could Jack and Logan not know about Hunter? I trusted them, and they put Jessa in Maxwell’s grasp themselves.
Hot tears sting the corners of my eyes.
“We do this, and we’re out. All three of us.” Jessa finally looks directly at me, and the sadness in her eyes as she tries to smile breaks my heart.
“No, Jessa. Don’t do this,” I plead pathetically, my fists banging on the window, willing her to stop everything and cursing everyone around me for what they’ve done to us.
As Maxwell offers her all the lies in the world, I turn my attention to Jack and Logan.
“I don’t understand. It’s a safety thing. She shouldn’t be able to contact Zane without me.”
“Need-to-know, Dee.” Logan’s frustration cuts me deep.
For the first time, I’m alone.
Jessa and I were always on the run.
There was always someone who wanted a piece of Zane, and we were always on our own, but we were together.
A glass window separates me from the only friend I’ve ever known, the only person who was always there for me, and I have no choice but to watch everything play out, knowing I’m helpless to change anything that is about to happen.
Jessa punches a final key, then swivels in her seat as a second screen lights up. Everyone around me stills as a face I haven’t seen in a long time fills the screen.
Travis.
Jessa’s twin brother looks into the room at us. My chest tightens at the sight of him. He’s a little older, but he’s just as good-looking as he was in high school. I always crushed on him hard, but Jessa and I were BFFs, and there was a code I would never break. Not after everything she did for me. But he was a little hottie.
Jessa always called him her little brother because she was born a few minutes before he was.
I can’t believe he’s alive, after all this time. He made it out.
Relief floods my bones, but as I drop my gaze to Jessa, bells ring out in the back of my head, warning me that something is out of place. It’s small, almost unnoticeable, but the way she looks at Travis is—different.
“Travis?” Maxwell’s sickening growl breaks through my thoughts.
Travis’s response lags, probably from the delay in the satellite connection. Maxwell is tiptoeing around this new discovery. Then Jessa cuts back into the conversation.
“Zane, I’m in. System is open for your access.” My heartbeat hammers in my ears as she turns off the video that connects us to Travis.
There is nothing those two can’t do together, and I’ve just become aware that I’m left standing out here with the lions as she breaks into their den.
I have no idea how we’re going to get out of this, but I trust her with everything. The only thing I can do right now is let her work.
Glancing over her shoulder at Maxwell on the screen, she announces she’s ready to link up to his servers, and Jack and Logan mutter profanities under their breath.
I stay quiet and unnoticed as Jessa stares at her screen, executing a plan. A plan I had no part in, and I know why. Like she always has, she’s protecting me. If whatever plan she’s come up with works out, we’re free. If it doesn’t, she goes down with Travis, and I’ll most likely be cut loose, because I know nothing. This is how she protects me.
Before I allow my tears to flow, Jessa asks Hunter to get her something from the next room, and in an instant I know she’s up to something.
She’s fisting her hands over her laptop as she takes a steady breath.
In a fraction of a second, she glances at me before returning to her keyboard while nibbling on her lower lip.
I can read her like a book, and as I wait for her to make her move, I slowly suck in a deep breath of my own.
Before I exhale fully, Jessa jumps out of her chair and races across the room, grabbing the door handle of the room Hunter is in. Just before the door closes shut, Hunter lunges at it from the other side, but he’s too late to keep it open.
Jessa stands still with her arms raised above her head. Judging by the look of surprise on her face, I’m not sure she thought this part of her plan through. She looks a little unsure of herself.
She returns to her seat and starts typing. Logan turns to me.
“Link has just informed me that Jessa opened communication. We can speak to her, but we don’t want to make a wrong move. Please, Dana, speak to your friend. I can’t help either of you if you don’t help me.”
His words settle over me. I don’t want to help him. He’s not on Jessa’s side. He’s on his own side. But at the same time, I need to try to help Jessa, so I nod. As I open my mouth to speak, Maxwell’s vile voice cuts me off.
“Jessa, what’s going on? Get Zane—Travis back on the screen right now,” he yells into his monitor, but this time his words don’t seem to faze her.
I know that look. She’s in a space of her own, and she’s pretty sure she is untouchable. I wish I shared her confidence right now.
Travis’s face fills the second screen once more, and Maxwell questions him about Jessa’s actions.
Without changing his expression, Travis answers, “I don’t think I’m the best person to answer that. You killed me, remember?”
“WHAT?” Logan flinches as Link’s voice screams through his earpiece so loud that I hear it from where I’m standing.
Maxwell threatens both Jessa and Travis. At the sound of her brother’s name, Jessa loses all her composure. Spinning in her seat and standing tall in front of Maxwell, Jessa lets him have it. Confessions and secrets she’s had for almost a decade flow out of her, and the air around me grows thick with pain as she releases all of her anger.
Being the weasel Maxwell is, he tries to deny it all.
Then, as she confirms the death of her brother, the brother whose image is staring into the room at us, I can’t take any more, and my tears roll down my face as I watch my best friend fall apart and tell us everything I’ve wanted her to tell me over the last ten years. This is everything she held close to her heart because sharing it would have put us in danger. So she suffered alone.
I had always hoped Travis was Zane. In my heart, I wanted me and Jessa to be part of a larger family, but I just lost him all over again, and Zane’s identity is still a secret.
Our present situation hits her as she makes eye contact with me. I’m standing here crying like the helpless person I’ve always been.
The screen on my phone lights up, catching my attention. Both men look at the message, but I don’t care. The details are hidden unless I unlock the phone and access the app.
This is it.
This is our ticket to freedom.
“Jessa, we’re out. This is it. I got our release information.”
Zane must have everything he needs, and he’s cutting us loose. In my excitement, I forget my surroundings, and I glance into the room to look at Jessa’s phone, but it isn’t lit up with a notification.
“Where is your message, Jessa? You said Zane would let us go together or not at all. That was the deal. We did it, right?”
Jessa looks like she’s frozen in time. It takes me a few seconds of silence before I recognize her expression, and my heart sinks.
Regret.
“Dana, I’m so sorry.” Jessa’s face drops, and with a deep breath she turns back to her laptop and types.
Jack and Logan lower their heads to concentrate, and I realize Link must be updating them on something.
Without warning, Jack lunges at the window, yelling for Jessa to stop what she’s doing. Pain is etched across his face, and I catch Logan’s attention to ask what is going on.
“Jessa has started an aggressive shutdown of our systems. She’s routing gas into the rooms she and Hunter are in. I’m sorry, Dana. It will kill them both.” Logan has gone pale by the time he finishes speaking.
Sound dissipates around me as his last sentence tears my heart out. My only friend is about to die, and I can’t stop any of it. She’s just going to kill herself in front of me.
This—this was her plan all along. She knew I would never agree to this, so she kept it from me.
“JESSA!” I scream as I bang my tear-covered fists on the glass.
Everything is ending, and now Maxwell is asking her about Zane’s real identity. Words flow together, and I can’t concentrate on any one thing as panic shuts me down until?—
“I’m Zane.” Jessa’s voice is the only sound that breaks through my panic, and as I listen to her explain everything, my body goes numb, overcome with emotion. I can’t reconcile the lies and secrets with my breaking heart, but I need to shut it all out. I need to figure out a way to get Jessa out of there.
She has everything she needs. She can just unlock the door and leave. We’ll find a way out of here together. I’ve got my payout; we’ll live off of it together, off the grid. No one will find us. That’s the only plan I have, and I need to act fast. I need to get her attention.
I do the only thing I can from out here: I yell for her. I know she can hear me, because she cuts me off before I finish telling her my plan.
“Dana, I love you. Thank you for always being with me. You never let me down. I won’t let you down.” She sways in her stance as she speaks, and my panic takes hold.
“You’re letting me down now, Jessa. STOP IT. STOP THE GAS. PLEASE.”
She leans over and taps a couple of keys, and excitement surges through me. She’s listening. She’s going to turn off the gas, and I step back to wait for her. She lifts her gaze back up to us, but she’s not looking at me.
She’s looking past me. “Grizz, the outside door is locking in twenty seconds. She shouldn’t see this.”
Before I understand the weight of her words, strong arms wrap around my waist. I’m instantly lifted off the ground, being moved toward the door with my phone clutched tight in one hand and grabbing wildly at anything with the other as I kick out my legs, hoping to be released before those twenty seconds are up so I can stay in the room to reason with her.
My last effort lands solidly on the doorframe, and I grip it as tight as I can with one hand. I’ll lose my fingernails before I let go of Jessa now.
Wrapping his fingers over my own, Grizz wrenches me free from the door just as it shuts and the latch clicks locked. My hope drains out of me in a painful sob as he carries me down the hall and into the dim light of dawn.
Grizz takes his last few strides into the middle of the compound, and in that time I break everything down in my head. Jessa told me once, when she came back from Maxwell’s custody, that it helped her to block out what was happening and focus on what steps she needed to take to save herself. She said the rest would fall into place.
Grizz shifts to lower me from his arms. As my feet touch the ground, I wipe away my tears for Jessa. I’ll cry later. I can’t have these thoughts in my head now.
Jessa’s words from the afternoon we were taken from the farmhouse play in my mind. She told me to run if I could, saying, You know if I can make it, I’ll be there before you. If I’m not, just go.
Grizz’s lips move, and I can’t hear a word he’s saying, but I nod every few seconds so he continues, and it buys me some time to think. I scan the area while I list my next steps in my head.
Step one. I have the phone. It’s the only thing I need. Everything else is disposable.
Grizz continues as he touches my arm, and I allow it. I’ll allow him to assume I believe whatever he’s saying, but I know the truth. When the dust settles, Jessa will be dead. They’ll take my phone, and I’ll be hauled in and turned over to the authorities. They just took everything away from me. There is nothing left.
Step two. I need to find a way out of here.
I continue to nod at Grizz’s words and glance around as I choke on my sobs.
Just in front of the gate sits a Jeep, and it’s running. Logan said Jessa started shutdown procedures, so there’s a good chance the gate is no longer working, but I might be able to open it manually.
Step three. I need to get away from Grizz.
I need to face it—there was no Michael. My heart is going to get me killed if I allow myself to believe I could have trusted anyone but Jessa.
As Grizz stops talking, I listen to the world around me. The weight of my situation sinks in. Jessa will be dead by now, and I squeeze my eyes shut at the thought. Grizz offers me the last piece I need.
My out.
“Dana, I’m so sorry. We should be online soon. I need to go help the guys. Grey will be back from his security check any minute. I need you to stay out here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
And that’s it. I have a window. There are only minutes between Grizz leaving, Grey returning, and the security gate coming back online.
I look at the ground and nod quickly. He leans in to offer me a hug, and I allow it but I don’t return it. I’m going to miss the Michael I thought I knew. Then he turns and runs back through the doors to help his team.
The door hasn’t fully closed yet, and I spin on my heels to take off across the compound with my phone in hand. I’m already plotting step four in my mind.
Open the gate, get to the Jeep, and just drive. Figure out the rest when you see the first road sign.
I was right. System shutdown has left the gate unlocked. I shove the phone in my pocket, unhook the emergency latch, and push the gate on its wheels. Then I turn and run for the vehicle.
As I pull open the door to the Jeep, the rumble of a motorbike engine registers in the distance. Grey is close. It sounds like I only have a couple of minutes.
Good thing that’s all I need.
Bright rays break between the mountains as the Jeep carries me down the dirt road. I’ll slow down once I hit a main road, then I’ll check the phone and disappear, just like Jessa taught me.
Jessa.
The buildings on the edge of the compound get smaller in the rearview mirror, then turn blurry with my tears.
As the road descends off the mountain, the base slips out of view, taking my life as I knew it along with it.