Page 69 of When the Silence Breaks

“Tessa would only text me if it’s an emergency, so I kind of hope I get nothing.” She stared at a message that had come through. Her heart might have stopped. “Oh no.”

“What is it?” Ryder asked.

UNKNOWN

We have the boy. If you want him alive, find the crash site and the bioweapon. You have until the end of the day.

An image appeared. Jeremy. And Tessa? What about Tessa? Was she still alive? If they’d taken Jeremy, why hadn’t Tessa warned Sarah? Unless ... unless they’d left her incapacitated, tied up somewhere, or worse ... dead. After all, they’d killed Tessa’s husband. Sarah’s brother.

Nausea erupted. Sarah couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe.

“The boy—Jeremy, your nephew.”

Her trembling hand clamped over her mouth as tears of fury spilled down her cheeks.

“Jeremy ... he’s only three. He’s ... he’s my son.”

Twenty-Eight

Ryder stared at the message again.

“Yourson?”Why didn’t you tell me?As if it was his business. As if that mattered at this moment, when a child’s life was on the line. Who were these people?

She didn’t answer except to blink at the words on the screen like she was trying to force them to fade away. Her quivering lips parted, but no sound came out. She swayed.

He gripped her arms, held her in place, tried to infuse his strength into her. “We’ll get him back, Sarah. Don’t worry. We’ll get him back.” He willed himself to believe that, even though no manner of willing his father to survive had made it so.

He lifted her chin so she would look him in the eyes, but the fight was draining from her. Sarah was imploding, like she had too many bombs going off inside of her. Seeing her crumbling before him nearly did him in. This wasn’t the strong soul he’d come to know.

No one ever knew what the catalyst would be to break them.

Her eyes—those brilliant brown eyes with flecks of gold that had held so much fire—were wide and unfocused. Her head lolled slightly as if she might actually physically crumple to the ground and fold in on herself.

He got that. Oh, he got it.

Ryder wouldn’t let that happen. “Sarah!” He tightened his hold just enough to send a jolt through her. “Snap out of it. You want to see him again? Then hold it together. You’re trained for this.”

His words sounded almost cruel, but they came from the same place where Sarah’s pain lived. And he knew all too well the pain of losing someone and blaming yourself. He’d isolated himself ever since he failed to save his father on this very mountain—in the very place they headed now.

Her voice was weak as her lips trembled. “He’s just a baby,” she whispered. “I should have known. I should have stayed away from this, but I couldn’t. They killed Aaron.”

Heart pounding, Ryder leaned closer. He tried to be tender and understanding, pushing back the rush of fury at the callousness of their pursuers. “Honestly, when you mentioned Tessa and Jeremy, I thought he was your brother’s son. You never said otherwise.” Why had he made that assumption?

His gut clenched. “Where is his father?”

Maybe he could come into play here and save Sarah’s son, but she’d never once mentioned the man.

Her gaze drifted to the summit, to the mountain rising stark and cold against the brightening sky. “My husband’s dead,” she whispered. “He died before Jeremy was born. Before I even knew I was pregnant. He was brutally murdered.” Her trembling fingers brushed at her nose. “It’s why I left. That, and to protect Jeremy.”

Ryder eased down onto the rock beside her and gently pulled her to him. She didn’t resist—just sagged against him like a dam breaking, her weight sinking into his side. They sat like that, wrapped in shared stillness, offering comfort, drawing from it.

He didn’t speak. He wouldn’t push her. Not yet.

Some things had to be spoken aloud, aired out, before the wound underneath could even think about healing. Grief had its own shape, its own breath, and right now, she just needed space.

She leaned harder into him, and when her next words came, they tumbled out in broken sobs.

“Four years ago, I secretly married a man I worked with. The roles we played in our job, we couldn’t go public. Then we were kidnapped and ended up in Alaska where he was tortured for intel. I survived. He didn’t.” She sobbed against his shoulder.