“Secure is my middle name.” Her tone was flat.
He started to wheel the bike away—
“I hate this.” Marie’s hand pressed over his. “Morgan is as deceptive as they come. I don’t buy that he wouldn’t have figured out that the cops were monitoring your line. He knows it’s a trap.”
An option Joel had already considered. “Then he must think he still has a way out.”
“That’s what worries me! How do you know he doesn’t?”
He didn’t. Joel just knew… “He has a hostage, Marie. If I don’t go in there, Morgan said he’d kill Gordon Jennings.”
“Why do we care about him? Isn’t that the shrink asshole you hate?”
“I have to go. I’ll be back, I promise. You just make sure Chloe is all right.”
“Do you know how furious she will be with me?”
He had a clue. Because she would be just as furious with him. “I love her,” he said simply. “If I can protect her, I have to do it. He put her in a vault, Marie. Trapped her in a nightmare. I can’t let him get away with that. I won’t.”
Her hand fell away. “At least make him suffer, will you?”
The sun was starting to rise. Time to get this show moving. His head inclined as he steered the motorcycle away. Make him suffer?
She could count on it.
***
Marie slipped into the guest house—Joel’s place. Her footsteps were soundless as she made her way into the den, then toward the bedroom. She just wanted to check and make certain that Chloe was okay in there. Once she had a visual on her friend, then she would feel better about this whole mess.
She could see the huddled form on the bed. The covers were pulled up high, hiding Chloe’s face. Relief swept through Marie.
Chloe appeared to be sleeping soundly. Hopefully, Joel would be back before Chloe woke. Cedric could toss Morgan in jail and throw away the key, and they could all get on with their lives.
She turned away.
Stopped.
Chloe had been sleeping very, very soundly. So soundly that…she’d barely appeared to breathe.
Marie spun on her heel. Stared at the mound. Correction, that mound was not moving at all. Not breathing. She lunged across the room and grabbed the covers. She ripped them back—
Pillows.
No Chloe.
Dammit! She yanked her phone out to call Joel. The line rang once, twice. He was on his motorcycle, but he could stop to answer her—
“Hello?”
The voice drew her up short. “You’re not Joel.”
“No, this is FBI Agent Paul Richardson.”
Richardson? She knew the name.
“Who is this?” he asked.
She was the one with the questions. “Why do you have Joel’s phone? Look, forget it, I need to talk to him, right away, and—”
“What’s happening?”
She looked back at the bed.
“I’m an FBI agent! Joel gave me his phone because he wanted my help in stopping the man who’d taken Chloe. So I ask you again…what is happening?”
A faint movement by the door caught her eye. Her lips parted as Reese put his finger to his mouth.
Chapter Twenty-One
“If we go in with guns blazing, he might kill the hostage.” Cedric stood in the shelter of the alley, with his body hidden from view. “It’s not just Gordon Jennings who is inside. Security footage from the business nearby showed that Wendy Hyde walked in the place an hour ago, and she hasn’t come back out since. I don’t know why the hell she isn’t still in a hospital. But now we have two hostages.”
Joel had asked to meet near Gordo’s office—because it was the only place that fit, given Morgan’s clue. Joel had been attacked and tortured within his own hospital. It made sense that if Morgan was going by the same rules, then Gordo would be held in his own office, too.
The fact that Gordo’s office fell within the five-block radius that Cedric had created after the phone call? That just made Joel all the more certain that Morgan was inside.
“He wants me,” Joel returned evenly. “If he sees signs of cops, we don’t know what he’ll do.”
“Unfortunately, we also don’t know what he’ll do when he sees you.” Cedric tapped Joel’s collar. “Is this thing secure enough?”
This thing—the listening device that Cedric had brought for Joel to wear. Cedric wanted a confession. Both from Morgan…and from Gordo.
Joel had briefed Cedric on everything Morgan had said. And if Morgan was right, then Gordo was a killer, too.
If Morgan was right? Joel wasn’t even sure when he’d started to half-believe the freak.
“When you want backup, use our codeword,” Cedric instructed him. “We’ll storm the building, and we’ll get your ass out.”
The codeword. Right. Jazz. Like he was supposed to figure some casual way to drop that word in a conversation. Then again, nothing about the conversation he intended to have with Morgan would be casual.
“I don’t know how many more surprises I can take,” Cedric muttered as he slipped Joel a gun. “Did you know that Kingston Broussard actually worked for the FBI? Past tense, but turns out, he’s not the total nutjob I thought.”
Joel tucked the gun beneath his shirt.
“He’s getting out, by the way. Richardson said there was some more paperwork that he had to complete, then Kingston gets to walk.” He nodded. “That means there will be a jail cell just waiting for Morgan and Gordon Jennings. So how about we lock their asses up?”
Sounded like a great plan to Joel.
“You heard the ‘lock’ part, didn’t you, Joel?” Cedric pushed with a tight voice. “I gave you that gun to protect yourself. Not so you could go in there and shoot the bastards to hell and back. This isn’t about revenge.”
He smiled at Cedric. “I understand.”
Cedric’s eyes widened. “Wait…do you?”
“Thanks for the gun.” He strode away, knowing Cedric couldn’t leave the shelter of the alley.
“Joel…Joel! Wait! Freaking sonofa—”
***
The elevator doors dinged. As they swept open, Joel wasn’t sure who would be there to greet him. For all he knew, Morgan could be there with a gun drawn—
Wendy Hyde jerked back when she saw him. “Y-you didn’t bring any cops.”
“Do you see any with me?” He was using Chloe-speak. Just easier that way. He hadn’t straight lied, but…sure, the cops were definitely close.
A tear slid down her cheek. “I want—I’d like to go home.”
He stepped out of the elevator. Motioned toward it. “Get on. Get the hell out of here.”
“He’ll kill Gordon.” More tears fell. “He told me if I didn’t come back, he’d kill him.”
Joel bent toward her ear. “Here’s a secret,” he whispered. “Even if you come back, he’s planning to kill Gordo.”
She shuddered.
“Get on the elevator,” he advised her grimly. “Get the hell away from here.”
Sobbing, she jumped onto the elevator. Joel didn’t wait to watch her go down. He was already striding for Gordo’s office. He passed the small lobby and waiting area. Marched straight into Gordo’s inner—