Page 55 of Once Vanished
“I can’t—” she began, but Leo cut her off.
“You can, and you will,” he said, his voice hardening for the first time.“Choose now, or I kill them both.”
Riley knew that he meant it.This was his plan—forcing her to make an unthinkable decision, watching her break under its weight.
“Choose, Riley,” Leo repeated, his voice soft again, almost hypnotic.“Who lives?Who dies?The clock is ticking.”
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Standing in the kitchen, Riley glared at her cell phone.Leo had given her an impossible choice, and her emotions threatened to overwhelm her.But she wasn’t feeling the panic he expected—not the helpless, frantic terror of a mother forced to choose between her child and her partner.Instead, something darker and more primal surged through her veins.
Rage.
Pure, clarifying rage was burning away the fog of fear that had clouded her thinking since Jilly’s abduction.In that moment she saw Leo with perfect clarity for the first time—not as an unstoppable mastermind, but as a man consumed by his own arrogance.That might be his weakness—if only she could exploit it.
When Riley spoke again, her voice caught, deliberately fractured and hesitant now.She needed time.“Leo, please, I can’t just—”
“What’s that?The great Agent Paige at a loss for words?”His tone was light, almost playful.The sound of it made her skin crawl.“I would have thought your FBI training prepared you for impossible choices.”
“Give me a few minutes,” she said, letting a tremor creep into her voice.Not entirely feigned—her body was vibrating with adrenaline.“Please.I need time to think.”
A moment’s silence stretched between them.She could almost see him enjoying her distress, relishing his position of power.
“Well,” Leo finally replied, “I am nothing if not reasonable.Fifteen minutes, Riley.I’ll call back in exactly fifteen minutes.”
The condescension in his voice was clear, a masterclass in mock generosity.As if he were bestowing a great gift upon her, rather than torturing her.
“And if I don’t decide?”
Leo’s chuckle was soft, intimate.“Then as I just told you — both of them die.The choice is yours, Agent Paige.But if you don’t make a choice, then the decision is mine.And now the clock is ticking again.”
The line went dead.
Riley’s entire body trembled as she set the phone down on the kitchen counter.But it wasn’t fear making her shake—it was rage so potent it threatened to overwhelm her.This man, this pathological narcissist, believed he had the right to play God with the lives of the people she loved most in this world.
His arrogance was breathtaking.And in that moment, she knew that it could be his downfall.
Because arrogant people made mistakes.They believed themselves invulnerable, untouchable.They underestimated their opponents.They couldn’t conceive of being outsmarted.
Fifteen minutes.Nine hundred seconds to formulate a plan that would save both Jilly and Bill.She glanced at the kitchen wall clock, its second hand sweeping relentlessly forward.1:37 a.m.Leo would call back at 1:52.
What did she know about Leo’s mental state?His patterns?His weaknesses?
He craved control.Needed it like oxygen.Every move he’d made, from hacking her home security system to orchestrating Susan Martinez’s death, had been calculated to strip Riley of any illusion of control over her own life.
And he needed an audience.Needed witnesses to his brilliance.What good was orchestrating the perfect game if no one appreciated the intricacy of its design?
Most of all, he needed to win—but not just win.He needed to defeat Riley specifically, to break her down, force her to acknowledge his superiority.
The phone rang, startling her from her thoughts.Riley grabbed it, heart lurching, but the name on the screen wasn’t Leo’s.It was Van Roff.
She answered immediately.“Van, what have you got?”
“Nothing good,” came his reply, his usually irreverent tone subdued.“ShadowCipher keeps shutting me down.Every time I establish contact, he cuts the connection within seconds.It started as soon as I mentioned L.Dillard.”
Riley’s mind raced.With less than fourteen minutes left before Leo’s callback, she couldn’t afford to waste time.
“Listen to me,” she said, her words rushing together.“Leo just called.He has Bill.”