Chapter Twenty-Three
Xavier palmed the wheel, his phone propped up on the dashboard. Lawson’s voice came through the speaker. Aside from feeling guilty about not listening to Hannah when she’d shared her concerns about Jed, Xavier also felt bad because he’d never shared any details with Lawson about Sampson before.
Lawson had cut him off when Xavier had tried to apologize and explain separately in a little more detail.
He’d immediately said he understood. There had been a few times when Xavier and Lawson were at the agency that they had separate assignments with other agents.
They both knew the rules: you didn’t share details if it wasn’t an operation you were directly involved with or had permission from the higher-ups to do so.
Xavier was positive that Lawson had several things he hadn’t been able to share with him during their time at the agency and since. Even though neither of them was active any longer, they both knew to keep their mouths shut about assignments from their time there.
However, Xavier still felt terrible about it because his secret had brought dangerous men to their door and put Lawson’s sister directly in harm’s way.
Xavier wasn’t sure he’d be as forgiving if it had been the other way around.
He knew he’d never get over it if something happened to Hannah because of him.
“How far away are you?” Lawson demanded, bringing Xavier’s thoughts back to their present situation.
“A few minutes,” Xavier replied, trying to keep his voice steady, though all he wanted was to slam his foot down on the pedal and race to Hannah as quickly as he could.
It was hard to believe she had been taken, but Sampson was smart.
He knew exactly what he needed to do to get Xavier to come to him.
Thanks to Jed and his time at the lodge, Sampson knew Hannah was the one weakness he could use against Xavier to guarantee he’d come running.
She was the one person he would protect at all costs, no questions asked.
Lawson let out a growl on the other end of the line. Xavier knew he was going through similar fear with Hannah being his baby sister. They both had everything to lose if this went sideways.
Xavier frowned. “You’re sticking with our plan, right?
” They were following behind, at a distance, in case Sampson and Jed had split up and one of them was watching the lodge.
They’d wait a short time, then follow Xavier’s general direction, but coming up on the other side through the forest instead of the road.
“Of course I am,” Lawson muttered. “Wait until you get there, and then we’ll all close in and cut them off so there’s nowhere for them to go.”
“Right,” Xavier confirmed.
When Xavier had heard that Hannah had been taken, his first reaction was panic. He wanted to charge out to the location where Sampson was holding her and take them down in a fiery blaze, but Lawson had convinced him to wait. Make a plan and keep a level head.
He knew Lawson understood his urge to act. Of course he did, Hannah was his sister and he wanted her safe.
But Xavier knew Sampson too well to think he wouldn’t follow through on his promise to kill her if they didn’t play by his rules. If Lawson arrived before Xavier did, there would be hell to pay. Sampson would take her out before Xavier had a chance to do anything.
That thought had a sick feeling coursing through his stomach and made his headache pound more against his skull.
After he’d calmed down from the shock of Hannah being taken, Lawson had sent Xavier to his office to wait for River to come check him over.
He’d grumbled slightly because they’d be wasting time but knew it was for the best. He wouldn’t be any good to Hannah or himself if he couldn’t even stand up straight.
Turned out Jed’s beating had given him a slight concussion, several bruises and cuts over the top half of his body from that damn baton and had required sixteen stitches on the back of his head to close the wound.
Xavier was achy and sore, and it felt like his brain was going to beat out of his skull, but he could see straight again.
While River was patching Xavier up, Lawson had called Cade to fill him in on everything and then gone to check on Sarah.
Xavier felt horrible that her office had been trashed, too, and, more than anything, that she’d been traumatized.
He was just glad she wasn’t physically hurt.
He would have never survived the guilt of that.
Looked like he had a lot more therapy coming his way to get rid of all these new demons that had arisen.
Aaron had gone with Bailey, after she arrived with a team, to process the two destroyed rooms and get statements.
She had left not long before they did to head back down to Blue Ridge to fill in Sheriff Willis and put out an APB on Jed and Sampson.
Xavier was reluctant to let her do that, but if they happened to get away, hopefully they’d be caught by being flagged in the law enforcement system.
He still couldn’t believe this had all happened.
He should have done more to keep Hannah safe.
He wished he would have locked down the whole damn place, if that would have protected her from these psychopaths.
He should have dug deeper into Jed and asked him to leave the moment Hannah expressed any kind of doubt about him.
But he hadn’t. And now, his worst enemy had gotten his hands on her, and Xavier was all too aware of what Sampson would do to get what he wanted.
There was no USB drive anymore, but that didn’t matter.
Sampson was clearly crazed by the obsession of finding it.
God only knew why he had chosen to come back now, but it didn’t matter, Xavier would take him on.
He was going to get Hannah away from him and make him pay for what he’d done—to her and to their home.
He was going to end this for good.
He pulled the car to a halt at the edge of a forestry road that led into the woods.
It had been unused for years, but there was dirt kicked up around the edges like someone had been there recently.
Sampson? Jed? He had to assume it was one of them.
Climbing out of the car, he glanced around, making sure he wasn’t being watched, but there was no one around him—no one he could see anyway. Good.
Above him, the nearly full moon hung in the sky, casting a bright light down through the trees.
There was a stalled feeling in the air, like the forest was holding its breath waiting to see what would happen next.
Xavier felt a bead of sweat running down his spine and the cold press of the gun tucked into his pants.
It had been a long time since he had carried a weapon, not since his days at the agency.
It felt like a bad sign, like each step he took was carrying him closer and closer back to the life he left behind, full of secrets and lies and death and destruction.
Goose bumps formed on his flesh at the thought of becoming what he’d been all those years ago.
But if that was what it took to get Hannah to safety—if he had to walk through hell to make sure she came out the other side of this—then he would do it. He had lost Max, and he refused to lose the person who had finally brought him out of the dark place he’d been trapped in for such a long time.
Lawson would never forgive Xavier if something happened to her, and he knew he would never be able to forgive himself, either. He wouldn’t deserve forgiveness if something happened to her.
Leaves crunched beneath his feet, an eerie quiet filling the woods around him.
His eyes scanned his surroundings as he tried to figure out where he was headed.
Sampson had given him general directions but had kept it vague enough that they would have the jump on him if they wanted.
He was going to do his best not to let that happen.
Suddenly, the sound of muffled voices caught his attention from deeper in the woods. He followed them, and a few moments later, he came to a clearing.
There, sitting in front of him, was the lifted Ford that had forced him and Hannah off the road. He stepped around it, and then, with a flood of relief, he saw Hannah.
She gasped as soon as she laid eyes on him from where she sat in the open side of a van.
The moment the sound left her mouth, Sampson and Jed spun around to see exactly where he was.
Jed grinned and grabbed Hannah, pulling her against him roughly.
Even from where he was standing, Xavier could tell how terrified she was.
Her face was drawn and pale and her whole body was stiff as Jed dragged her from the van and to her feet.
She stumbled slightly at the jerking motion and her wide, scared eyes locked on Xavier’s.
“It’s going to be okay,” Xavier told her, ignoring the other two as he lifted his hands up to show that he was unarmed. Well, as far as they knew anyway.
Sampson walked over and took Hannah by the collar of her shirt and yanked her forward. She stumbled behind him.
Xavier felt a flood of anger hit him, seeing them treat her like that. She was so sweet and sensitive in ways they would never be able to understand, and he loathed the way they dragged her about like she was nothing.
But he also knew she was fierce and brave and he was counting on that to keep her from panicking while he did what he needed to do.
He didn’t take his eyes off of her, silently pleading with her to believe him when he told her it was going to be all right, even though things seemed to have gone so wrong.
“Tell me where the drive is, Dutch,” Sampson ordered, grinning at Xavier with a mad look in his eyes.
Xavier didn’t know if he was stable enough to hear the truth of what he’d done all that time ago.
Even though it had been so many years since he’d last seen the drive, Sampson still seemed to believe that Xavier was hiding it from him.
He supposed Sampson was going to find out the truth sooner or later, whether he was ready or not.
Xavier took a breath, praying that what he said next didn’t set Sampson off. “I don’t have it.”
A flash of anger crossed Sampson’s face. “I know you do,” he growled, jerking Hannah to a stop. “You were the last person who had it. Now, tell me where it is or—”
“I destroyed it,” Xavier told him, keeping his voice as calm as he could. Lawson and the others would be on the way by now, and hopefully, they would catch up in time to help him. He just needed to keep Sampson talking long enough for them to get here.
Hannah bit down nervously on her lip, her eyes wide and laced with panic.
“You did what?” Sampson demanded. “You—”
“I destroyed it when we were on that last mission together,” Xavier explained. “I was sure you were a rogue agent, and I couldn’t trust you with it, so I made the executive decision to get rid of it. And it seems like I was right to do that, because look at you now.”
The anger grew in Sampson’s eyes. He shook his head like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. But on some level, he had to know it was true. Jed had turned Xavier’s room upside down looking for the drive and hadn’t been able to locate it.
“You were always too righteous for your own good,” Sampson sneered. “If you don’t have it, then you at least know where it is. Tell me.”
“I just did,” Xavier replied more forcefully.
“I destroyed it. I don’t have it. Nobody does.
It doesn’t exist anymore. I smashed it to pieces and then threw those pieces away years ago.
It’s probably scattered in some landfill somewhere now.
You wouldn’t be able to find it if you spent the rest of your life looking. ”
“That’s too bad,” Sampson replied, his voice taking on an almost unnerving tone of calm. He reached behind his back and pulled out a gun, training it on Xavier.
“No!” Hannah screamed, her voice cutting through the quiet woods around them.
Xavier stared down the barrel, not moving. If Sampson was going to shoot him, so be it. As long as the weapon wasn’t pointed at Hannah, he could handle whatever came next.
But then, like he was reading Xavier’s thoughts, Sampson turned to aim the gun at Hannah instead, taking his eyes off Xavier for a moment.
Big mistake. A flash of rage took over Xavier, and he grabbed his gun and pulled it out. By the time Jed had opened his mouth to warn Sampson what was happening, Xavier had managed to get off a shot. The bullet whizzed by Sampson’s head and hit the van behind him.
Startled by the shot Xavier fired at him, Sampson dropped his gun and raced for cover behind the van.
Hannah rushed over to where Sampson’s gun fell and kicked it farther away.
Jed took that moment to race behind the van for cover with Sampson, yelling obscenities at Xavier, leaving Hannah standing there alone. She was free.
Hannah. She was the only thing on Xavier’s mind. Eyes fixed on her, he rushed toward her, the adrenaline pumping in his system, his heart slamming against his chest.
“Xavier!” she called out to him, her voice sounding strangely distant.
But then, all at once, he reached her and pulled her into his arms. And for a moment, everything fell into place.