Chapter 23 #2
“Don’t do anything he says,” Jack snarls through the line. “Not a single thing, do you hear me, Anastasia? Sawyer, if you’re there, don’t let—” A man grunts, and Jack’s words are cut short.
“That’s enough,” the man says.
“Let him go. It’s me you want.” Anastasia’s voice is steady—firm.
“Always the intelligent one,” the man says. “I tell you what, you return to town so we can continue our game with fair rules, and I’ll let your FBI boyfriend live.”
Absolutely not.
“Okay,” she agrees without hesitation. “But you have to let him go—alive.”
The man chuckles. “Again. Intelligent. You know, people don’t give you enough credit for being more than a pretty face. And what a pretty face it is.” My stomach clenches, and I try to focus only on tracing the call.
Otherwise, I might rip the phone away from her and throw it in the ocean to keep her from doing what I know she’s going to insist on doing.
“Now, I’m assuming your Navy SEAL is already working on tracing this call, so I won’t bother with telling you where you can find your FBI agent. What I will tell you is that, if anyone but Sawyer himself comes to rescue him, I will kill Jack and whoever is stupid enough to show up.”
Didn’t see that one coming.
“Why Sawyer?” she asks, her gaze locking on mine. “I thought it was me you wanted.”
He laughs. “Well, I know they won’t let you come to me alone. That would be too easy. I also know that your SEAL isn’t going to leave your side for long. So, if he shows up, I can safely assume you’re back in town.”
Which means Jack is being held in or near Stormwatch Landing.
“Okay,” Anastasia says. “But how do I know you won’t just kill them both?” Her gaze never strays from mine.
“You are the one who changed the rules, Anastasia. No one else has to die. But you’d better hurry. I’d recommend catching a flight instead of coming back on your brother’s boat. Jack doesn’t have that long.”
My laptop finishes triangulating the call right as he ends it.
“I’ve got a location.” Taking the phone from her, I call Zane. He answers on the second ring.
“Hey.”
“Jack is alive.” Just saying those words brings me relief. However, it’s what’s coming next that makes me sick.
“Good. Any idea where he is?”
I look over at Anastasia. The fire is back in her expression, and I know it’s because it feels as though the waiting is over. “It’s been requested that Anastasia return home in exchange for Jack’s safety.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Absolutely yes,” Anastasia snaps. “I won’t let Jack die because of me.”
Zane’s quiet for a moment. “He’s going to kill him anyway. And then he’ll have access to you, too. The fact that he took Jack proves we made the right call getting you out of town.”
“The right call for you?” she asks. “Because from where I’m sitting, Jack is about to pay a price he has no business paying.”
“Jack wants you safe, too.”
“Jack needs to be alive,” Anastasia insists. “I won’t lose someone else when I have the chance to save them.”
The words carry a weight, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s not thinking about Violet, too. About how she feels guilty that she didn’t tell someone when she went to pick her friend up.
“You are the target here, Anastasia. Jack is the bait. Let the FBI handle it. They have a full tactical team they can send in.”
Before this escalates into a fight Zane can’t win, I clear my throat. “He gave us instructions on saving Jack.”
My friend is quiet for a moment. “What instructions?”
“I go alone to the location he called me from. I’ve got a trace, but if he sees anyone else show up, he’ll kill Jack and whoever does.”
“Send me the location.”
“No,” Anastasia interrupts. “Because you’re just going to try, and it’ll end up getting you both killed.”
Zane is quiet for another moment, clearly processing.
He’s not wrong.
But neither is Anastasia.
As a SEAL, I know that our best chance at saving them both is to comply with the demands—to an extent. But as her boyfriend, I want to keep Anastasia as far away from the danger as I can.
“This is a carrot on a stick,” Zane tells her. “He’s drawing you back in.”
“I’m not stupid. I see that, too,” she snaps. “But if there is even a chance to save him, we have to try.”
“And what about Sawyer?” Zane questions. “You seem so eager to send him right into the lion’s den.”
She looks up at me, eyes wide, and I can see on her face that the risk to me has finally registered. I reach over and take her hand in mine, angry that Zane sees fit to weaponize her feelings for me to get what he wants.
Even if it is what we both want.
“Sawyer is willing to walk into the lion’s den,” I say, anger lacing my tone. “We can save them both.”
“So long as a serial killer keeps his word,” Zane growls through the line. He sighs. “Send me the location, and we’ll do some recon. I won’t let him see me, and I promise not to go in.”
“I don’t trust you,” Anastasia replies.
“Anastasia, I won’t go in,” Zane assures her. “But if the two of you have already decided how this is going to go down, then I need to map out what Sawyer will be walking into. I won’t let a member of my team go in blind.”
She crosses her arms, then offers me a single nod.
“I’ll send them to you. We’re about thirty miles from the nearest marina. As soon as I get us docked, we’ll be headed to the airport.”
“Then I guess I’d better get a plan in place.” Zane ends the call, so I set the phone aside.
“Anastasia.”
“No. If you’re about to tell me that I can’t go back, that this is a mistake, then keep the words to yourself. I’ll go get Jack myself if I have to.” Her jaw is set, her eyes hard.
“I won’t pretend that I don’t see this as exactly what Zane described—a carrot on a stick.
But I also know this won’t stop with Jack.
So who’s next? Linda? Zane? Tessa? Weston?
This guy is going to keep tearing apart your life until we catch him or give in.
I won’t let there be any more blood on your conscience. It’s too heavy a burden to carry.”
One I unfortunately know quite well.
Saving her will mean nothing if she loses herself.
“I would love nothing more than to toss that phone into the ocean and disappear with you. But that’s not who you are. And frankly, that’s not who I am, either. So as long as my heart beats, I will fight for you and those you care about.”
Anastasia’s eyes fill, and the fire in her gaze extinguishes. “I feel like I’m making a decision that is going to cost me you.”
“You’re not making this choice, Anastasia—I am.”