“Car. Lily?” I ask.
“Inn with Ma.” He pulls apart from me the smallest bit, still using my lips to block the fact we’re talking. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”
“Not yet.”
He picks me up, carrying me inside and slamming the door shut with his foot. The living room is filled with cops.
“Holy shit.” I utter.
One of them stands to greet me. “Ms. Peterson, I’m Chief Bellows, I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, but to save time, I need all the information you can give me. We have eyes on him now, but I need to be filled in before I send my men in.”
“I don’t really know where to start. I woke up on the plane, Jack was next to me then, but not at the beginning. I never saw him at the gate or on the plane when I boarded. He told me that he was hired by Cooper’s boss, and that he needed me and my daughter. He wanted me to get her and give her to him and I was going to be brought somewhere. But I don’t know where. He threatened that he had someone else watching Cooper and Lily,he showed me a video of them outside. Someone was going to kill them if I didn’t cooperate.”
It all rushes out of me in one breath. No one moves or speaks.
The Chief speaks first. “Is he armed?”
“Yes. A gun.” Cooper squeezes my hand tight. “Someone must have stashed it for him at the airport. It was at baggage claim in a bag.”
“And do you know who his accomplice is?” Another officer asks, looking at a small notebook.
“He never said. And I honestly have no idea unless it’s someone from the Black Key Ranch. Those were his dealers, but I don’t have a clue who that man is so my guess doesn’t mean much.” I hang my head.
A radio crackles. “Sir, the subject is getting out of the car. What do you want us to do?”
“Game time, boys,” the Chief says to everyone inside the living room. Pressing the radio call button, he says, “Move into position.”
Cooper grabs me by the elbow and tugs me into the bathroom.
“What are we doing in here?” I ask.
“It’s the safest room. It has no windows. No way to see in and if a gunshot goes off, it’s not near the living room.” He sits in the bathtub, motioning for me to join him.
“How did this all happen?” Sitting close to Cooper, with his arms around me, the tears fall freely. “I don’t understand how he’s alive, or how he’s here, or why he’s doing any of this to his daughter.”
“It’s my fault. All of it. I knew it was from the beginning. I should have shut the blog down and walked away from the two of you. But I was too selfish to do it. Nolan is a powerful man when he isn’t getting what he wants. I knew that and chose to stay anyway. But, Wyatt found the connection.”
My head snaps up to his gaze. “Jack was telling the truth?”
“The PI you hired, Nolan found him. Turns out he was paid off to hide the truth from you. Jack faked his death, and used a cadaver at the scene of the accident before running away, off grid mostly but he had some new IDs and cash. The PI knew where he was and Nolan extorted the information from him. Turns out Jack was more than willing to help him make our lives hell.”
A loud bang comes from the living room and I freeze, not even breathing, just listening.
“I know she’s fucking in here. I’m not leaving without her. I’m getting everything I was fucking promised.” Jack’s voice booms in the small space.
“Do not take one more step.” A voice I don’t recognize sounds. “We will shoot.”
Jack’s sinister laugh is loud and menacing, sending goosebumps along my arms. The bathroom wall shakes, causing a photo to fall to the floor, followed by a gunshot.
“I told you to not fucking move, asshole.” Wyatt yells at Jack.
Cooper and I stay in the bathroom, listening to the commotion on just the other side of the wall. There are things crashing to the floor and glass shattering. And so much yelling. We sit and wait until there’s silence and a knock on the door.
“It’s safe for you two to come out, just watch your step.”
He stands first, pulling me up. On the way out, he never lets go of my hand. Holding me close, and silently supporting me. My nerves are getting the best of me with the anxiety of what my home looks like. How much of Aggie and Tommy’s was ruined because of me. Well … Jack.
Oh God, how are they going to handle the news? As much grief as he gave Aggie, she loved him like a son. She took his death harder than anyone else. Now she has to find out that he’s not in fact dead, and learn of all the awful things he’s been doing that I tried to shield her from because I knew she’d be disappointed and hurt by him.
