Page 84 of Hot Pursuit

There was no response.

Just more running. More breathing.

“Hello?” he tried again. The boss signaled everyone else to shut up and not say a word. He started pointing to various agents, signaling with his hands. Working together long enough meant they didn’t need words. The tech team launched into motion, messaging the agents back at their desks to get tracking on the call immediately. “This is Agent Nate Parker. To whom am I speaking?”

“I think you know,” came the smooth reply.

Everything snapped into place. “Ryder? Ryder, is that you?”

The boss’s eyes bulged. Leo smirked, as if he’d known Nate had a plan all along. But this wasn’t it. This had never been it.

“Ryder!” he shouted again, smacking his hand against the table in his frustration. “Where—”

“Jo is in danger,” Ryder interjected, cutting him off.

Nate’s entire body went still, everything except for his heart, which pounded against his rib cage, a beast turned rabid.

“I can’t get to her in time. You need to save her.”

Click.

The line went dead.

It happened so fast that for a second, no one moved or spoke.

“Did we get a location?” The boss broke the silence. Nate heard his voice as though it had come from somewhere far away, slow and muffled. For a moment, he wondered if he had slipped into a dream, because that was what it felt like, out of body. His mind was disconnected, drifting away. The boss was on a boat above the water, and Nate was under the surface, sinking fast, unable to process as the oxygen stopped flowing to his brain. All he heard was—

Pop!

Pop!

Pop!

“I want agents on the ground immediately. Call the local precinct. Have them send patrol cars. Warn them there’s an active shooter, armed and dangerous. Their goal is to stall until we have Feds on the scene. This might be our only chance to get Ryder.”

Ryder?

Nate shook his head.

Ryder?

He came alive in a single second. “What about Jo?”

Everyone paused, turning to the boss for guidance.

“What about Jo? Her plane won’t land for another two hours, and we have Ryder on the ground now, possibly injured. I don’t give a fuck about Jo.”

“Sir—”

“Parker.”

Nate was one word away from leaping across the table and wringing his boss’s neck, consequences be damned. “Sir—”

“Nate’s right. We need Jolene Carter,” Leo stepped in. Their eyes met across the table and in a second, Nate and his partner had an entire conversation. Leo was on his side. Leo wanted to help. Leo was the voice of reason, whereas Nate was about to explode. “Without the daughter, we have no leverage on Robert Carter. Even if we get enough to arrest him, we need something to hold over his head, something to use against him. The only way we’ll get him to talk is with the promise of his daughter’s freedom and her safety. We need her. Alive and unharmed.”

I need her, Nate thought, the realization a knife to his chest.I need her. Alive and unharmed and in my arms immediately.

The boss considered it for a moment. “Fine. Parker, Alvarez, you’re on the daughter. Everyone else, I want you working on Ryder. Let’s move it, people.”