“Oh, no. I can’t take credit for that. But it did make it very easy and convenient to follow you the last day.”
She was sure it had been. She’d been trying to work as fast as possible, only hiding herself from the killers. She’d never dreamed somebody would backdoor their way into what she was already backdooring into.
“But the prison bus accident. You orchestrated that.” She already knew it was the truth, she didn’t have to ask it as a question.
“Come on now, Bethany. You had to have known I would get out. You’ve always known I would come for you.”
Bree shut her eyes. He was right. She hadn’t wanted to admit it, even to herself, but she’d always known Jeter was going to find a way to come after her.
She’d let herself become so soft. Someone her mother—who had given her life trying to protect Bree and teach her how to best combat the dangers posed by Jeter and the Organization—wouldn’t even recognize now.
Bree had let herself fall prey to the magic of her and Tanner’s love. Like that was some sort of protection. As if it was some sort of talisman able to protect them from the reality of the evil of the Organization.
She’d let herself believe that the law would be able to control Jeter, someone who’d fooled the entire world for decades.
She should’ve known better.
She studied the video of Tanner on the screen once again. He didn’t look panicked. The only way someone would even know that he was scared at all—and he had to be, sitting inside a casket with a madman standing over him—was by the frantic movement of his finger against his chest.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
She should’ve never allowed herself to stop permanently in Risk Peak. She’d brought this danger straight to Tanner.
“Why all the theatrics?” she finally asked Jeter. “Are you trying to outdrama the case we just worked on?”
“Don’t worry I’m not going to drown Tanner, not when suffocation will work just fine. Or if we need to speed things up, I’ve always got some carbon monoxide.”
Bree swallowed another sob, looking at Tanner again.
His finger was still moving in overtime. She wanted to reach out and grab it, just to calm it. To...
His finger was moving in a pattern.
Bree fought to keep her face neutral. To keep this news away from Jeter.
What are you trying to tell me, hot lips?
Because he definitely was.
Tanner must know where he was. Why would Jeter gag Tanner? It was just as much overkill as using the voice modulator.
She watched his fingers more carefully. Yes. He was using Morse code.
W-H-I-T.Pause.S-H-E-L-B-Y.Pause.S-C-E-N-E.
The message repeated from there. When they’d first gotten here, Whitaker had taken Tanner to the crime scene where the girl from his neighborhood had been found. Where was that?Bree wasn’t completely sure, but knew it was somewhere on the south side of town.
If Jeter had hacked the Dallas PD system, he would definitely have knowledge of that location.
The question was, how did Bree let anyone else know where Tanner was without alerting Jeter.
“What do you want, Jeter?”
“I want a lot of things. I want you to not have run away a dozen years ago. I want you to have not betrayed me a few months ago. But for right now, I’ll settle for you trading yourself for Tanner’s life.”
She would do it. She would do it in a heartbeat, every single time. She would give herself over to Jeter a thousand times if it meant Tanner lived.
“Fine. I’ll do it. I—”
