Page 142 of Spies Don’t Fall for Their Best Friend

The phone starts vibrating again, and something cold moves through me. Reese’s mom would never call twice in a row unless something is wrong. I answer. “Annette?”

“Miles.” Her voice sounds different. Tight. “Is Reese with you?”

My entire body goes still. “No.”

“She left the hospital over an hour ago. Hospital security just came to Mackenzie’s room because someone found Reese’s purse in the parking garage. Her phone, ID, and everything is still inside.”

I take a few steps past desks, toward the front of the room, just to feel like I’m moving. “Where’s her car?”

“Still there.”

I don’t even realize that my pacing has taken me very quickly in the direction of the elevators until Nora rises from her station. “Miles?”

I stop walking and hold up one hand. “Annette, stay with Jace and Mackenzie. Don’t leave the hospital alone.”

“What’s happening?”

“I don’t know yet. I’ll call you.”

The second I end the call, one possibility hits hard enough to turn my stomach—the hangar. Reese was an unexplained civilian who appeared right in the middle of Maxwell Shaw’s evaluation. My stomach drops.

I turn toward the others in the room and say, “Reese is missing.”

The room changes instantly.

Charlie’s fingers are flying over her keyboard. “Where was she last seen?”

“Hospital parking garage. Her purse and phone were abandoned. Her car is still there.”

My mom reaches for her own phone as she says, “Charlie, get that hospital security footage and start facial recognition. Nora, notify local law enforcement that we have a suspected abduction, but restrict operational details, then scan for vehicles leaving the hospital parking garage. Emerson, help analyze. Ledger⁠—”

“I’m going.”

He’s to the elevators before she even finishes. I move to follow, but the director catches my arm. “Miles.”

“I’m going with him.”

She doesn’t tell me no. She just looks at me. Behind us, my secure phone vibrates again. I know before Nora says anything that it’s Rooke.

“The transfer changed.”

I turn to Nora. “Moved up to twenty forty-five.”

I look at the clock. That’s seventy-three minutes from now. My stomach drops even farther. I don’t know if the accelerated transfer and Reese’s abduction are connected, but the timing is too close for me not to wonder.

My hands curl into fists. “I can do both.” No one responds. “I’ll get Reese, then make the meeting.”

“Miles,” Emerson says quietly.

“No. I have seventy-three minutes.”

“To reach a location we don’t even have yet,” Charlie says. “And you still need to go down to sub-level one to have Abraham give you Maxwell’s face.”

“I’ll make it work. This is Reese.” I hear myself, and I know how impossible it sounds. I don’t care.

Charlie’s monitor changes. “I’ve got footage from the parking garage.”

I’m at her station before it fully loads. It’s a grainy overhead view, but it’s easy to see Reese walking between rows of cars. And to see the man come up behind her and the woman approaching from the side.