Page 37 of Anchor (First to Fight)
Jones’ voice is calm when he speaks, despite how peaked he looks. “When I lost my wife, I had nothing left. You took everything from me.”
Chloe opens her mouth to talk, but I wrap an arm around her waist and tug her even closer against my body, cutting off whatever she was about to say.
I keep my response level and calm. There is still the possibility he’ll set off his own collar while standing just a short distance away from us. “I’m sorry, Jones. I swear, we did everything we could to save your wife.”
Jones just shakes his head sadly. “If what you’re saying were true, she’d still be here.”
“I wish I could change what happened.” The intense regret is causing physical pain. My chest is tight and my throat aches.
“I didn’t bring you out here for you to do anything.”
My brows furrow. “Then why did you go to all this trouble?” If it wasn’t to kill me, to hurt me, then why the hell are we here?
“I want you to understand.”
“Then make me understand,” I bite out.
“That’s the idea,” Jones says, and he inches closer.
“Stop right there,” I say, but he keeps coming toward us. To Chloe, I say, “If he gets too close, shoot him.”
His hands are still up, but with the explosives strapped to his neck, I’m not taking any chances. If he weren’t holding the detonator, I would have instructed Chloe to shoot him, but I can’t. I’m no bomb expert and I’m not going to start pretending to be now.
As Chloe trembles against me, I wonder for the first time if I’d caused more trouble coming out here to save her than I would have if I’d let the sheriffs and F.B.I. handle the situation.
“What do you want me to understand?” I ask. “I’m sorry, I can’t tell you how sorry I am—”
“I don’t want your sorries,” Jones says sharply. “I wanted you to know what it felt like to have someone you cared about taken from you because of someone else’s callousness.”
I double over in pain as Emily’s face comes to mind. Without thinking about it, I squeeze Chloe tighter against me and press an absentminded kiss into her hair. I say a silent thanks for her thoughtless actions that kept Emily from this nightmare. If nothing else, I’m immeasurably grateful for her bravery.
“And now?” Chloe’s hand finds my arm. Her nails dig into the skin, but I barely feel it.
“Now, he’ll get to know the same callousness,” he says.
My mind blanks with panic, thinking somehow he got to Emily without my knowing. It’s the two-second pause that catches me off-guard. Jones uses it to his advantage and he rushes toward us. Chloe yelps and lets off a couple rounds in quick succession. One wings him, but the other two are off the mark.
Jones stumbles, but regains his footing and then he’s within reaching distance. I can see the whites of his eyes, he’s so close. Then he’s throwing the device toward us and we reel back, letting him leap off the back of the ferry and into the dark water below.
Chloe screeches and catches the device with her free hand, fumbling a little. We both spin around and search the white caps for his head.
“There!” Chloe says, pointing at a slightly less black blob about twenty feet away. The boat is still anchored to the ocean floor, but the current is rapidly pulling Jones’ body farther and farther away. It takes a few seconds until my brain puts two and two together.
“NO!”
“What?” Chloe asks. “What is it?”
“The device,” I whisper. “He’ll set off his bomb himself. The water is going to carry him outside of range. He’s trying to commit suicide. ”
Her eyes widen and her mouth parts. “No.”
Knowing what’s coming, I tug Chloe into a squatting position behind the railing. It doesn’t take long; it couldn’t have been more than a handful of minutes from when we spotted Jones to the sound of another explosion.
Chloe burrows into my side, whimpering, and I try to focus on her soft, sweet body and not the horror happening on the other side of the railing. The horror I’m responsible for.
I rock her gently, comforting us both. “Shhh,” I say into her hair. “Shh, it’s over now. It’ll be okay.”
“H-h-he…” she sobs. “W-why would he…I don’t understand.”