13. Michael
The flimsy front door creaks open, and the light of the morning sun illuminates my closed eyelids to a bright pink.
Sleep eluded me for most of the night.
Only now do I begin to feel its relaxing pull.
I hadn’t planned to entertain my desire for Dana until after we returned to our compound, she was safe, and she knew her best friend was still alive.
Only then did I plan to grovel for her understanding and forgiveness. Then I was going to lay out how I felt and how I wanted the chance to see where a connection like ours could go.
But that all went to shit when she let down her guard and showed me a glimpse of who I knew she really was.
I’ve craved that version of her ever since I had it a year ago. Her fire ignites something in me I can’t contain or control. Then there’s a part of her that she doesn’t let anyone see. It’s raw and vulnerable, and it shatters my restraint every single time.
Now that I’ve had her again, I’m not willing to let her go, and it’s beginning to confuse my mission.
Dana woke up half an hour ago.
As soon as she got out of bed, I stretched out and took over her mattress. Closing my eyes, I listened as she started a fire, tidied the area, poured some water in the sink to wash last night’s cups, and unlocked the padlock.
Now, propping one eye open, I watch as Jack joins her beside the coffeepot.
They exchange good mornings.
“He okay?” Jack’s voice is hushed but clear as he turns to face me, and I close my eye, hoping they’ll give me a few more minutes.
“He needed something softer to sleep on,” she mutters, and I almost chuckle at her response.
This thing she calls a bed, with a busted spring digging into my ribs, is no better than the couch we sat on last night.
“How about you? Are you okay?” His voice is muffled by his back as he turns to face her at the counter, and I hold a breath, waiting for her to answer.
“Uh, yeah. I’m fine.”
I wonder what her answer would have been had I been awake and standing there with them, challenging her to admit the fear and desire she shared with me hours ago.
Dana is a fighter. She has to be to have survived this long. But she fights herself just as fiercely.
I get the feeling the cracks she showed last night have been sealed back up with the fears she pushed down.
The thought makes me angry.
She’s become used to closing herself off, making it harder to get through to her. The sooner we secure her, the sooner we reunite her with Jessa, and the sooner she’ll stop fighting us.
Her stubbornness irritates me. I’m not going to get any sleep now.
“Is that coffee I smell?” Stretching, I catch their attention.
“It is, but it’s instant. I have better coffee in the shop.” Dana’s statement sounds more like a question. She knows she can’t go back there now.
Jack places his mug on the counter, turning to hold her attention. “You know that’s not an option. We have decent coffee at our place. We need to check in, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be moving out of here today.”
Dana’s face grows into a forced smile. Her slim fingers tighten around her mug. “Of course.” Her grin is unsettling.
Turning away from both of us, she fills the mug. I join her in the kitchen to push the subject when an alarm beeps in our bag.
On instinct, Jack and I grab the guns off the table and move to the little windows that face the front. Our second vehicle comes into view, and I holster my weapon while Jack walks back to the table to reset the alarm.
The morning air is crisp. I wave to the guys, letting them know it’s safe to join us. Then I turn to grab my coffee off the counter before someone else claims it as their own, and I catch Dana, hunched over the sink, taking a couple of deep breaths.
Her nerves are close to gone.
I decide against pushing her to open up right now. Having Dana’s emotions in check will make our job here easier.
“Morning, guys.” I raise my cup.
Eagle and Grey enter but stay near the door, looking at Jack. I follow their line of sight, but Jack is oblivious. His attention is on packing up and moving out.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
Grey’s attention jumps to me, while Eagle’s stays locked on Jack.
“Oh, um, nothing.” Grey is the worst liar. I mean, it’s handy when the guy buys into poker during downtime on base, but right now, it’s unnerving.
“Hey, Jack.” Eagle’s tone is smooth, steady, and Jack looks up from his task. “So everything is ready to go, but we have an issue at home.”
“At the cabin?” Jack is all business. His head is still down, and I’m not sure he realizes Dana is standing behind him, but Eagle sees her. His eyes keep jumping over to her before he answers.
“No. On base.” The confident look on his face drops a fraction. “Logan sent us to tell you that Link lost his lucky penny.” Jack stops what he’s doing, his hands paused over the bag, and he and Eagle exchange stares before Grey cuts into the conversation.
“Hey, Dana. Can I get a cup of that coffee?” He emphasizes her name to remind Jack we are not alone.
“Outside. Now.” Abandoning his task, Jack heads straight for the door. Eagle and I follow behind while Grey steps into the cabin to distract Dana.
Link lost his lucky penny. That can only mean one thing.
Jack looks like he’s going to unravel. His eyes narrow on Eagle when we get far enough outside. “Where is she?”
“They don’t know. She never showed at breakfast. They did a sweep of their base, and she was gone.” Eagle pushes his hands in a downward motion, trying to settle Jack.
Jack pinches his lips tight, forming his hands into fists as he paces from side to side in two-step increments, no doubt holding in his anger so Dana doesn’t hear him lose his shit.
“How long since the last check?” Jack asks through gritted teeth.
“Link said the last time she was verified was twelve hours before that.”
This is bad. This is very bad for everyone.
Eagle continues sharing what they know. “Logan is at the cabin, packing up and staying in touch with Link. We still need to check out the vehicle you found with the kid last night, the rental. Then we are meeting back here and making a move to get out. We have what we need. Staying only invites trouble. Are you still coming with me to clear the abandoned car?”
Eagle and I wait for Jack’s answer as the cool air settles into my bones, but I’m not sure it’s the weather sending a chill up my spine.
“No. I’m not. Take Grey.” He’s done talking, but neither of us responds. I want to tell him I’m sorry Jessa is missing, but the words won’t come out. Our silence isn’t lost on Jack. “There is only one thing Penny would leave the base for, and it is standing in that dilapidated shed. She must have found her like we did, and she’s on her way out here. She would never risk everything on anything less than a foregone conclusion. So I’m not leaving Dana’s side until I have her back. Eagle, find the rental car with Grey, then check in with Logan. We’ll meet you at the cabin.”
“Sure thing.”
“I should have put a fucking tracker on that woman,” Jack mutters to himself as he stomps back to the cabin. Eagle and I exchange glances as we follow.
“Okay, Grey, you’re with me. Dana.” Eagle nods once into the room, and Dana waves as Grey sets a cup in the sink and leaves behind him.
“You’ve got an hour to get ready and pack up. Take what you need. We won’t be back.” His tone is more rushed with Dana, and she sets her mug in the sink before she gathers a photograph off the shelf and places it into her backpack.
“Can I see that?” Jack reaches out for the photo, and I catch a glimpse of her younger self smiling alongside Jessa. It must have been taken when they were still in school. “Is there any coffee left?” Jack hands her his mug, and she turns to pour in the last little bit as he places her photo in her backpack and zips up the bag.
She doesn’t move to take anything else. Everything of value must be in her bag.
“You’re bleeding.” Her words startle me, and I look down my front, confused. “No, your arm.” She points to her own arm, mirroring where the bullet grazed me yesterday, then turns, opens a drawer, and hands me a small red bag.
“Shit.” I unzip the bag to find a stash of bandages and medical supplies. I head to the bathroom as Jack continues to make himself busy around the room.
Her bathroom is the size of a closet, and I grunt a few times before I get comfortable in front of the only mirror I’ve seen in this place. I plug the drain, then unzip the first aid kit, dumping its contents into the sink and taking stock of what I’ve got to work with.
Removing my shirt, I peel away the soaked bandage to examine my wound before tearing open an antiseptic wipe. The cool liquid stings, and I wince at myself in the mirror.
I continue dotting and dabbing until the blood no longer breaks through. Then I use the tube of sealant and blow on the wound to speed up the drying time as I run through possible scenarios in my head.
Jack knows Jessa better than anyone—well, maybe with the exception of Dana. If he’s confident she’s on her way out here, then what happens if we pack Dana up and head home? And why would she take off after Dana without enlisting our help or, at the very least, telling Jack? After all this time, did she think we wouldn’t let her find her friend?
The questions keep coming, but suddenly I’m hit with one that takes priority: why is it so quiet out there all of a sudden? These walls are thin; I don’t even hear footsteps.
After packing everything back into the little bag, I wash my hands. As I reach for the door, a sudden sound stops me cold. The alarm to our perimeter has started beeping again. Grey and Eagle have no reason to come back here. I tear open the door, almost taking it off its little hinges, and barrel into an empty room.
The front door is wide open, giving me a direct line of sight to our SUV, but no one is in it. Muffled expletives come from outside. They grow in intensity as heavy footsteps approach the cabin, and I rip my gun out of its holster with my bad arm, instantly feeling the wound open again.
“She’s running.” Jack barrels into the room, wasting no time digging into the duffel bag. I grab my jacket off the back of the chair. “No. We’re not leaving here until you get that under control.” He points at my arm.
“But she’ll get away.” Jack is shaking his head as I speak, and he lifts a GPS unit from the bottom of the bag.
“No, she won’t. I slipped a tracker in her bag.”
“How did you know to do that?”
“She was too agreeable. It didn’t sit right with me. Penny gave me the idea. I may not be able to track Jessa, but I can at least track one of them, since they’ll most likely end up in the same place at some point. I slipped it in with her photograph when she was pouring my second cup of coffee.” He checks around me, and his eyes land on the table. “She took our car key. She thinks she’s got a head start.” Then, pointing at my arm, he continues, “Close that up; there’s a new shirt in the bag. I’ll patch your jacket. We’re leaving in five. I’ll call the others once we get in range.” Opening a side pocket on the duffel bag, Jack pulls out our spare set of keys and shoves them into his pocket.
I waste no time with Dana’s first aid kit.
“How did she get away?”
Jack curls his lip. His sneer tells me he was hoping he wouldn’t have to answer that question. “She said she was going to get some firewood outside, around the back of the cabin. I told her she didn’t need wood because we were leaving soon, and she made a big deal about it.” His eyes stay on my jacket as he uses some tape to patch the hole where the bullet tore through.
“And you let her go out there?” I can’t believe he’d let her walk out of here like that.
“Of course not. There could be a long-range shooter in the woods. I’m not an idiot.”
I raise my eyebrows at his declaration. Right about now, that’s exactly what I think he is.
“I told her I’d go and get it for her.” His head hangs a little lower as he admits she got the better of him. She played him like a fiddle. Chuckling, I secure the gauze while he continues his story. “I got out there, and there was no pile of wood. Then I heard a sad excuse for an engine from around the other side of this place. She drove away in a hunk of junk.”
“She could have taken our SUV. She took the keys.”
“Dana is many infuriating things, but stupid is not one of them. She probably knew we could track our vehicle. She won’t want to give away what direction she’s going in.”
“Why run?” I don’t understand why she would choose to run. This last year can’t have been easy for her, and she’s hell-bent on hiding for the rest of her life?
Whether it was her intention or not, she put down roots here, and they’ve begun to grow. I hoped we’d made it clear she wasn’t in trouble with us. Yet she’s crossed a line.
“You’ll have to ask her when we catch up with her.” Jack hurls the bag over his shoulder and walks out the door and toward the SUV, pulling out his spare keys and opening the trunk.
By the time I grab my jacket and close the door, locking the padlock from the outside, he’s already in the driver’s seat.
I shift my attention between the phone in my left hand and the tracker in my right as we make our way down the dirt road. There are so many things I want to say, but my train of thought refuses to slow down long enough to get something out.
“Michael.” Jack rarely uses my first name. I don’t mind, but I prefer Grizz because it reminds me of my father. Right now, it also reminds me that I’m here to do a job, and I should start thinking with my head instead of my heart. My stomach twists, partly because I’ve only eaten an old animal cracker in the last twelve hours, but also because Jack only uses my name when he’s trying to reach me. “She’s going to be treated as a hostile from here on out. It’s for her own good.”
It almost sounds like an apology.
He leaves it at that. He knows we both know what it means.
“Bars.” I hold up the phone and dial the number before hitting speakerphone.
“Jekyll.” Logan’s greeting is clipped.
“She’s running. We’re on her six, about ten behind her.” I waste no time.
“We’re now executing this as a hostile extraction,” Jack adds, keeping his eyes forward.
There’s a long pause on the line, followed by a resigned sigh. “Why is this not surprising?”