Page 30

30

A PLAN … ISH

Jack

“ Y ou’re sure this is it?”

“I’m watching you on the satellite cameras, Jack. Do you really think I’m going to tell you to go south when they took her north?”

“Offending you is at the bottom of the list of things I give a shit about right now. I do not have time to make a U-turn. How far out am I, Oz?” I demand. “I just crossed into West Virginia.”

“About seven minutes. I’m following the van that just dropped her off.”

Ozzy spun his magic. Everyone is on this line, but no one speaks unless they’re needed.

Other than me.

Chasing after the woman I decided I want to be with for the rest of my life after she was taken is something I never thought I would do once in a lifetime, let alone twice in one week. If I question Asa’s badass team, they can get over it.

“We’re ten minutes behind you,” Asa growls. “Someone had better get the guys who touched Emma in cuffs and in the back of a squad car before I get there. If I get to him first, we’re going to have more shit to cover up when this is said and done.”

The static of a radio crackles over the line. It’s Jarvis. “I’ve got a highway patrol unit a half mile behind the van. They’re waiting on backup before they pull them over. We’ve got them in our sights. I don’t think we’re going to have to hide any bodies tonight.”

Any other time, that might make me question the family I plan on marrying into.

But not today.

Today, I don’t need an invitation to join Asa in first-degree murder.

“What’s the status on Bella?” Crew asks.

Cole and Bella Carson joined in on the effort at the last minute. They’re freaks, because they even brought their kids. “I’ve got eyes on Bella. She’s walking into the Pike Agency as we speak. You know my wife, she can talk for hours. She’ll keep them there until my contact can rush through the arrest warrants. I wish this was under different circumstances, because it’s been a long time since I’ve worked with my wife. I’ve got the kids in the car since we came straight from the airport. Grady is on his way in case she needs backup.”

“I’m getting there as fast as I can. Tell Bella to keep them confused with her Britishisms. I'm still fifteen minutes out,” Grady says.

“Jack, you’ll get to Emma first. What’s your plan?” Asa demands.

“My plan is to get to the fucking house and take her back. If I have to bulldoze the door down with my car, I will.”

Ozzy butts in with an update. “You’re six minutes out, Jack. You’re going to come up on a turn in about a mile. It’s your next right—take it.”

Crew reminds me of the obvious. “You’re unarmed, so you need a plan. The guys in the van left her there, but we don’t know if anyone was in the house to begin with.”

I drag a hand down my face and press on the gas. The engine of my Porsche Panamera purrs as I speed down the two-lane country highway. “I don’t have the luxury of time to formulate a plan. We’ll see what happens when I get there.”

“You’re not used to this, Jack,” Asa says. “There’s nothing I want more in the world than to get my daughter back, but you could make things worse. Much worse. Do not park close to the house. Oz will tell you when to stop. Approach on foot to surveil the situation. If you can get close enough to look in the windows, do that. But do not go in without our okay.”

I white knuckle my steering wheel and hold my silence. What I do not do is make any promises. Asa is the least of my worries. “We’ll see.”

“Fuck.”

I have no idea which badass that was, and I don’t give a shit.

“Change of plans,” Ozzy clips. “We have an unknown vehicle in the mix. A black SUV that just turned into the drive. It approached from the opposite direction.”

I slam my steering wheel. “Dammit!”

“That’s it. Do not approach until we get there,” Asa orders.

“They’re pulling up to the house.” Ozzy continues to report the live events that are nothing but a real-life nightmare. “Oh, shit.”

“What?” I demand.

“I’ve got sight of two people exiting the back of the cabin. They’re on foot.”

Asa sounds as unnerved as I feel. “Can you see who they are?”

“I’m zooming in as far as I can.” There’s a pause before his next words make me feel better … or not. “Looks like one male and one female. I’d put my wife’s fortune on it—that’s Emma. I don’t know who she’s with, but they’re on the run.”

Emma

“Do you hear that?” I hiss. “It’s a car.”

Tires on gravel come to a screeching halt as Rylan opens the back door.

Our gazes jut to the front of the cabin and through the windows.

“I don’t know who that is, but I’m not waiting around to find out.” Rylan opens the back door at the same time we hear car doors slam.

He doesn’t have to pull me. My adrenaline kicks in, and I’m grateful for my love of comfortable shoes. We’re on a full out run through the forest—through brush, sticks, and piles of left over snow from the last storm. Rushing out onto a football field was a breeze compared to this.

Someone yells from the house.

I look back just as my foot catches on a dead limb.

I go down on my side, landing hard on an iced-over pile of snow.

“Fuck me,” Rylan growls in a low tone. “It’s him.”

A pain shoots down my side to my hip when I see them coming at us.

I have no idea who one of them is, but I know the other one. The echo of his voice bellows through the desolate forest. “There they are!”

I might not know the intricate rules of football, but I am detailed when it comes to research. I memorized every first, second, and third string player on the Founders, so I recognize him.

A quarterback controversy is a professional sports version of a Bravo reality show.

And Mark Morse is heading straight for us.

“Get the fuck up, Emma.” Rylan doesn’t wait for me to get up. He yanks me to my feet.

We run.

And that’s when my mind takes me back to another time that was no less horrific…

Gunshots.