AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This is a mission.”
His admission wrenched me away from my memory. Mission equated to danger, and . . . Lucy. “Lucy was invited here.” I stood, maneuvering around the netting. I turned, stepped forward, then backward. Hell, I was unsure which direction I wanted to go. “Is she a target?”
“Potentially. But so are you. He or she, I suppose, likes blondes around your age. Smart and skilled women. And women without families to miss them.”
Of all the people in the world to be selected as targets . . .? Wait, is this some sick joke?
“Gwen hacked their system and reassigned you and your sister to our group before we even arrived because Lucy fit the description. We didn’t know anything about you—your picture was never provided to the show and Gwen couldn’t find anything on you based on Lucy’s profile—but she didn’t want to separate you two since you’re sisters,” he went on. “We have a team on the outside watching over us, too. Working behind the scenes to narrow down the suspect list.”
“These women, do they go missing during the filming of the show? Is my sister in immediate danger?”
“They’ve always been taken once they returned home, and each time it was made to look like the women chose to fall off the grid, and there’s not usually anyone poking around and asking questions. The only reason we learned about this is because someone with a loose connection to Gwen went missing after the last season in New Zealand.”
I wanted to feel a little relief at his implication that my sister was currently safe, but how in the hell could anyone feel comfortable knowing women were still out there in danger? Plus, I didn’t need a third freaking problem to deal with. Or was it fourth? Because . . . well, was Jack becoming a problem for me, too?
The team. The gadgets. That all means . . . “Are you a cop? Fed?” My stomach tipped, turned, and tossed yet again at the new problem I had to tackle.
“I know this is a lot to take in, but you look like you’ve seen a ghost. You okay?” He took a step my way, and I took three back, the wall stopping me from going any farther.
“Of course I’m not okay. You’re here undercover to catch a serial kidnapper? Killer? Trafficker? I mean . . . those are unspeakable options we’re talking about, and my little sister is caught up in this,” I sputtered, my body trembling now. I was normally pretty put together. Even whenever paranoia struck and had us packing up our home to move overnight, I didn’t panic-walk into walls.
“I won’t let anything happen to you or her. You have my word.” He placed a hand over his heart, his tone as genuine as the look in his eyes. “And no, I’m not a cop or Fed. I work in private security. And I was on a job in South Africa when we met last month.”
The gun. Passport. Okay, but still. “So, you don’t work for the government at all? And if not now, have you ever?”
“Well, I was in the Army, like I told you. And this isn’t all that top secret because I wasn’t an officer or agent, but I assisted the CIA with some security stuff,” he said with a shrug.
Shit. Damnit. Hell.
“And uh, yeah, my team sometimes takes gigs from Uncle Sam, sure. To stop an arms deal, for example.” Unknowingly making things worse, he added, “Every so often we have to hunt someone down from a wanted list.”
Oh geez, I think I’m going to be sick. My body moved on autopilot, angling around him as I headed straight for the door. I needed to grab my sister and leave. Abort the money-making-to-live-a-normal-life mission.
“Where are you going?” Jack’s hand at my waist as I’d brushed past him, stopped me. Not that he’d grabbed me hard. It was barely a touch. I just didn’t resist and push forward.
And given everything he’d spilled, I should’ve kept going. His team could handle the serial kidnapper while I protected my sister from becoming not only a victim that way, but a victim in another way. So, why am I not moving? Leaving?
“Charley, talk to me. I know what I said is horrible, and you’re scared, but—”
“Did you ever look me up after South Africa? Run my face through any government-type facial recognition thing?”
His hand dropped from my waist, and I slowly turned to face him. The lines in his forehead deepened as he started putting things together in his head. He was adding two plus two and it’d be ridiculous to hope he didn’t get four.
“I pulled your photo from hotel surveillance. I just wanted to make sure you left on purpose, and no one abducted you from my room that night. I was confused why you took off, but no, I didn’t try to track you down.” The tip of his head and tightening of his mouth meant he’d just made it there. To the conclusion I didn’t want him to draw.
“What about for the show? Gwen placed us in your group, so you had our names. Did you investigate us then?” I pressed.
“Face recognition for your sister, yes, but there weren’t any hits.”
The filters worked, thank God.
“Who is after you? Who are you worried will find you here?”
If only it were just one person. “I have to go.” I heard the same urgency in my voice I knew he did, and yet, I still couldn’t find it in me to move, which was absurd. Maybe it was because I was tired of running, too. But what choice did we have? Throw in some psychopath looking to take women into the mix . . . I just couldn’t wrap my head around the fact we’d really stumbled into a new nightmare.
Was it more plausible someone did ID Lucy even with her filters, and they used the show to draw us out? If we had flown into Brazil instead of Peru, would someone have snatched us at the airport the second we arrived? Did my paranoia save us? And were the cameras at the lodge saving us now because my enemy wouldn’t want to be recorded?
My mind continued to race a million different directions, landing on . . . “No cameras in here. Could he come for us now since he’s safe from being recorded?” I shook my head, feeling a little frantic. “Lucy. There are cameras in her room, so she’s okay for now, right?” I’m rambling now. This isn’t good.
