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“Yeah.”
“And then what happened?”
“Nothing for about three days. I was sick—really kind of out of it. Nausea and major headache. Food and water appeared three times a day. Usually delivered by a woman who wouldn’t speak to me. On the third day, I finally felt halfway human and was able to eat a full meal for the first time. I took a shower and dressed in my clothes. The instant I was dressed, the man showed up again.”
“He had cameras in the room.”
She shrugged. “That was my guess, but I never saw them.”
“What happened when he came back?”
“I went on the offensive—demanded to know who he was, why I had been taken. He didn’t appreciate my attitude. Told me he was in charge. Started drilling me about my weapons, my training, and why I was using an alias. He called his goons back in. I ended up slugging him and running out of the room. The place—wherever I was—was quite large. I ran down a hallway and spotted a stairway. Before I could get to it, I was tased. I went down. And then I woke up in the kennel.”
The flare of anger in his eyes told her exactly how he felt about that.
“I was told until I answered his questions honestly, I wouldn’t be released. Every few days, one of the men would drop off a burger, fries, milkshake, and small bottle of water.”
She didn’t bother to tell him about the heat, the powerful thunderstorms, or the desolation she’d felt. This was a fact-finding interrogation, not a pity party.
“Around the fifth day, I decided to change strategies. When the burger guy arrived, I told him I was ready to talk. I pretended to break down and cry. He recorded me, took some photos. I didn’t think my act worked, because the jerk basically told me it was a good start and then left.
“A few days later, the two men who’d taken me showed up with buckets of water. They said they were going to clean me up and take me back. Maybe I should have waited and let them take me back to him so I could get some intel, but I’d had enough. The minute I could, I attacked.”
“You did the right thing.”
She was happy to hear he agreed. It had felt good to be able to take back control. “I disabled and disarmed one guy. The other guy got to me before I could get away. He shot at me, and I turned around and killed him. I ended up killing both of them. Then I grabbed his phone and called you. I don’t remember much after that.”
“There was only one dead man.”
Jazz shook her head. She had been weak and out of it, but she knew for a fact that she’d shot two men. “I shot one man in the head and the other in the chest.”
“We found the one with the head shot. The other one apparently managed to get himself out of there. There was no vehicle there and no phone on you. So he must’ve taken it from you and left.”
Before she could say anything else, Xavier said, “I’ll get Serena to check with local hospitals to see if a gunshot victim has shown up in the last couple days.”
Jazz nodded. Wherever the man was, he would either be dead or in severe pain if he hadn’t gotten medical treatment. She couldn’t feel the least bit of sympathy for him.
“Any identity on the dead man in the kennel?” she asked.
“Yeah. His name was Kip Warring. Small-time criminal. No known association with any particular group. We’re still digging, though.”
“Finding the man who took me is going to be difficult, isn’t it?”
Xavier wanted to say no, that they’d be able to find him quickly and mete out justice for her. But she was smart enough to know that wasn’t the case. Without having any real idea why she had been taken, they were still dealing with a large pool of suspects.
Hearing Jazz talk so dispassionately about her ordeal only reinforced his belief that she was one of the strongest people he’d ever known. She had stuck to the facts, which meant she hadn’t mentioned how alone and terrified she must have been. The starvation and lack of water alone would have broken most people. But Jazz had had to fight for her life multiple times, and she had always come out on top.
He hadn’t asked her why she had stayed in the city or the reasons she was investigating Bass’s murder on her own. Now was not the time. Their priority was uncovering the identity of the scumbag responsible for hurting her. That meant getting as much intel as possible. There would be plenty of time for other questions later.
“Serena will be here in a few minutes to get your description of the man. He sounds like he knew what he was doing, which means hopefully he’s got a record. If so, we’ll use facial identification to find him.”
“It’s definitely a face I won’t soon forget.”
“There’s something you need to know.” He had specifically requested the team not mention what had happened to Hawke. He’d wanted to be the one to tell her. And while it would definitely upset her, he was already keeping things from her until she was stronger. If he waited any longer, she would see him not telling her sooner about Hawke as one more betrayal. He wouldn’t do that to her.
A flicker of alarm crossed her face, and he wondered what she thought he was going to say. Deciding he’d take that out later and examine it, he said, “Before we learned you were taken, Hawke and I were at the restaurant, following up on some final questions. When we were leaving, someone took a shot at me.”
“Who? Why?”