Jeter took out the ring box and began tossing it in the air again. “Honestly, Tanner. What could you give her? I am the one who always challenged her. I’m the one who helped her find the strength within herself.”
“You tortured her and her mother, isolated her and made her life a living hell. Bree Daniels is a woman of exceptional strength and beauty despite you, not because of you.”
Jeter’s eyes narrowed. “Her name isBethany. She may have forgotten it, but don’t worry, by the time I’m finished with her she will never forget who she is or who she belongs to ever again.”
Tanner looked at the phone showing Bree leaving the police station. Had she figured out his clues? Tanner had to believe she had. Because there was no way in hell Jeter was going to let Tanner go free.
Jeter stuffed the gag back in Tanner’s mouth. “I don’t think anybody’s going to be around to hear you if you yell, but just in case. It’s time for me to go meet our girl. Ironically, I’m meeting her at a place just a couple blocks from here. Someday I’ll tell her how close she was to where you died. We’ll have a good laugh about it.”
Jeter rested his arms on the side of the casket and winked at Tanner. “See, I think there’s something you don’t really understand about Bethany. She can be molded. It might take a little more pressure than when she was a teenager, but I have no doubt I can do it.”
Tanner fought down panic as Jeter began to close the lid. “And just in case I underestimated Bethany once more—because honestly, fool me three times then I’m just a damned idiot—know that I’ve made certain that if she doesn’t choose me, she’ll never choose anyone else ever again.”
The lid of the coffin closed, and blackness surrounded him.
“Sorry it had to be this way, Tanner.” Jeter’s voice was distant through the thick wood of the casket. “But Bethany and I are meant to be together. It was always supposed to be this way.”
Some sort of lock clicked on the outside and Tanner was trapped by the darkness and his own helplessness.
JETERALLOWEDBREEto pull up the GPS on Penelope’s car, but made her turn the phone so that he could see exactly what she was doing. Smart. Because given two minutes, Bree could probably get a message sent to someone through the GPS. Of course, Jeter could do the same thing, which was why he’d circumvented that option.
Bree was a little surprised when the address he’d given her brought her to a popular lunchtime sandwich shop. She would not have thought that Jeter would show his face in public, given how well-known he now was.
“Park the car and take the white Honda Civic.” A picture of a license plate filled her screen.
Bree did as she was directed. It was actually a smart move on Jeter’s part. If Penelope tracked the GPS in her car, it would just show that Bree was at a restaurant like she’d said she would be.
Maybe Jeter really was bringing her to where he held Tanner and planned to let him go unharmed once Bree showed up.
But she knew better. The best she could hope for right now was that Tanner wasn’t already dead. That Penelope and Whitaker figured out the clue and got to him in time.
“Okay, I’m in the new car. Where do you want me to go?”
An address popped up on the GPS of the car and Bree began following the directions. At least this time it was leading her closer to where Tanner had indicated he was being held.
“You’re never going to be able to live a normal life, Michael. Too many people know you. There will be a reward out for your capture.”
Jeter’s face filled the screen once more. “Sadly, this face will have to go. You’re right, it’s much too noticeable. Yours will have to go too, Bethany, darling.”
Bree drove the rest of the way in silence, gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were white.
Was she really driving toward this madman who had made her life a living hell for so many years? And all for the possible but unlikely chance that Tanner was still alive?
She tried not to think about what Tanner would want her to do because she already knew.
Tanner would never want her to put herself back into Jeter’s clutches. Not just because of the price she would pay personally, but because of what Jeter would accomplish once he eventually wore Bree’s resistance down and she cracked.
Bree and Jeter working together unchecked would become an unstoppable force. Law enforcement would never be able to capture him again.
Tanner would definitely not want Bree to be giving herself to Jeter, even to save his life. If he could communicate with her right now he would tell her to turn the car around and drive the other way.
The only reason she didn’t was because she knew the other side of that truth too.
If the roles were reversed and Tanner could put himself in jeopardy for the chance that it might save her life, he would do it in a heartbeat.
That’s what love was.
So she kept driving in the direction Jeter indicated.
