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“What do you meangave her back alive?”
Logan is like a wild animal following the scent of blood, and I know he isn’t going to drop this. Judging by the look on Dana’s face, she knows it too.
“Shit.” She resigns herself as she shifts her focus between Logan and the glass I am standing behind. Then she continues, “Jessa was captured. It was all my fault. I got an urgent message from my mom, at an old email address, asking me to contact her right away. It was almost two years after I left home, and I panicked. I thought maybe she was sick, or worse. I went down the block to an internet café to video chat with her, but when I dialed her, she said she never sent the email. I made a mistake and gave up our location with my IP address. I contacted Jessa to tell her what happened, and she took care of it—like always. Except this time, she only had minutes to figure something out.” Her eyes drift down to the floor, and when she looks back up, they are filled with tears.
“Two cars pulled up outside the café, and just as quickly as Maxwell’s men arrived to take me away, they got back in and were speeding off again toward our apartment. I found out later that Jessa hacked into the café and added a final destination onto the IP string I used to call home. It was down to seconds, so she used the only one she could at the time.” She chokes out a cry as she ends her sentence.
“It was hers, wasn’t it? She gave herself up in your place?”
Dana silently nods as her eyes turn glassy.
“She didn’t have enough time to create a better trail. They would have killed me. I’m no one. I only matter to Jessa. She would have had to either give herself up eventually, or—” She stops on the thought she can’t bring herself to put into words.
“Or know that her decision led to the death of her friend.” Logan’s words meet a silent nod as Dana blinks rapidly, releasing the tears that were pooling in her eyes.
“I only contacted her to tell her to leave. To tell her that it was okay. That I was okay with what was going to happen to me. I didn’t think she had time to throw herself under the bus in my place. By the time I got back to the apartment, the computers were destroyed, and she was gone.”
“Then what happened?” Logan tries to soften his tone. There’s no need for a harsh interrogation when she’s cooperating.
“I did what she taught me to do. I packed what was left and went to our next safe house. I set it up, and I waited. We always have our next safe house set up ahead of time for this very reason.”
“Did you contact Zane?”
“No. It would have been pointless. Only Jessa has the code to link to him. I have to wait until she checks in with me, then I work to hook her up to him, then she enters the passwords to connect. It was one of the first things she taught me, but it’s pretty useless if you aren’t Jessa. She’s the only one who has the access codes and addresses once I’ve connected her.”
“So, she got in touch?”
“It took four days before I heard anything. I thought she was dead. I was so scared. Then, at the end of the fourth day, there she was. She came through in a chat room, and I made the connection. She was released almost three days later.” She looks at her hands as she wrings her fingers together when she adds, “She was pretty beaten up.”
“Just like that? Did she say what happened? Why it took so long to contact you?”
Dana is giving us more information than I think Jessa thought she would, and Logan is taking full advantage.
“Not really. She said they tried to get information out of her. She said she didn’t want to talk about it, but I could tell something happened. She wouldn’t tell me, but she was—different. She said she found out Jack was happily married, that he was an accountant.” She pauses, shifting her eyes around the table, no doubt trying to decide if she should trust us with more information.
Hesitantly, she continues, “After her time there, things changed—she changed. She began to put in more coding hours with Zane. I used to know about one safe house at a time, but then it went up to the next three. The security around us increased. She taught herself self-defense and worked out in the little spare time she had. She double- and triple-checked everything, and she became hyperfocused on details and organization. Just ask Jack.” She points to the mirror, sure I am standing behind it. “He’ll tell you. Jack went to high school with us. Maxwell wasn’t right when it came to Jessa. He was infatuated with her. She tried to keep him as a friend, but there was just something off.”
Then she looks at the mirror as though it isn’t there, and she speaks directly to me. “I think something really bad happened, Jack. But she won’t tell me.”
My heart softens.
Dana is right about Maxwell. From the instant Jessa showed an interest in me, he was always close by, and it was awkward. Since it was my mission to get close to Maxwell at the time, I wasn’t complaining. But now, when I consider his actions from a new perspective, there was something dark about his presence around her.
In our time working together, I’ve learned to read Logan almost as well as he can read me. He’s not sure where to go next with his questions, or if he should even continue due to the limited information that Dana holds.
As he slides his chair back and stands, a knock at the door draws our attention, but Dana stays still, looking down at the table.
Logan opens the door to find Grey. He’s standing in the hall holding some books and a bag.
“What’s up?”
“Grizz was just going through some of the items we recovered from the house, and he thought you might want to see this right away. For the interrogation.”
Logan answers him with a nod and takes the items from Grey before closing the door with his foot. He walks back to the table and drops the bag in front of Dana, but he keeps a notebook for himself. He silently opens it and begins to flip through the pages.
Dana grows rigid, and she doesn’t take her eyes off the bag at first. Slowly, as Logan continues to turn the pages, her round eyes creep up, and she looks into the mirrored glass. My muscles tense at what is possibly in those pages.
My palms turn clammy at her guarded glare. The anticipation is driving me insane.
