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“What’s next?” Nathan spoke up from by the door.
I rested my cheek on Katie’s shoulder as I struggled to stabilize myself.
“Mason’s going to call whoever is on this island and speed things up. We already expect that. But are yousureyou want to stay for it?”
“The bunkers are under the air strip, so leaving isn’t an option until after we take out Jett and her team. She’s gonna come here first, and if she doesn’t find us, she’ll go there and destroy it. Weneedto leave before she’s able to contact Mason again, though. This whole compound is a Faraday Cage, so we have to kill herinsideit, or try to keep her in it as long as possible.”
I didn’t even know what a Faraday Cage was, but Nathan still nodded in agreement as the conversation moved on without me.
“Where’s Julia?”
“Last I heard, she was spending some time setting up triage in the main kitchen. There’s no way Jett’ll have more than seven to her team, but we don’t know how trained they are.”
“They’re probably like me and Jett— wayward, vulnerable gutter rats. I wouldn’t be surprised if they flunked out, too.”
Distaste twisted Nathan’s face, and Katie sighed heavily as our baby wiggled weakly against my palms.
“They’re not professionals, but they shouldn’t be taken lightly. Jett’ll be in a rush, and desperate to make Mason happy, and that’s what I’m banking on.”
“Yeah. So, all we do now is wait until they trip the alarm?” I felt like every time I opened my mouth, something stupid came out.
Katie didn’t hesitate or make a face as she nodded.
“How do you know Mason’s going to call her and yell at her?”
“Because you just rubbed me in his face, and he’s mad that you’re not concerned about him. We know Jett is here, but you acting like she’s inconsequential because you don’t think highly of Mason in the first place will hit him where it hurts. I think the only way you could’ve done better is if you managed to get Mason to spill about what he thinks he can achieve holding your headquarters hostage.”
“What do you think he’s doing it for?” Rubbing her belly as I posed the question, I closed my eyes as a strange sense of tiredness washed over me. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“He thinks you value your company and your employees more than your wife and child, and that you fear financial ruin enough to try to negotiate. In a way, he’s not wrong. Your employees may get caught in the middle of this, and Mason assumes you’d try to save them if he threatens them. It’s a standard practice— sacrifice to save the innocent, or deal with the guilt and shame of not doing so. However...” Nathan trailed off as he rubbed his face and jaw, his teeth clicking when he sucked his teeth. “Mason is being cautious. It’s most likely because he has no next move and is making this up as he goes along. All his thoughts end with Katie going back to him, but between now and then, he hasn’t got much. He only thought up until holding Bert and the building hostage. That’s why you called him— it’s not something he’d expect after four months of no contact.”
“He sent us that exploding box, though. That didn’t come in until he got to Bert. We ordered that stuff over months.” Slowly, the connection started to establish, and I glanced at Katie and lifted my head. “But there hasn’t been anything since... and if Bert calling me begging for help really was genuine, it means that Mason’s not handling him right... right?”
“Exactly. Mason’s got Bert and your company, but he doesn’t know what to do with them. He can’t go extreme because he’d risk having the cops on him, but he has to dosomethingto prove he’s serious. His mistake was not simply grabbing Audra like he said he wanted and holding her and her family hostage. Infiltrating your company the way he did is a handicap for him now. It’s too big and bulky. He can’t control everything the way he needs to.”
My brows rose in surprise at howsureKatie was, and she smirked a little in a way I’d never seen before.
“I’m sure he’ll try something, but it’ll be something over the top and clumsy.”
I’m so stupid. Why’d it take me so long to accept that Katie’s capable?I knew the question was written all over my face when Katie patted my shoulder firmly. She stood up, pulling her hair back a little, and I gulped harshly at the determined set of her jaw. This washer... this was what she was good at. This was what she knew. And I was a fool for ignoring it.
ChapterSeventeen
KATIE
Rubbing my palms together, I propped my elbows on my knees and ducked my head between them. I ran my hands through my hair a few times, and my knees bounced as anxiety ate a hole right through my gut.
“Hey.” Brandon sat next to me, wrapping his arm around me, and I leaned over without picking my head up from my knees. “I know things haven’t been the best between us because of me, but you’ve done more in three days than I managed since we got here. I know it’s not comparative, but...”
“I’m worried we won’t get Jett. I don’t care about anyone else but her, but I can’t help but feel like she’s gonna slip through my fingers.” I blew out a hot breath, and Brandon rubbed my back soothingly as anxiety reverberated off my ribs. “I want to take her out myself, and it sucks that I can’t. I wish I weren’t pregnant. I wish this didn’t happen while I was pregnant. It’d be so much easier if I could just do it myself.”
“Have you ever killed someone just because you wanted to?”
I did lift my head at that, and Brandon leaned back on his arms to tap his feet on the floor absently.
“You said you killed bad people for the right amount.”
“Um... to be honest, it depends on your definition of ‘wanting to’. Mason would set me up with someone, usually a woman in some kind of trouble, but a man, once, too. I’d listen to their story about their husband-father-whoever, and they were desperate, and if I felt like they’d truly exhausted all their options, I’d do it. For people like us, small, poor people who do what they have to because they have to... a lot of the time, there are no other options. There’s no get in my car and drive. No stay with a friend. No getting back on your feet. No safety financially, physically, emotionally, and no net that’ll catch us.” My voice dipped as memories played behind my eyes. I saw so much of myself in some of those women— women who’d lost everything. Who were lost themselves. “Do you know what happens when you tell on a bully? It gets worse. Nothing is done about these assholes that are hurting these people, but if you tell, it comes back to bite you. In school, if you tell a teacher someone pushed you on the playground, the teacher will ask the bully if he did, he’ll lie, and then he’ll be out to get you for snitching. Going to the police as an adult is the same.”
