“Watch what?” she gasped, one arm outstretched to accommodate the chain, the other desperately gripping his wrist as if that would lessen his hold on her hair.
“After this, we’ll be leaving. Don’t worry, there’s another way out, so we won’t have to deal with the debris.”
“Debris?” Annalise stared at the grainy footage. Her men were so close. Less than fifty meters from the camper. Jakob had gone to check the stalker’s car, while the man she didn’t recognize kept his attention on the camper, standing in the space between the car he’d been driving and the one she’d been kidnapped in.
Debris.
The phone. The old, simple phone he’d used when they first arrived.
A bomb. There was a bomb in the car.
Annalise screamed as loud as she could. Hoping to warn them.
“It’s soundproof.” Her stalker laughed, then propped the phone up by the laptop. He tapped the green send button.
A fifteen-second countdown window appeared on the screen. Fourteen, no, thirteen seconds and then Walt and Jakob were going to be blown to bits. She screamed again.
Her stalker turned her, forcing her against the wall once more, but this meant she had a perfect view of the laptop.
He drew the knife from his pocket and placed the tip at the waistband of her pants.
Annalise had no more room for fear. Her horror at what was about to happen filled her until there wasn’t space for anything else.
There was nothing in the car. No sign of Annalise, but the plates matched the partial plate they’d seen on the video.
“If she’s not in the car, is she in there?” Walt asked.
Vadisk, looking at the caravan on the other side of the clearing, didn’t immediately respond.
Every muscle in Jakob’s body was tense with the surety that she was in the caravan. That she was trapped in there with a man who would hurt her.
Not might hurt her. Would.
He probably already had.
“Maybe,” Vadisk said. “But it is too obvious.”
“No.” Jakob looked from the car to the caravan and back again. “It’s too easy.”
“Trap?” Vadisk asked.
“He’s smart enough to evade me for years. He left no clues. He’s organized enough to plan this kidnapping on the fly in a city he isn’t familiar with.” Jakob’s words were several seconds behind his thoughts. By the time the last word left his lips, he was already moving away from the cars.
“Run,” Jakob snarled. “Into the trees.”
Neither Vadisk nor Walt questioned him. They turned and sprinted toward the trees.
A second later, the world flashed bright white, then a wrecking ball slammed into his back an eighth of a second before a deafening noise wiped out all other sound.
The explosion rocked the camper slightly. The camera feed whirled drunkenly, then stilled, now pointed at the sky, only the tops of the trees visible—it must have been knocked to the side by the blast.
Annalise forced herself to exhale when her lungs started to hurt. She’d been right. There had been a bomb in the car.
A bomb that would have killed Jakob, Walt, and the stranger if they hadn’t moved.
She’d seen them start to run, just before the timer hit zero.
Had they gotten far enough away?
Annalise stared mutely at the screen, until her stalker dragged her down to the floor, forcing her onto her back. Her pants were gone, and when he forced her legs apart, the G-string didn’t feel like much protection.
She should be horrified or scared. Should be angry enough that she’d started fighting.
Instead, she craned her head, trying to see the laptop screen. Hoping that the camera would have shifted again. Would show her what had become of the men she loved.
God, she loved them. Both of them.
Her stalker slapped her, hard enough to make her ears ring.
“Pay attention to me!” he snarled. “You can’t hide. You’re mine. Mine!”
“No, I’m not, and I never will be, you delusional, pathetic waste of humanity.” There was no heat in her words, only disgust.
He screamed in her face, his spittle hitting her cheek. Annalise turned her face away, breathing hard through her nose.
“I won’t cut your hair. I only cut hers so I wouldn’t be tricked again.” He was on his knees, scrambling for the knife. “But there are other places I can cut. So you’ll know you’re mine.”
“But you protect me,” Annalise said firmly, though she was trembling. “Is that protecting? Or are you the one I need protecting from?”
He raised his hands, including the one now holding the knife, and clamped his hands over his ears. “Shut up!”
“No, you have to decide. Do you want to love me or hurt me? It cannot be both.”
“I said shut up.” The hand holding the knife rose.
Annalise tensed to roll out of the way.
The caravan door exploded inward, bouncing against the wall and ricocheting back only to be arrested by Jakob as he barreled into the opening.
He was dirty, his shirt torn, blood on his face and lips, but he was here.
And alive.
“No!” Her stalker screamed the denial, turning toward Jakob. She could see fear in his expression.
He still held the knife, and he was far closer to her than Jakob, though given the size of the camper, the distance wasn’t great. But she knew she was still in danger.
Or would have been if Jakob hadn’t taken one big step, half turned, and lashed out with one foot, kicking her stalker so hard in the face that his head snapped back.
Blood spurted and her stalker slumped to the floor, knife clattering from his hand. Jakob took two more steps, grabbed the man’s head, shoved it down, compressing his neck, and then twisted with a short, sharp jerking motion.
Annalise scrambled to her hands and knees, crawling as far as the chain would allow. Then Jakob was there, crouching in front of her, his dark eyes haunted. He started to reach for her, but stopped, his hand hovering in the air between them.
Walt bounded in, dropping to his knees beside them. Without hesitation, he gathered Annalise into his arms, then pulled Jakob in too.
It was then—safe and in their arms—that Annalise started to sob.
Chapter Fifteen
Walt stood by the hotel window, looking down on the busy street below them, replaying yesterday’s events over and over. Annalise had fallen apart in their arms after they’d found her. It was as if she’d stored up too many years’ worth of tears and they all came out at once, the dam breaking.
It had ripped his heart out, hearing the unadulterated terror and anguish in her cries.
He glanced back at the bed, feeling the need to check on her again. He’d felt that same need every few minutes since he’d woken up.
She was still in the center of the mattress, her arm curled over Jakob’s waist. Jakob lay on his back, one arm around her shoulders, tucking her close to him, the other thrown above his head.
Both of them were dead to the world.
Not that Walt was surprised. It felt as if they’d lived ten lifetimes in just a few days.
Given the pain-free, peaceful way Jakob slept, it was apparent the effects from the bullet ant sting had subsided. Walt grinned as he recalled Jakob’s reaction to the nerve blocker. The medication hadn’t just loosened the tension and burning agony in his muscles. It had loosened his tongue as well, allowing Jakob to speak every thought, every feeling aloud. During the course of the day, he’d revealed quite a bit about his love for Annalise.