AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Move it, Jack," Ethan grunted, his grip iron on Terra's cuffed arm.
"Watch your step," Rachel warned tersely, her eyes scanning for any gunmen who might have recovered their senses.
She felt the weight of the badge against her chest, a symbol of the order she fought to uphold in this lawless dance. Her nostrils flared with each breath, the smell of gunpowder and earth sharp in her lungs. They were close now, the all-terrain vehicle hidden just beyond the ridge, their lifeline out of this madness.
"Damn you," Terra hissed, jerking against their hold. "You have no right!"
"Save it." Rachel's voice was flat, a slap of finality. She spared him no glance, her mind whirring with escape routes, contingency plans.
A sudden crack from the left—Rachel pivoted, gun aimed. A branch snapped under the tumultuous retreat of their bovine distraction. She lowered the weapon, heartbeat thundering louder than the chaos.
"Keep walking."
Terra stumbled, a choked curse lost in the roar. Ethan shoved him forward, no sympathy in his steely gaze.
The off-terrain vehicle loomed ahead, a beacon of modern steel among nature's wrath. She tasted the tang of victory on her tongue, laced with the bitterness of adrenaline. They'd done it.
"Get him in," Ethan ordered, shoving Terra toward the vehicle.
"Drive," she said, once they were both inside, slamming the door shut on the cacophony outside.
Ethan didn't need telling twice. The engine growled to life, and with a spray of gravel, they were away, leaving behind the shattered peace of the mountain cabin. Rachel's eyes lingered on the rearview mirror, watching as the scene of their triumph shrank into nothingness.
"Good work, partner," Ethan broke the silence, a smile audible in his voice.
She nodded once, then turned, staring Jack dead in the eye. "We need to talk."
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
The interrogation room was a stark chamber of cold truths, where shadows clung to corners like guilty secrets. Rachel sat across from the man who called himself Jack, her gaze steely and unflinching. Beside her, Ethan Morgan leaned back in his chair, the silent sentinel. The air crackled with tension.
"Your threats are hollow, Joaquin," Rachel said, her voice a calm contrast to the tempest brewing in the man before them.
"Jack," he snapped.
"Alright, Jack then."
Jack's eyes flared, his nostrils flaring like those of an enraged bull. "You don't know who you're dealing with," he spat, his hands cuffed but his presence as imposing as if he were the one holding all the cards.
"Actually, I do," Rachel retorted, coolly thumbing through the file in front of her. "And your alibi for the past three days is as thin as the paper it's written on."
"Those gunmen of yours," Ethan chimed in, his tone casual yet sharpened with a detective's precision, "they say you haven't left your home."
"Damn right," Jack sneered, leaning forward as much as the restraints allowed, trying to loom over Rachel. "I've been home. They'll vouch for me."
"Convenient," Rachel mused, tapping a pen against the metal table. "Very loyal employees. Or perhaps very well paid?"
Jack thundered, "I have nothing to hide!"
"Jack," she said, voice low and steady as the hum of fluorescent lights above, "what scares a man with your power? What keeps you up at night?"
His lips tightened, the vein in his neck pulsing like a trapped thing. Rachel leaned in closer, her shadow merging with his on the stark white wall. "You're holding something back."
"Accusations now?" Jack's response was brittle.
"Tommy and Chey," she probed further, words deliberate and chosen for their sharpness. "They saw you unravel. Said you were terrified—"
"Shut your mouth!" Jack's outburst rattled the room, a tremor that had nothing to do with fear.
