Was the guy serious? “You called me a monster.”
“I said…that if you didn’t keep your control, you could become a danger to those around you. That a monster lurked within.” Gordo flattened his hands on the desk. “That is true for us all. But for you especially. You lived through a nightmare situation. That attack left physical scars on you, but emotional wounds within you. You haven’t faced those wounds. You haven’t healed them.”
“I’m doing just fine.”
“Why do you think you killed the wrong man? If you’re so fine, why did you believe that?”
This was pointless. Gordo wasn’t revealing anything new to Joel. The shrink just wanted to pick him apart.
Joel turned and marched for the door.
“She failed her psychological evaluation.”
His hand was poised over the doorknob.
“Your precious Chloe. Did you know that? Did you wonder why she didn’t work for the FBI but was only a freelance operator?”
He looked over his shoulder. “Chloe has no interest in working for them.”
“Because she couldn’t pass their evaluation. Agent Richardson knows. He’s seen the results of the evaluation.”
“Agent Richardson hates Chloe because she has a tendency to make him look like an asshat.” Joel considered the situation. “No, he makes himself look like an asshat.”
“You need to find out what was in her report.”
“Seems like you already think you know exactly what was in that report.”
“And you aren’t curious?”
“No.”
“But you—”
The door flew open, narrowly missing a collision with Joel’s shoulder. “I need you.” Chloe’s breath heaved out. “We have a problem.”
His gaze raked her, searching for an injury, a threat, a—
“Call the cops,” Chloe ordered Gordo as she grabbed Joel’s arm. “I think he took your office manager.”
“What?” Gordo’s voice rose. “Who? What on earth are you going on about?”
But Chloe and Joel were already running away. “He was familiar,” she said as they raced through the building. “He was the right height, the right build, and he fled so fast when he saw me because I think he was worried I’d figure it out. And I was suspicious. He kept nagging at me. I looked out the blinds again, and I saw her being hauled into the van—”
They were outside. Their SUV waited a few feet away. Joel looked to the left. To the right. But he didn’t see any sign of the office manager.
“The van went to the left.” Chloe pointed. “Let’s go that way and find them before—”
She didn’t finish. Just jumped into the passenger side while he hopped in the driver’s seat. Joel knew exactly what she meant, though.
Find them before she dies.
He started the SUV. And shoved the gas pedal down to the floor as they surged away.
***
Dr. Gordon Jennings raced outside of his office building and gaped after the speeding SUV. He had his phone to his ear as he watched Joel rush away.
“Sir, sir, I am going to need you to slow down and tell me the nature of your emergency,” the nine-one-one operator spoke crisply.
“I…I’m not sure.” Everything had been so confusing. “I think…someone may have taken my office manager?” The words sounded like a question because they were. Chloe had spit out her orders and dragged Joel away, and now Gordon didn’t know what he was supposed to do.
“Sir, what do you mean?”
“I…” There had been no sign of Wendy when he searched the office. “I need police officers here.” He rattled off the address.
“Is this a joke?” The woman’s voice had taken on a distinct edge.
A joke? Gordon couldn’t see the SUV any longer. Chloe Hastings didn’t strike him as the type of woman who joked about things. “I think you need to contact Detective Cedric Coleman.” Gordon had observed how close the two of them were when he’d worked a case with the local authorities and the FBI. “He can vouch for what’s happening. Tell him Chloe thinks someone has been taken. And get a team to this address.”
“But—”
“A woman has been taken!” Gordon was no longer using may because that wasn’t getting an appropriate response. He needed help. His tone hardened as he ordered, “Get the police!”
Chapter Seventeen
“Brake! Brake!” Chloe yelled.
Joel slammed on the brakes. He’d almost missed the van. It was crammed inside a narrow alley, and the back door hung drunkenly open.
Before he’d turned off the vehicle, Chloe was already jumping out. “Chloe!” He rushed after her. Caught her before she could get too close to the van.
The vehicle looked abandoned. He didn’t see any sign of—
A low moan reached his ears. Weak. Pain-filled. He leapt into motion and surged toward that sound even as Joel made damn sure to keep Chloe behind him. He wrenched the back door of the van open even more and found Wendy Hyde.
She was sprawled in the back of the vehicle. Another moan came from her as Wendy’s body trembled.
He jumped into the van and maneuvered toward her—Jesus. Joel’s breath hissed from between his teeth. Blood soaked her shirt. Gray duct tape covered her mouth and bound her wrists and ankles. The moans were coming from behind the duct tape as tears trailed down her cheeks.
He grabbed the bottom of her shirt. Yanked it up. The slice was about two inches long. He tried to examine how deep it was—
Sirens shrieked in the distance.
“Joel. We need to get her out of here. Now.” Chloe’s voice.
“She’s losing a lot of blood, but I don’t think anything—”
“I’ve seen that device before. We have to get her out. Now.”
Device? Joel’s gaze lifted…and he realized that something was positioned in the back of the van with Wendy. A black box, with wires sliding out of the side and—was that an old phone attached to the front?
“It can be triggered at any time. She was the bait to pull us into the trap. The cheese for the mouse. We are the mouse.”
Okay, yes, he was getting that.
“That bomb is just like the one I saw in the video footage at the Serpent.” Chloe’s words came out quickly, the only sign that she was shaken. But for Chloe, that was a big sign. “We have to get her out of here. Now,” she said again.
Joel glanced down at Wendy’s face. Her eyes were open and filled with terror. The duct tape was still on her mouth. He should take the duct tape off.
After they got the hell out of there.
“Go,” he snarled at Chloe as he hauled Wendy into his arms.
Wendy was moaning again. Thrashing in his hold. Chloe jumped from the van and turned back toward him. Her eyes were huge, the fear in them was new, and he wanted to tell her that everything was going to be fine. He leapt from the van. “Chloe—”
The little black box exploded.
***
Joel was on the ground. Chloe couldn’t hear anything. Not even the sound of her own breathing. The explosive force of the blast had propelled Joel forward. She’d watched him fly toward her. Seen the woman’s arms float into the air helplessly as they were thrown. But Joel had maintained his grip on Wendy the entire time.