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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

J acob heard the screech of metal and the clunk of a car hitting something. He emerged from his office just as the studio’s front door flung open, and Addie raced in.

“Call 911!”

He moved to her. Reached for his phone as he did. It wasn’t in his pocket. “What’s going on?”

His phone had to be on his desk. Or in his backpack. He couldn’t remember how long he’d been here, but he hadn’t retrieved it yet.

She had her gun out but kept it angled down. Protecting herself. Not from him, though.

“Addie.”

She moved to the window and pulled the blind aside. “He’s out there. The white pickup truck. He followed me ran into me. I dropped my phone, so I need to borrow yours.” She glanced at him, and he saw more than relief in her eyes.

“Who is it?”

“I don’t know.” She looked out again. “Maybe you’ll recognize him. I never got a look at his face.”

Jacob peered over her shoulder out the window. Her car had a crumpled back left corner, but he couldn’t see any other damage.

“Where’s your phone?”

Jacob moved to the front door and locked it, so no one came in and caught them by surprise. “In the office. I’ll lock the back.”

“No.” She shook her head. “Stay with me, so that I don’t have to worry you got jumped.”

She nudged him ahead of her, and he led the way to his office. She seemed rattled. But as jumpy as he’d imagine an FBI agent might get. Which meant the overriding feeling he got from her body language was that she had a handle on any fear, and now she was aware. Alert. Ready for what might happen next.

“You think he’ll come in here?” Jacob’s desk phone was probably easier than his cell at this point. He lifted the handset.

She kept her attention on the door, her stance loose. Prepared to defend both of them. He had a gun in his safe at the apartment but didn’t figure she’d think she needed help.

Jacob put the phone to his ear.

There was no dial tone. “Huh.” He pressed the button the handset pushed in, then tapped it twice. He dialed anyway. “Nothing’s happening. The phone was working earlier, I got a call on it.”

“What about a cell?” She shifted her stance, as though any moment now someone would bust in and attack. She had to be ready.

Jacob went for his backpack and found it. “You want to talk to them? They’re more likely to come with guns blazing if it’s you in trouble.” He dialed and moved to her so she didn’t have to leave her spot. “They’ll want to help a fellow cop.”

She said nothing about that, just took the phone and held it to her ear while she kept her gun and all her attention on the door.

It didn’t seem like anyone was coming in.

“This is gonna be great.” She sighed, then quickly perked up again. “Yes, this is Special Agent?—”

Before he could ask why she stopped, she handed the phone to him. “I think the call dropped.”

Jacob looked at the screen. “There’s no signal. That’s weird. It was working a second ago.” He moved to the window and held the phone up in case he could get bars by the wall. “Come on.” He tried to dial again, and nothing happened. The desk phone was still silent. No dial tone. “What’s going on?”

She shifted, and he figured she was getting antsy from the inactivity.

He looked out the window and didn’t see anyone. “Maybe whoever picked up for a second on the other end at dispatch will send someone here to check our GPS location, just in case.”

He figured it was more likely they’d assume he was responsible for some crime, and she needed help to take him down. Not whoever was outside. “I want to check out the front. See if there’s someone out there.”

The police might not see it, but she’d come here to take refuge with him. That meant something to Jacob. Knowing she saw him as a lifeline—even if it was just because she happened to be driving by. She hadn’t gone anywhere else. She’d stopped here and come to him.

He checked all the windows, locked the back door, and found her in the middle of his studio. Watching his back without being right in his face and giving orders like a lot of cops would.

Addie turned in a circle. “No one is coming in, are they?”

“The truck is still there.” Jacob had seen the vehicle but no driver. No one was walking around out there, either. “Could we make a run for it? Maybe take my car and head for your office?”

Addie worked her mouth back and forth. “I thought I was being attacked.”

“It’s okay.”

“Why did he do that?” She shook her head, tension he didn’t like seeing in the set of her shoulders. Before he could answer she continued, “He could have killed me, running me off the road. Or hit me so I flipped into a ditch.”

“You made it here, where you’re safe. That’s what counts.”

She frowned. “I did make it here.”

“What?”

“He herded me here.” She rolled her shoulders. “Maybe that was the plan all along.”

“From the freeway?”

“I walked right in.”

He wasn’t so sure it was possible to control someone to that extent. Not without them realizing they were trapped. The two of them knew that firsthand. He knew precisely what her eyes would look like the moment she realized there was no escape. The point where she knew death was inevitable—at the end of who knew how many hours of terror.

Right now she didn’t have that in her expression.

She struggled, but she had control.

“Let’s figure it out. We can wait for the cops, and you can tell me everything in the meantime. We’ll work out what happened.”

Instead of responding to that, she looked around. “Do you have a security system? Maybe we can see what he’s doing outside.”

“We’d know if he was trying to get in.” He didn’t want to placate her. That wasn’t his intention. But getting through this together would help both of them.

He held out his hand. “Let’s go sit. Wait this out, and if the cops don’t show up in a few minutes we can face down whoever it is outside and go find them.”

She eyed his hand like it was a trap. “I could go out there right now. Figure out exactly who it is.”

“And leave me unprotected?”

Her gaze flicked up to his eyes. “Because you’re helpless?”

“I don’t like the idea of you going out there by yourself.” Before she could get mad at him, he said, “I know you’re an FBI agent. You’re trained. But my gun is at the apartment, so I can’t watch your back if you try to track down this guy.”

Eventually she relented. “Let’s go try the phone again.”

He thought she might not and was about to drop his hand. She slipped hers into it and they held onto each other. They’d tried doing it in that cabin. They’d both been terrified kids with no idea how to handle what was happening.

She’d pulled away eventually when things got too scary.

He didn’t blame her for that. Not when he was too busy blaming himself.

She squeezed his hand as though she knew a little of what he was thinking. Not for the first time, Jacob recognized the fact she understood him in a way no one else did. Or ever would.

In the office, she lifted the handset. He looked out the window.

“No dial tone means the line was cut. No signal means he’s got a jammer.”

“There’s no one outside on this side of the building.” He frowned. “But why leave and ditch the truck here?”

“Maybe it’s stolen, and he doesn’t need it anymore?” She glanced around. Her attention fell on the framed photo on the wall. The one he liked to look at when he was working. “Did you take that?”

“Do you want to talk about my photos, or do you want to figure out how we’re going to get to one of our cars if there’s someone outside waiting?”

“Give me a second.”

Jacob figured that was fair. “That’s my grandfather.”

Her eyes widened. “You found him?”

He nodded. “A couple of years after…” No point going there out loud. That would only give a voice to things that had power if they were spoken. “It spurned the first book. He introduced me to his people, and I got to tell his story.”

She studied the photograph he’d taken of an elderly Native American man. Bison was Cherokee, and he’d handed that blood down to Jacob.

“I said you had Native American in you.”

He found a smile. “You were right. Though it took time for my mom to admit who her father was. Didn’t exactly fit her narrative, according to my dad.”

Jacob hadn’t fit either of their ideas of what he should be.

They were happier in Florida, though no less dysfunctional from the sound of it. He just wasn’t between them to witness it—and find himself a target.

“But you got to know him?”

“And as many of his tribe who wanted to get to know me.” He’d absorbed it all and done his best to document the stories Grandpa told him. The unique experiences Jacob could never understand.

“The book is amazing.”

“Thank you.” He didn’t know what to say.

Not when he’d wondered for years if she’d seen it. If she knew it had blown him away how popular one simple coffee table book had become. He’d searched into his history and been able to give voice to people who might not have been able to tell the world their stories otherwise. That first book about Grandpa had become a whole series.

He’d published the book under his real name. Part of the success was down to his having been a survivor of Ivan Damen, but not all of it. That was a comfort, at least.

“I’m going to look out the front door, okay?”

She held out a hand. “I’ll do it. Since I have the gun.”

Jacob nodded. “I’m right behind you.” He even locked up the office and grabbed his backpack, putting both straps over his shoulders. Might as well be ready to make a run for it.

He put his cell phone in his pocket.

It still didn’t make sense that he had no cell signal here. Why would there suddenly be a problem with his phone and the internet? It was like something had blocked it all so they wouldn’t be able to contact the outside world.

Addie stepped to one side of the door. “Okay, here’s how this works.”

He perked up at her commanding tone. Had to push aside the flash of attraction that had always been there, for her. She had become a strong, skilled woman. He was no less drawn to her now than he had been before.

“Are you paying attention?” she asked.

He scratched his jaw to hide the smile. “How does this work?”

“I stand here. You open the door, and I go first.”

He nodded. “Okay, sounds good.”

“Stay behind the door until I say it’s clear to come out.”

Again, he felt the flash.

“Got it?”

Jacob cleared his throat. “Understood.”

Her gaze flickered with confusion for a second.

Jacob motioned to the door. “Let’s get out of here.”

After that, they could talk more. He wanted to take her to dinner still. But if there really was someone outside waiting, they both needed to focus.

Jacob flipped the lock, but it wouldn’t move. He twisted the door handle.

Nothing.

“We locked this.” He tried again. “It’s stuck.”

“We can try the back.”

He nodded. They both turned to the room, and he stopped. “Is that smoke?” He put out his hand reflexively, and she grasped his arm. “It’s pumping into the room from somewhere.”

At the far end of the room, flames whipped under the door to the back hall.

Jacob sucked in a breath. “Fire.”