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“I’ll be ready,” Trinity said. “By the way, have you been listening to the radio?”

Josie’s heart thumped. “No, why?”

“The state police released the name of the suspect in Noah’s case, the armed robberies, and the Gina Phelan stabbing. There’s a bona fide manhunt going on right now.”

Other motorists beeped their horns as Josie made a three-point turn in the middle of traffic. “Tell me.”

“Holden Doyle. Get this. He’s employed by Phelan Construction as a security guard. Mace is unavailable for comment.”

Which meant that Trinity had put on her journalism hat and started poking around. Josie floored it, whizzing around other cars, trying to calculate how long it would take to retrieve Trinity and get back here. “Just be ready,” she told her sister.

The call disconnected. Josie was so focused on not getting T-boned as she blew through red lights that when her phone rang again, she stabbed blindly at the console until her finger found the answer button. She assumed it was Trinity again.

Except the voice that filled the car didn’t belong to her sister. “Hello? Is this…is this Josie Quinn?”

It took a moment for Josie to place it. “Erica? Erica Slater?”

There was some rustling. Her next words were fainter. “I called 911. I’m—some guys took me. They work for Mace Phelan. He’s here. They’re all looking for me but I’m hiding in a shed behind the house. Waiting for the police. There’s someone else here, with me. He…he gave me this number and asked me to call. He, um, he’s in bad shape. They must have thought he was already dead. I thought he was dead at first with the way he—” She broke off, a high-pitched sob ripping through the line and right through Josie’s frayed heart. “They just left him out here and I don’t know what’s wrong with him. I don’t know if he’s going to make it.”

The car screeched to a halt on the shoulder of the road. Josie swallowed down the emotion that threatened to spill over and consume her. Her mouth was dry. It felt like there were razor blades in her throat. She didn’t even sound like herself when she said, “Put him on.”

And then. Then.

Noah’s voice. Strained and raspy but audible, the soundtrack of her very soul. “Josie.”

Oh God. It was too much. She needed to be with him. Right now. Needed to put her hands on him.

“Where are you?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I couldn’t stop them. There were three…they wanted something from Lila’s stuff. It was about Lila?—”

“I know,” Josie said. “Noah, where are you?”

“Whatever they were looking for wasn’t there,” he went on. “They took me. Thought I knew something, that I was hiding something of Lila’s. Tried to beat it out of me, but I didn’t know what they were talking about…they kept talking about some kind of statement…”

He drifted off and Josie could hear him trying to catch his breath. “It doesn’t matter,” she told him. “I don’t care about that. Where are you?”

In the background, Erica whimpered.

“Listen,” Noah said. “I love you. I’ve always loved you.”

“Noah.” Her voice cracked. All the messy feelings she’d been pushing down exploded inside her, demolishing her emotional armor. Tears streamed down her face. Unstoppable rivers. “I love you, too.”

“You’re perfect,” he said, voice falling to a whisper. “Exactly the way you are. Remember that.”

“No,” she choked out.

“I love you.”

This was not happening. She was not losing him.

“Tell me to my face,” Josie said, her voice strange and squeaky. “Because I’m coming to get you. Put Erica back on.”

More rustling and then some sniffles. “It’s me. The 911 dispatcher said the police and ambulance will be here in fifteen minutes. They said to stay put. I’m worried about Mace and his goons finding us before the police come?—”

“They won’t,” Josie croaked, as if saying it would make it true. “The property—where is it?”

“I don’t know,” said Erica, crying softly. “There’s nothing but trees and?—”

“It’s fine.” Josie cleared her throat and tried to sound like herself, like she wasn’t melting down in a rental car on the side of the road while her husband might be dying. “Open Google Maps and pin your location, then share it with me. I’m on my way.”