Page 43 of Lethal Deceit (Hightower Security #2)

Samantha

The more I listen, the more my stomach sinks. They’re serious. They’re actually going through with this insane plan instead of handing me over to the same terrorists who paid me fifty grand to seduce Mick.

It makes no sense.

I try to catch Mick’s attention, but he’s too focused on the floor plans of the building down the street to notice. Frustrated, I leave the room and head back to the kitchen—a depressing space that reminds me of too many childhood kitchens.

Looking for anything to distract me from the madness unfolding next door, I gather up the empty pizza boxes and start stacking them, trying to figure out how to stop Mick. But stopping him feels like trying to halt a freight train going full speed. Once he’s moving, he’s not stopping.

“These people are going to get him killed,” I mutter.

“If Mick gets killed, it’ll be because he didn’t listen.”

I spin around. Adena’s just walked through the door.

“You’re back already?”

She nods.

“We only had to plant the mic and intercept the old guy, which we did. Then I picked a fight with Jake about forgetting the twins’ pacifiers so we could bail.”

To her credit, that’s a bold move. If the nosy neighbor had looked too closely at the babies, he would’ve known they were fake.

I trace the edge of a pizza box, head shaking.

“He’s going to get himself killed trying to save her.”

Adena unscrews her water bottle cap.

“He’s trying to save you too. Don’t forget that.”

My shoulders tense, and my pulse speeds at the suggestion. “But why?”

She pulls out a chair and settles into it.

“I dunno. I barely know the guy. But if I had to guess, I’d say it was for the same reason he saved your life the first time. It’s who he is.”

“I can’t let him do that for me.”

Adena rolls her neck until it pops, her eyes narrowing.

“You won’t get a say. It’s already in motion.”

The words tumble out before I can stop them.

“I have a better plan. They won’t expect it. Put a camera on me. You’ll be able to see how many are inside and what condition Brooke is in.”

Her head jerks back, body rocking slightly in the chair. She’s not the only one caught off guard.

My chest tightens, breath shallow, heart pounding. I don’t even know where the idea came from—just that it burst out like it had been waiting, buried somewhere beneath the panic and guilt and desperation. My voice shakes, but I don’t try to take it back. It’s reckless. Probably stupid. But it feels right.

I can’t watch Mick sacrifice himself for me.

“What makes you think you’ll get inside?”

The plan comes together so rapidly in my mind that my mouth struggles to keep up.

“Someone is in charge over there. It isn’t a solitary guy with a gun. I’ll show up and tell them I have information the leader needs to hear.”

“It’s a nice idea, and kudos for having the best of intentions, but that doesn’t mean they won’t shoot you and then Brooke.”

Oh. Crap. This is the part that’s going to be tricky.

“I need Mick’s phone. They’d need to receive a text from me saying I’ve escaped.”

Her cheeks puff before she blows out a breath.

“You’re not just gambling with your life. You’re gambling with Brooke’s.”

“Isn’t this all a gamble? We both know she could already be dead. There is no sense in everyone risking their lives for a dead woman.”

Adena purses her lips and fixes her gaze on a spot on the grimy Formica table.

“How long have you been thinking about this idea?”

I brush her question off. I can’t tell her it formed out of a deep panic that Mick was going to die.

“I can get Mick’s phone off him and make the call, but I’ll need your help to leave.”

Adena’s eyebrow arches just slightly, her mouth curling at the edges.

“There are easier ways to prove you want to change, you know.”

I toss my hair over my shoulder and shrug like it’s no big deal.

“Maybe. But this will work. I know it will.”

She grimaces.

“Why? Because you’re in love with him?”

The words stop me cold.

I laugh—too quick, too forced—but it dies halfway out. I start to deny it, but nothing comes. The silence stretches. My chest tightens.

Love?

No. That can’t be right.

“Are you going to help me?”

She rises slowly, walks around the table, and plants her hands on my shoulders with a solid thud. I flinch, but hold steady.

“You, Samantha Duke, have ovaries of steel,”

she mutters.

“But you’re running on pure emotion. No one’s signing off on this just because you’ve fallen for Mick.”

My stomach sinks.

“You have to let me do this.”

“No, I don’t.”

Adena crosses her arms.

“For some reason I can’t explain, you’re growing on me. And I don’t send my friends off to die because they think that’s how they earn a man’s love.”

I suck in a breath, stunned—not just that she saw straight through me, but that she used the word friends.

“How could you?—”

She lifts her hands, eyes closing as she exhales hard.

“But in this case, I actually think you could pull it off. So I’m going to talk to Caleb and Silas.”

She turns toward the door, then pauses and looks back.

“But I want you to promise me something, okay?”

I swallow hard and nod, unsure what’s coming.

“If things go sideways, call on God. Got it?”

I don’t argue. I don’t push back. I just give her a shaky smile. “Got it.”

She frowns, backing away slowly, leaving me alone in the shabby kitchen—and taking what little confidence I had in this insane plan right out the door with her.