Toni huddled in the corner of the room, bleeding from a cut on her arm. She watched the plane land through the window. No one had been in this room in more than a decade. Dust hung thick on everything. That was the only reason she couldn’t breathe, and her eyes stung. Tears gathered to blur her vision and roll down her cheeks.
She’d seen the building explode. Jeff was dead. He had to be.
All the good he could do in the world—it was over now. The missions. The skills he’d been trained in. His family and the promise that one day he would be reunited with them. His mother and his brother. Or that he would be able to go to his sister’s burial service, even from a distance, or in disguise.
Over.
She knew she should take comfort that he was with the Lord, but that meant he wasn’t here anymore. He was gone, and there was no way to get him back. Better for him, but she felt like being selfish.
Those old animosities rose. You could have saved him. Along with Savannah and Tate. But no, God had taken their lives and again Toni was left on earth with less of her loved ones in her life than before.
That was how it always happened.
It didn’t matter what she tried, or how she worked to make things okay. People she loved died.
A sob worked up her throat. The burn on her hand needed to have been looked at again hours ago. She needed to take more of that pain medication, and the other one that would prevent infection. Her arm bled steadily on the floor. Dripping.
Don’t think about it.
Whatever was to come, she couldn’t allow her mind to go there. No point imagining. Even if what happened couldn’t possibly be as bad as what she could come up with. Or maybe it would be a thousand times worse.
She remembered her mother falling to the ground. Discarded like the trash that the men in her family thought she was. That they thought each of the women were.
Toni had escaped, but for what?
Amala might be safe now. That wasn’t her doing. Nothing Toni tried to do had ever worked. Why did she think coming here to see Jeff, even with the peace offering, would be any different? Sure, she’d managed to find Annabelle’s final resting place. Which, of course, that K9 officer would get all the credit for, along with the woman who’d seen the death. Never mind that she had pointed them in the right direction. That didn’t mean anything, and she didn’t want it to.
Toni’s involvement would only lead to a stain they’d never be able to get rid of. Something would go irrevocably wrong. Like leaving another dead woman at the scene and winding up chased. Getting amnesia. Ruining everything with Jeff. Involving him in the disaster that was her life. Getting him killed.
You could have saved them.
But God hadn’t. He didn’t work on her behalf, despite what the Bible said. What was the point in believing anymore when it didn’t help? Nothing was better, and she no longer had any hope that it would any different than it had always been.
Outside the small building, a gun went off.
Then another.
Answering shots.
She stared at the door. The general’s men were here, and there was no escape. This building only had one door. She had no weapon. If whoever had that gun came in here, there was nothing she could do. There were two choices, comply or force them to kill her.
She knew which one she wanted, and it wasn’t the outcome where she landed in her uncle’s grasp so he could do whatever he wanted to her. Terrorize her, the way he had with Amala. Abused, physically and mentally. Or killed and discarded like her mother. No longer useful to them.
The door opened.
She didn’t look to see who it was. Lenny, or one of her uncle’s men. She needed a plan; some foolproof way to force them to shoot her so she would be dead and they would be unable to take her.
“Come on. We’ve gotta go, Toni.”
That voice. Her gaze lifted as fast as a whip crack. The jerk jarred her neck. She tried to say his name, but all that emerged was a sob. Relief.
“I know.” He grasped her good arm. “Come on.”
But her relief quickly turned to dread when she saw it was only Jeff. Where was Tate? Savannah? Was she still missing?
He hauled her up. She had no choice but to force her legs to work. “Savannah. Tate.”
“He took her to the hospital.”
But she’d seen enough in life to know that didn’t necessarily mean Savannah would make it there, or that she would recover. More tears rolled down her face. She couldn’t stop it. Everything she’d done was for nothing. It was all a waste. Every single action she’d ever taken had only hurt someone.
Jeff started to turn. Then, his body jerked and he collapsed.
Toni was tugged down by his grip. Then he was out, and his fingers slipped from her hand.
Beyond where Jeff had stood a second ago, was now a crowd of four men. Lenny and three of her uncle’s guys—one was his top lieutenant. Anto.
Toni took a step back.
She looked down at Jeff, her lifeline. The only person she wanted in her life.
He’d lived two years in isolation. She could do it if he was there, but he was strong enough to survive it on his own. A man who was far better than her in every way. Who deserved a life with his family. Happiness. A relationship that would make him truly happy.
Not a so-called friend who only made everything worse.
“Time for you to go,” Lenny said. “And for me to get paid.”
Her uncle’s lieutenant, a man she remembered from her childhood—and not in any way that was good—lifted his gun and shot Lenny between the eyes.
Toni squeezed hers shut.
Someone moved. She heard the snap of a shutter, like a camera phone. She had to be brave to see what they were doing and face the danger head on with her chin up. The way Jeff would.
One of the men stepped back from Jeff, holding a phone.
“Send it.” Anto then motioned to her with a dismissive wave. “And bring her. We are wheels up in ten minutes.” He left the building.
Toni collapsed beside Jeff, seizing the opportunity to say goodbye to him. She touched her good hand to his chest. A second later, meaty hands dragged her right over him.
“No!”
“Too late. Let’s go.”
“Jeff!” They were just going to leave him.
The two men hauled her outside. She cried out, not just from physical pain, but from the emotional toil as well.
Anto stared at her with an assessing gaze. “No tricks. Or things will get infinitely worse for you.”
She needed them to kill her before they got her on the plane. She could shove one and run. Would they shoot her in the back? She could only hope it would end that quickly and cleanly for her.
The reality of what they might do was quite different.
But Toni had to try.
She had to flee.
It took a couple of steps and precious seconds for her to gather her resolve and figure out which direction to go.
Without wasting another second, she shoved the guy to her right and ducked left.
The second man grabbed her around the waist. She lifted her feet off the ground and screamed as loudly as she could.
A phone rang.
“Shut her up.”
The man dropped her on the ground. She screamed again.
Anto spoke on the phone. “Yes. Is it? That’s good. Yes, I will. Yes, General.” The conversation continued with more inane words. Simpering. Though there was no respect for her uncle in his tone. Just duty. Money. Power. That was all they cared about. Ruling a country with no idea how much better things could be. People so caught up in a corrupt system, they no longer knew what hope was.
Given Toni’s track record, she didn’t dare try to help them see the light. She’d just mess that up, too. All she could do was pray daily.
Anto hung up. “Go into the house and find that man. Bring him with us.”
She tried to turn. The one holding her didn’t let go. Toni tugged on her arm. His grip tightened, those huge fingers circled over the cut on her forearm, biting into it so she had to cry out. She doubled her efforts to move.
They couldn’t get Jeff. She wouldn’t let them. Not when he’d been through so much, and he could still have a shot at a reunion with his family. It gave her new resolve—no way could she die here, right now, if there was even a slight chance they would take him with them. Jeff would be destroyed. Same as their plans for her.
“No.” She tried to wrest her arm from the man’s grip.
Anto came to stand in front of her. She ignored his existence. The lieutenant lifted a hand and slapped her across the cheek.
Toni’s head whipped to the side. Fire burned across her cheek.
“There will be much worse in store for you. Resisting will only make things more serious. Your uncle is waiting. It is time to go.”
She stared into his dark eyes. Pools of pure evil.
Lenny had been bad enough. A man with something wrong in his brain. Psychosis that led him to hurt women and kill multiple people. But he was small time.
This man had changed the course of a nation. He had gathered armies and raided villages. His boot had pressed on the neck of so many.
“I’m going to kill you if you touch Jeff.”
His grin split into a wide smile and he chuckled low. “Your threats mean nothing.” He turned to his men. “Get the soldier, and we will get off this disgusting land where people do whatever they want with no respect for the rule of law.”
“I think they call it freedom.”
He tipped his head back and burst out laughing. “Freedom is the worst thing that can be given to a people. They do not thrive without rules. Structure.”
“That’s what you call oppression?”
Anto closed the gap between them, and his gaze roamed over her face. “I find this amusing. And ultimately it will be satisfying. For me.”
A shiver rolled through her, but she refused to let him know he scared her down to her toes.
“He is gone.”
The lieutenant took his attention from her. “Repeat yourself.”
“The soldier. He is gone.” The man’s words quavered. He was unsure what the punishment would be for misplacing Jeff.
Toni nearly grinned.
The lieutenant swung his arm toward the plane. “We go. Now.”
His word was as good as law. The two men with her reacted immediately. They strode forward and dragged her with them in the direction of the plane. Toni fought them with every step. She didn’t care. Blind fear, hot with anger, surged all through her. It lit fire in her muscles and almost made her forget about the pain. “No! Jeff!”
Wherever he was, he should simply leave her. Get out. Live his life.
“Jeff, go! Just go!” How did she explain what she needed him to understand? He wouldn’t get it. Not when he did the right thing. He saved the day. He lived two years never seeing people he loved because it was the noble way. He was so good.
The last thing he needed was to fight for her and end up getting killed.
No one listened to her.
Their huddle crossed from the grass to the asphalt of the runway. The plane had a dozen windows on the side and gleamed white under the moon.
“What was that?” one of the men called out, looking around. “I saw something in the dark!”
“Just get to the plane!”
They started to run now.
A second later, the concussive force of an explosion hit her.
Toni was thrown back in a tangle of limbs. Her body slammed onto the ground.
Everything went black.