The next blast of high voltage bent his body up off the floor. Wyatt could barely think, the pain was so excruciating. When he was finally able to comprehend anything past the agony, he was jostled. Steve Adams’s shoulder landed in the center of Wyatt’s stomach, air expelled from his lungs in a rush and he realized he was being carried.
How in the world had Steve Adams managed to get past their perimeter? Granted that had been the plan, but it was never supposed to have gone down like this. Wyatt prayed—actually prayed—that Mason Pierce wasn’t dead. That Parker had realized the man was shot and was rallying to get him medical attention. Steve Adams hadn’t killed Wyatt, though. He was taking him elsewhere.
Not good.
Wyatt couldn’t even move his fingers but a twitch. He was essentially incapacitated, though fully aware of what was going on. Really, really not good. God, I know You’re real. I always have, even if I didn’t want to admit it. You’re Lord of Parker and Sienna’s lives. Lord of Nina’s life. I want to know more about that before I die. Whether that is in an hour or in fifty years. Keep Nina safe. Don’t let Mason die, Emily needs him. And, if You want, could You help me, too?
Wyatt wasn’t above begging for his life. Not when God might be able to preserve it. He’d never thought he’d be the guy who prayed only when he thought he was going to die, but why not? It seemed like a good enough time to him. Especially if it helped.
Wyatt heard a click. Steve Adams shifted and dumped Wyatt into the trunk of a car. He couldn’t move. He tried to yell, but no noise came from his throat. He reached for his cell phone. Where was it? He couldn’t even move.
Street lamps cast a shadow across Adams’s face so that Wyatt couldn’t read anything in the man standing over him.
Where was the sound of running? Parker should be yelling in his earpiece. Was it still in his ear? Questions swirled in his head. How had Adams done this? How was he getting away with it? Wyatt would die and there would only be more questions left with his demise. Nina would have even more reason to spend her life trying to bring down this killer—her guilt that she’d caused yet another death before she could stop Adams.
They were alike in that way, at least.
Nina.
His heart cried out for her, even as he tried to convince himself she didn’t care for him the way that he cared for her. Still, he wanted to see her.
Steve Adams leaned down. “Time to get the girl and wrap this up.”
Wyatt strained to see in the dark night, then something sharp pricked the outside of his upper arm. There was nothing he could do. The trap had been a trap of Steve Adams’s own making—taking Wyatt to draw out Nina so that he could get the real prize.
And he had no way to warn her.
After injecting him, Steve Adams threw down the trunk lid and shut Wyatt inside.
The car rumbled to life, and Wyatt descended into blackness.
* * *
“What do you mean, something’s wrong?” Nina glanced at the surveillance cameras onscreen. “There’s nothing on video. No audio.”
“Exactly.” Parker was already out of his chair. He flung the van door open and jumped out.
Nina shut it behind her and raced after Wyatt’s partner. “You think Steve Adams got in already?”
When he didn’t answer her, Nina said, “That’s not possible. We would have known. Heard it. Seen it. He couldn’t have accessed our remote feed and given us false information to make us believe everything was fine. Radio silence was your idea. Steve Adams couldn’t have known that.”
They should have been a team, performing the takedown together. Nina had been satisfied with her part, even while she knew why Wyatt had arranged things like that. And now Steve Adams had destroyed it.
“The target would have accounted for either way.” Parker keyed his radio, which put him in contact with the team at large. “Position one to all positions. Check in.”
Nina’s earbud crackled and one by one they checked in. Except Mason and Wyatt.
“All positions converge. Something’s wrong.”
Nina heard boots before she saw anyone. Two team members met them in a covered position close to the front door. A faint light in the front window was the only light in the otherwise abandoned house.
“Go.”
Parker led the way and they cleared the dining room first. The light she’d seen outside came through from the living room. Which meant someone else would have seen Steve Adams if he’d walked through the area of the house where Wyatt and Mason had been.
“Here!”
Nina followed the call to find Mason on the floor, his hair disheveled and his face flushed and damp. Blood had pooled from a wound on his thigh to stain the wood floor. Parker held a balled-up jacket against the injury.
Nina collapsed to her knee beside the wounded man. “Where’s Wyatt?” Parker was already on his phone, calling for an ambulance, but there was no sign of his partner. Didn’t he want to know what had happened?
Mason blinked, the lines around his mouth deepening as his face pinched with pain. “Adams shot me and then took him.” He shifted and groaned.
Parker said, “Hold still.”
Mason nodded and his gaze flickered back to her. “Guess I wasn’t the prize.”
Nina squeezed his shoulder and looked up as Jonah strode into the room. His boots clipped the wood floor to them. “Steve Adams took Wyatt.”
Jonah lifted his hand, a cell phone in it. “We found Wyatt’s phone on the grass at the side of the house. We can’t track him, but we’re on this and he won’t get far. Canvassing the streets, knocking on neighbor’s doors. Someone will have seen something.”
Nina doubted that. The man was apparently able to slip past them, even with surveillance in place. This was supposed to have been a foolproof plan, but instead of getting out ahead of the man they were still playing defense. When was this going to end?
Jonah crouched in front of her. “We will find him.”
Nina chewed her lip. She didn’t want to say the words. She didn’t want to be the one who lost faith right when believing counted the most. But she’d seen Steve Adams’s work before. If he was determined to end Wyatt, there was nothing she or any of them would be able to do to stop it.
She took Wyatt’s phone from Jonah and stood. An ambulance pulled up outside, but she ignored the EMTs, walking onto the sidewalk and down the street. She should call Wyatt’s cousin, the FBI agent. Parker probably knew what the pass code to Wyatt’s phone was, and his cousin might be able to help them locate where Steve Adams had taken him.
She spun back to the house. Parker was inside, and she could see him pace back and forth in the dining room. He looked like he was yelling into his phone. He probably knew about Wyatt’s cousin. They probably had a system in place for precisely if something like this happened. A plan that didn’t include her, and didn’t require her help.
Parker looked up, out the window. He saw her and shook his head as he shrugged like, what are you doing out there? Nina turned back to the street. She sat on the hood of a car parked at the curb and pulled out her own phone.
Wyatt had been gone for who knew how long. Probably up to half an hour, if not more. What was he thinking? Was he even still alive?
Was it her fault?
If she’d been the bait, then maybe Steve Adams would have taken her and left Wyatt...or shot him like he’d shot Mason. And wasn’t that the reason Wyatt had assigned her to the van? But what if this, too, was part of Steve’s plan?
Nina choked down the emotion and pulled up her contact list and found the number Steve Adams had been contacting her from. She opened a new message and typed, Where is he?
She tapped the phone on her leg and waited. She hoped he was busy and that she could distract Adams somehow, maybe even long enough to find the two of them before Wyatt was killed.
Even while she wished it were she who’d been taken, Nina was glad she was the one who got to put all her skills toward finding Wyatt.
If anyone could, it was her.
Bile rose in her throat. She hung her head to suck in big gasps of breath. He was going to die before she could tell him that she loved him. He’d gotten completely the wrong idea about what was happening between them. Not to mention seriously misinterpreting her, assuming she thought a certain way without even asking her.
So things were complicated enough that they didn’t need to jump into anything. But did he let her explain that? No.
It was a wonder she didn’t want to kick dirt in his face, or whatever women did these days when men angered them. But if he was alive, if she could keep him from being killed, Nina likely was going to do the complete opposite. If she saw him again, she’d likely kiss that dumb confused look off his face and then explain a few things.
Romance wasn’t even in a spy’s vocabulary. Then she’d been searching for Mr. Thomas. Excuse her for not seeing what had been right in front of her face until it was too late.
She really hoped it wasn’t too late.
Nina loosened her death grip on the phone and dialed the number instead. First, before she could find Wyatt, there was a serious list of things she needed to say to Steve Adams. That sadistic killer was going to get a piece of her mind.
A muffled sound came through the phone.
Nina was ready to lay into the man, no matter that it might make him angrier. “Where is he? I want to know.” She paced. “And you better not have harmed one tiny hair on his head or you’ll have me to answer to.” She didn’t care that she sounded ridiculous. Not when Wyatt’s life was at stake.
“N-Nina?” His voice was raspy and quiet. She could barely hear him. It sounded like he was in a closed-in space, confined somewhere with no way out.
“Wyatt? Where are you? Are you okay?” She sucked in a breath, trying to tamp down the cold fear that had settled in her stomach. She had to let him talk. With Wyatt’s phone, she brought up the little menu that let her turn on the camera light for a flashlight without needing to unlock the phone. While he collected himself, she shone it through the window at Parker.
Please let this get his attention.
“I think. I don’t know where I am.” He slurred the words, sounding disoriented. Steve Adams must have given him something to force his compliance, or he’d injured Wyatt.
Parker winced and glared at her. Nina pointed to the phone and mouthed, Wyatt. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Parker raced out the front door in time to hear her say, “Any idea where you are?”
Wyatt’s partner got on his phone again, yelling about traces and GPS. Nina stepped away and pressed her finger over her other ear so she could focus on him. The man she loved. Maybe since she’d first met him, she didn’t know. It was possible, since she’d never felt like this about anyone before.
“I’m in a box.” He shifted around, and the pitch of his voice rose. “Nina. I think I’m in a coffin.”
Parker started to yell louder. He had to be able to hear the conversation now.
“There’s a tank in here. Like an oxygen tank.”
Nina’s heart plummeted.
“One second.” After Nina had counted from five he was back. “It’s a timer.”
Nina spun. Her eyes locked with Parker’s, and—she was sure—the same dread on his face reflected on hers.
“Nina, I’m running out of air.” A beep signaled something on his end. There was a rustle and he said, “Low battery.” He paused for a split second. “Bye...goodbye, Nina.”
“Wyatt!”
It was too late. The phone cut off.
Nina fumbled with the phone, trying to redial. “Wyatt!” She had to speak to him. “Wyatt!” What else was she supposed to do? “Wyatt!” He was alone...in a box...running out of air.
Parker grabbed the phone.
“We traced the call and got a location. The team is moving now. Get a hold of yourself. If I have to stand here and make sure you don’t pass out, that operation is going to take longer. And that’s time Wyatt does not have.”
“You were listening.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her along. She glanced back to see Jonah sprinting after them. Nina needed to suck it up and get it together, otherwise she was going to fall apart completely. Parker drove them in his SUV to the place they’d traced the phone call’s origin to.
Nina sat in the back. It wasn’t like Steve Adams to be so sloppy he would lead them right to where Wyatt was being held.
Jonah hung up his phone. “Paxton’s team was closest. They’re headed inside already.”
Parker nodded, his fingers tight on the steering wheel.
Seemed like they thought this was good, but something in Nina just wouldn’t settle. And it was more than simple concern for Wyatt’s life.
Parker raced through the streets until they pulled up outside a two-story office building for lease. “He’s probably inside there somewhere.”
Jonah nodded. “Basement or some kind of closet. A boiler room, that kind of thing.”
Both men cracked their doors and climbed out.
Nina reached for the handle when her phone beeped. She looked at the screen. Baltimore Public Library. She opened the message, eager to hear something from Wyatt. He had to be okay enough to send a message, and to have decided it was worth the battery usage.
Boom.
Nina blinked at the screen. She glanced up. Parker and Jonah, guns drawn, jogged toward the building. Why would Wyatt... Nina opened the door, stood on the step and yelled over the door, “Park—”
The building exploded.
A wave of sound and burning-hot air rushed toward her. Nina was flung backward onto the road, where she landed on the concrete and rolled.
The phone screen flashed, the only sound in her ears the rush of air as though miles away. Nina lifted the phone with her dirty, scratched-up hand.
Drive.
Nina wanted to throw up. Drive? She found the keypad, dialed 911 and put the phone to her ear. Nothing. She checked it. Dialed again, coughing against the smoke and ash. It wasn’t working. What was wrong with her phone?
Dread settled over her.
Steve Adams.
Nina rolled to try and see Parker or Jonah. With the smoke and flames she couldn’t make out much. She could hear sirens in the distance, though probably closer than she could hear. Parker and Jonah were probably deaf, given how close they had been. God, please let them be okay. They hadn’t been right up close to the building, but feet away. Please, God.
The phone vibrated this time. How was Steve Adams controlling her phone? And how was he messaging her from a phone that Wyatt had? She dismissed immediately the idea that Wyatt was involved. It was far more likely that Steve Adams had the technology. That he’d cloned that phone.
Get in the car and drive.
Nina rounded the car. Her body hurt, but it was nothing compared to the men who had been inside that building. Were they okay?
Nina turned the SUV on. Did Steve Adams know Parker had left the keys in the ignition?
Parker got up, mouthed something she couldn’t hear. Red and blue flashing lights rounded the corner. Nina checked the backup camera and hit the gas.
When she’d turned the corner the phone vibrated in her lap. At the next stoplight she looked down and checked it. The maps app was open on her phone as though she had searched for a location herself. Steve Adams had hacked her phone. He knew exactly where she was, and he was directing her to the center of town.
When she arrived at the destination, Nina pulled to a stop, not willing to put the car in Park and allow the vehicle to unlock the doors. She didn’t want anyone getting in.
The car went dark. The engine shut off. All the lights. Everything, as though someone had flicked a switch and turned the whole thing off. Nina lifted her foot off the brake. She pressed the gas. Tried to turn the key. What was happen—
Her door opened and all she saw was an arm. And then sparks.
Everything went black.