Otherwise, I might rip the phone away from her and throw it in the ocean to keep her from doing what I know she’s going to insist on doing.
“Now, I’m assuming your Navy SEAL is already working on tracing this call, so I won’t bother with telling you where you can find your FBI agent. What I will tell you is that, if anyone but Sawyer himself comes to rescue him, I will kill Jack and whoever is stupid enough to show up.”
Didn’t see that one coming.
“Why Sawyer?” she asks, her gaze locking on mine. “I thought it was me you wanted.”
He laughs. “Well, I know they won’t let you come to me alone. That would be too easy. I also know that your SEAL isn’t going to leave your side for long. So, if he shows up, I can safely assume you’re back in town.”
Which means Jack is being held in or near Stormwatch Landing.
“Okay,” Anastasia says. “But how do I know you won’t just kill them both?” Her gaze never strays from mine.
“You are the one who changed the rules, Anastasia. No one else has to die. But you’d better hurry. I’d recommend catching a flight instead of coming back on your brother’s boat. Jack doesn’t have that long.”
My laptop finishes triangulating the call right as he ends it.
“I’ve got a location.” Taking the phone from her, I call Zane. He answers on the second ring.
“Hey.”
“Jack is alive.” Just saying those words brings me relief. However, it’s what’s coming next that makes me sick.
“Good. Any idea where he is?”
I look over at Anastasia. The fire is back in her expression, and I know it’s because it feels as though the waiting is over. “It’s been requested that Anastasia return home in exchange for Jack’s safety.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Absolutely yes,” Anastasia snaps. “I won’t let Jack die because of me.”
Zane’s quiet for a moment. “He’s going to kill him anyway. And then he’ll have access to you, too. The fact that he took Jack proves we made the right call getting you out of town.”
“The right call for you?” she asks. “Because from where I’m sitting, Jack is about to pay a price he has no business paying.”
“Jack wants you safe, too.”
“Jack needs to be alive,” Anastasia insists. “I won’t lose someone else when I have the chance to save them.”
The words carry a weight, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s not thinking about Violet, too. About how she feels guilty that she didn’t tell someone when she went to pick her friend up.
“You are the target here, Anastasia. Jack is the bait. Let the FBI handle it. They have a full tactical team they can send in.”
Before this escalates into a fight Zane can’t win, I clear my throat. “He gave us instructions on saving Jack.”
My friend is quiet for a moment. “What instructions?”
“I go alone to the location he called me from. I’ve got a trace, but if he sees anyone else show up, he’ll kill Jack and whoever does.”
“Send me the location.”
“No,” Anastasia interrupts. “Because you’re just going to try, and it’ll end up getting you both killed.”
Zane is quiet for another moment, clearly processing.
He’s not wrong.
But neither is Anastasia.
