Chapter 36
Tessa lunged at Frank with a scream that had been burning inside her for two decades. Fists flying, she swung at his hands covering his face. “I’ve been grateful to you all this time for paying off the cops so I could have a future when I should have been cursing you for having me fake arrested.”
Strong hands grabbed her shoulders. “Stop that shit unless you want to get shot.”
Her nails ripped down Frank’s forehead as Shadow pulled her back. “Go ahead. Shoot him. I don’t care.”
Chest heaving, fists itching to lash out again, she looked Frank in the eye and searched his churning irises for the man she wanted him to be.
Time shifted back to when it was only the two of them.
Tessa.
Yes, Daddy?
Wad of cash in the side pocket. Go get ‘em and make me proud.
Frank’s voice hurled her back into the present with a gutting jolt. She jerked her gaze up to the man who should have loved her unconditionally, not caused her nightmares.
He cocked his head toward the door. “You don’t look so good. Please tell me you’re still taking your medication.”
Medication?
It only took half a second for the meaning of the word to register. The little girl who still missed their adventures recognized the code word immediately.
Shadow shook his gun at them. “Shut up.”
Tessa clenched her jaw and locked every muscle from her neck to her toes. Rolling her eyes with a sharp shift to the left and a guttural grunt, she held her breath for a heartbeat before she dropped her head to the side. She bit her tongue to keep from crying out as her temple struck the floor.
“She needs a hospital.” Panic shook Frank’s voice. “Now.”
Hudson braced himself between the front seats of the SUV. He blinked at the dashboard display tracking the signal the General’s team had locked on to with surgical speed. The indicator that pinpointed Frank’s position froze.
Hudson’s stomach lurched up and drove into his jackhammering heart. “Go.”
The General cut in front of oncoming traffic. “Two blocks out. By the park.”
Hudson’s body lurched to the left. The familiar force, like a helicopter whipping into a turn, drove his hope into tight focus. He jerked again as the General maneuvered the vehicle into the traffic flow. “Please tell me that signal is Frank.”
“It is.”
The General’s resolute answer clamped Hudson’s jaw tighter. Growling, he braced as they whipped onto a dark road skirting a wooded jogging path.
“Tessa.” Hudson breathed her name again as the taillights of a dark van came into view.
Tessa jerked the left side of her body in a disjointed, snapping rhythm.
The painful ruse that Frank had made her practice for half an hour each day when she’d been a kid came back as easily as picking a pocket.
Heart pounding so fast she prayed nobody heard it beat against the metal floor, she forced saliva through her open lips.
“What’s going on back there?” The driver veered the van to the right. “Do I need to stop and help you two control one woman and an old man?”
“Keep driving.” Shadow shot his leg out and kicked her in the ribs. “Wake up.”
The blow drove hundreds of knives through her torso. Her whimper wasn’t fake as she spasmed her body toward the door.
“She can’t wake up, you idiot. She’s having a seizure.” Frank’s voice shook as violently as Tessa’s limbs. “Air helps her come out of it.”
“What happens if she doesn’t come out of it?”
Tessa barely heard the tremble in Shadow’s voice over her convulsions.
“Don’t you know anything? My daughter could stop breathing and die.”
Shadow cut off the driver’s protests. “Just fucking pull over. We need to deliver her alive, or we’ll be dead too.”
Every muscle in Tessa’s body ached from her act. Her ribs hurt and her head pounded, but she convulsed harder as the van slowed and the door slid open. Cold air rushed in with each metallic click. Blissful darkness beckoned her to run, but she needed to wait for Frank’s signal.
He brushed hair off her cheek and whispered. “Now. Tessa.”
At Frank’s command, she rolled and flung herself out the door.