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“I’m not putting you in the line of fire. That isn’t happening.”
“Kevin, think about it. I can be bait, especially since Gianni thinks I’m your girlfriend. Right?”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“It’s the relationship. You don’t care about your nanny, but you do care about your girlfriend, right? We have a ransom note. I could take the money, wear a tracking device, and make myself an easy target. They take me, track me, and the police find me and Sydney.”
“No,” I said.
“It’s all we’ve got,” she said.
“It’s not. There’s another way. We flush him out the way the police would.”
“And how long will that take?” she asked. “Another five days? Two weeks? A month? Kevin, we don’t even know if she’s alive.”
“You shut the hell up!” I said, jumping up.
“Well, it’s the truth, Kevin!” she said, her voice cracking. “We know nothing except some names and a possible connection! But this, Kevin. It gets us everything. And soon.”
“I’m not losing you again,” I said. “I can’t.”
“You’re not. I’ll be tracked. They could take me, ask for more ransom, and boom—the police descend. It happens all the time.”
“And how do you know this?” I asked.
“Isn’t that what the FBI does all the time? Bait and switch?”
“You watch too much television.”
&n
bsp; “I also write too many books. But you know it’s our only shot.”
“If it was, they would have mentioned it to us.”
“Kevin.”
“What?” I asked.
“Call the police,” Brooke said.
I didn’t like this. Not one fucking bit. But what I hated more was that she was right. It would work. It made me sick and brought me hope at the same time.
What the fuck had my life become?
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I called the police. They came over to the house and we all discussed the plan. Apparently, it hadn’t been mentioned because they figured we wouldn’t go for it. Not after losing one member of our family already. They pulled Brooke off to the side and as they started walking her through everything, I could tell she was listening intently. She was truly engaged for the first time since this entire shit storm started.
She was ready.
And I had to be.
Because I no longer had a choice.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed the number as everyone fell silent around me.
“You ready?” the voice asked.
“Yes,” I said. “One hundred million dollars to be delivered by my girlfriend.”
