Chapter Twenty
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Lauren sprinted alongside Jesse, her lungs burning as they rushed into the dense line of trees. The crackle of flames behind them faded under the pounding of her heart and the distant wail of police sirens.
Backup.
Too far away to save them, too late to stop this.
Through the smoke-hazed darkness, she caught a glimpse of movement—the shooter. Not racing toward Jesse and her but rather about to run away.
Lauren didn’t hesitate. She raised her gun, and while still running, she fired, aiming high. A warning shot since she didn’t want to shoot the person in the back.
The shot rang out, sharp and deafening. As Lauren had planned, the bullet missed, but the noise was apparently loud enough to send the shooter diving behind cover of the nearest tree, a scraggly cedar.
A heartbeat later, gunfire exploded back in their direction, the shots wild but dangerously close.
“Down!” Jesse shouted.
They dove behind the thick trunk of an old oak, bark splintering as bullets ripped into it. Lauren’s back slammed against the rough surface, every muscle in her body primed and adrenaline surging through her veins like wildfire.
Jesse leaned out just enough to return fire, his jaw clenched, eyes focused. Lauren did the same, firing quick, controlled bursts toward the shooter’s position.
The gunfire didn’t stop.
Neither did they. And Lauren’s mind didn’t stop whirling with thoughts of who was doing this. She didn’t know. She’d only gotten those glimpses at their attacker and hadn’t been able to tell if it was Reardon, Dr. Graves or Isabel.
Jesse cursed when some sparks from the fire landed on his jeans, and he had to smack out the embers. “We can’t just wait here. I’m going to circle around and sneak up on the asshole,” he muttered.
Lauren wanted to tell him to rethink that.
Or at least to be careful. But she didn’t get the chance to say anything before Jesse darted out from behind the tree, sprinting low and fast toward another patch of cover.
The shooter spotted him immediately, gunfire blasting in Jesse’s direction.
Bullets ripping through the trees, kicking up dirt and bark.
Lauren’s stomach dropped. She couldn’t lay low while the shooter was trying to kill Jesse.
She leaned over from the tree, fired at the shooter, her shots sharp and precise, hoping to draw the shooter’s attention away from Jesse. And it worked. Thank God, it worked.
Their attacker shifted, returning fire toward Lauren instead. The sudden volley of bullets slammed into the tree she was using for cover. More splinters of bark flew into her face, the sharp sting barely registering over the pounding in her ears.
But the pain was worth it.
Because Jesse was able to move, and he disappeared into the shadows.
Lauren pressed her back against the rough trunk, her breaths ragged, adrenaline roaring through every part of her. She was pinned down, the shooter’s attention fixed on her position. The sharp crack of each bullet echoed in her skull, but all she could think about was Jesse.
Please be okay, she thought, gripping her weapon tighter, her heart pounding with fear—not for herself, but for him.
Because if he didn’t make it around, if something happened to him—
She couldn’t finish the thought.
Instead, she focused, waiting for her moment, praying Jesse would find his.
The sharp crack of gunfire echoed in Lauren’s ears, but then—something changed. She heard it. The rapid, pounding rhythm of footsteps cutting through the trees.
A fresh round of adrenaline hit her as she snapped her head around just in time to see Jesse—moving fast—tackling someone from the side.
They hit the ground hard, a tangle of limbs and a wild struggle. A shot went off, the flash of it deafening for half a second, but Jesse didn’t stop. He grappled with the shooter, fighting to wrestle the gun free.
Lauren didn’t hesitate. She sprang off the ground, sprinting toward them, and with everything inside her shouting for her to get to Jesse now, now, now . Her feet barely felt the ground beneath her as she closed the distance, her gun still gripped tight in her hand.
When she reached them, Jesse was on top, pinning the shooter’s arm down, struggling to rip the gun from their grasp. Lauren moved in fast, ready to help. She reached out—her hand closing over the shooter’s wrist, fingers digging in hard.
And then she saw the face.
Her breath stopping in mid-motion.
Isabel.
The moonlight caught her features, twisted with rage and desperation, her eyes wild, teeth clenched as she fought against Jesse’s grip. Lauren’s mind raced to catch up with what her eyes were seeing.
Yes, she’d known Isabel was one of their suspects, but Lauren hadn’t expected the socialite to be fighting her own battles.
Lauren shoved aside the shock burning through her, and she wrenched the gun free of Isabel’s grip, tossing it out of reach.
“You worthless little bitch,” Isabel snarled.
Isabel’s chest heaved, her gaze flickering between Lauren and Jesse, dark and full of something that chilled Lauren more than the gunfire ever had.
She didn’t have words. Not yet.
Just questions.
And rage. So much rage.
“Why?” Lauren demanded. And the words just came rushing out of her. “Is this because I left you behind in that bunker? Because I didn’t save you?”
Jesse shoved Isabel onto her stomach, his knee pressed into her back as he yanked a pair of plastic restraints from his pocket. His movements were swift, controlled, fueled by the same anger that pulsed through Lauren. The zip of the restraints made a snapping sound when they locked in place.
Lauren stood over them, gun still in her hand, her chest heaving. She stared down at Isabel, disbelief warring with rage, her mind struggling to process everything.
“Why?” Lauren demanded, her voice rough and low. She took a step closer, her pulse pounding in her ears. “Why did you try to kill us? Was it because I ran? Because I didn’t rescue you from that bunker?”
Isabel’s head snapped up, her face twisted with fury, her hair tangled and wild around her face. “I didn’t need rescuing,” she snarled, her voice sharp and venomous. “I saved myself.”
Lauren’s breath hitched, but she didn’t back down. She kept her eyes locked on Isabel, needing to hear the rest, needing answers that didn’t make sense.
“When you ran,” Isabel spat, her voice dripping with bitterness, “The bastard who had us went after you. That’s when I got out. While he was busy chasing you, I slipped away, and I went in the opposite direction, far away from both of you.”
Jesse tightened the restraints, his jaw clenched, his eyes dark with fury, but he didn’t say a word.
Isabel kept talking, her words tumbling out like poison. “I found an old woman living alone in some rundown trailer. She let me use her phone, and I called a friend to come get me. I didn’t tell my mother. I didn’t tell anyone.”
“Because of the scandal it would have caused,” Jesse spat out, the sarcasm dripping from his voice as he dragged Isabel to her feet.
“You’re a twisted piece of shit, you know that.
You’d hide the fact you were abducted and held captive all so your snobbish mother wouldn’t learn that you’d sneaked out of the house. ”
“Damn right, I wanted it hidden,” Isabel fired back.
“My whole future would have been ruined. No one would have seen me as Isabel Markham, heiress to a fuckin’ fortune.
They would have seen me as that poor pitiful victim who got exactly what she deserved for disobeying her parents.
I would have become a joke, one of those cautionary tales for don’t do this, kiddies . ”
Lauren’s stomach turned, not just from the venom in Isabel’s words, but from the cold truth in them. Isabel didn’t feel guilt or remorse. She felt resentment—for being seen as vulnerable, for being human.
Jesse didn’t verbally respond to Isabel.
He just gave her another nudge, forcing her to stumble forward.
They started their way toward the main road, only about twenty yards away, the ground uneven under their feet.
The truck was still burning to their right, flames crackling and casting flickering shadows across the trees.
The wail of sirens grew louder, closer now, a reminder that the nightmare might soon be over. This time for good.
“So, why try to kill us?” Lauren asked, and she prayed she got an answer. One that she could learn to live with.
Isabel let out a bitter laugh. “I didn’t plan to kill you,” she snapped, her tone dripping with disdain. “Not at the start anyway. But you just got in the way. You were digging too deep, asking too many questions. Like fuckin’ dogs with fuckin’ bones. You might have discovered what I’d done.”
Lauren’s heart kicked against her ribs. She stepped in front of Isabel, blocking her path, her jaw tight. “What would we have found out?” she pressed, her voice colder now.
Isabel’s eyes burned with defiance, but something in her face shifted. Maybe she was tired of hiding, or maybe she just wanted to twist the knife one last time.
“Abilene found out,” Isabel said, her voice flat.
“She discovered the truth about my abduction, and she was going to write about it. Some true crime blog. Thought it’d impress her criminal justice professors.
” She groaned, shaking her head like it was some petty annoyance.
“Abilene was always a selfish little bitch. Thought she was smarter than everyone else.”
Lauren’s stomach turned, bile rising in the back of her throat.
“I taught her a lesson,” Isabel added, her smile cold and devoid of any humanity.
Jesse’s grip tightened on her arm, his jaw clenched. “You’re the one who abducted Abilene,” he said, his voice low with disbelief.