Sienna heard the door open beside her. Heard the pounding rain. Felt the cold sweep of air from outside.
Where had Devin gone? He’d disappeared into the woods, and she hadn’t seen him emerge. Then again, the rain was so heavy it was blinding.
She glanced over and sucked in a deep breath.
Devin hadn’t gotten in the truck.
No, a masked person had.
A masked person with a gun.
The gunman pulled the mask off and…
“Anita?” Sienna asked, her voice nearly breathless.
This wasn’t the same Anita who’d been a quirky, chatty teacher assistant. No, this Anita looked crazy and unhinged.
“You couldn’t have made this a little easier on me?” Anita muttered.
“Anita,” Sienna said. “What are you doing? There’s got to be a better way than this.”
“Sorry you got pulled into this,” Anita said. “But there was no other way.”
“Colby isn’t your child, Anita. He belongs to the Brightons, and they miss him terribly. How could you do this to another person? How could you rip their child from their arms?”
Anita sneered. “I don’t have time to talk about that now. Now, I have other matters to attend to. If you don’t cooperate, your boyfriend is going to die.”
She stepped out of the car and jerked her gun toward the woods, where Devin emerged.
Sienna’s heart pounded in her throat. Just how was this going to play out?
She had no idea.
She only prayed no one would get hurt.
“Put your gun down. Now!” Anita ordered.
Devin did as she asked, his hands in the air.
Sienna saw it all playing out in the headlights, like this was some kind of theatrical performance. Only it was anything but.
“Anita, let’s not end things like this,” Devin said.
“I’m calling the shots here. I have been from the start. Now climb into the driver’s seat so we can all talk. Make any unexpected moves, and I’ll shoot. Don’t think I won’t.”
“Let’s all stay calm.” Devin climbed into the truck and glanced at Sienna, as if making sure she was unharmed.
Anita climbed into the back, her gun still bobbing back and forth between the two of them. “Now, here’s what’s going to happen. And it’s the only way things are going to happen. Understand?”
Neither Devin nor Sienna said anything.
“I said, do you understand?” Anita shouted.
“Yes, we understand,” Devin said. “Maybe we’d understand better if you put the gun down. It’s hard to concentrate.”
“Like I said, I’m calling the shots here, so stop talking!” Anita’s voice continued to get faster and louder. “You’re going to do exactly what I say. Devin, Mr. FBI Agent…you’re going to walk into that compound at the end of this lane, and you’re going to get Colby. You’re going to bring him to me.”
“I can’t do that, Anita. You know I can’t.”
“You will! Do you know why? Because if you don’t, I’ll kill Sienna.” She jammed the gun into Sienna’s head. “Do you understand that?”
Sienna gasped, and her body froze. Just one pull of the trigger, and it would all be over. Her heart pounded in her ears at the thought.
“There’s got to be a different way of doing this,” Devin said. “Can’t we just talk it through—”
“There will be no talking! I already have this all worked out, and I need you to do what I say. It’s not complicated. You just have to listen.”
“Okay, okay,” Devin said. “We all just need to stay calm.”
He glanced at Sienna, and she could see the emotions in his eyes. His worry about her. His concern over the situation. Over Colby.
“Please stop trying to call the shots here,” Anita said, growing more agitated with each turn of the conversation. “No opinions are needed. No feedback. No advice. Just do what I say.”
“Okay,” Devin said. “So I go get Colby. I bring him back. And you release Sienna. Is that correct?”
“Yes. Finally, you’re listening.”
“And if I don’t…”
“Then Sienna dies,” Anita growled.
“It’s going to take me a while to walk to the Jennings Center.”
“You have two hours. That’s it. You’re fit. You can handle it.”
“I have to get past the tree. In the rain. Then past security. I look like a wreck. I’m not even sure my friends will trust me enough in this state to hand Colby over, especially when they hear I don’t have a vehicle.”
“Then you’ll have to think of a way to convince them. Why are we still discussing this? The clock starts now. In two hours, Sienna dies, and I have to take matters into my own hands. It will involve more people dying.”
“Okay, okay,” Devin said. “I’m going.”
“One more thing,” Anita said. “Give me your cell.”
Devin frowned and handed the woman his phone. With one hand on the door handle, he glanced at Sienna again, his eyes a mix of emotions. There was apology there. But was there also something else? A question begging for her to trust him?
She thought so.
And she did trust him. In fact, she cared about him more than she’d ever realized.
But with this gun to her head, it was hard to think clearly.
* * *
Sienna felt her limbs trembling. Anita remained behind her in the truck with the gun still raised.
And Sienna had no idea how all of this would play out. What Devin would do.
Certainly he wouldn’t grab Colby and bring him back. He would know better than to do that. Colby’s life was more important than Sienna’s.
And two hours was a long time to wait to see this to a conclusion.
It would be nearly dawn by then. Certainly someone else would head down this road and find them.
“Why are you doing this, Anita?” Sienna asked, trying to pass the time but to also get answers to the headache-inducing questions she’d been wrestling with. “It just doesn’t make sense. You kidnapped Colby. I get that. You couldn’t have kids, and you want them. But why did you leave him with me and go through this whole process of trying to get him back? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I’m sorry, Sienna. I really did think you were nice. And that made you the perfect target, unfortunately.”
“Why’d you leave him with me?” Sienna repeated.
“I had to have surgery,” Anita said. “I was injured when I was in the military, and my body hasn’t been the same since then. My doctor told me if I didn’t have this surgery, I would eventually die. I put it off for as long as I could.”
“So you left Colby with me to have surgery yourself. Your mom wasn’t involved.”
“That’s right. But while I was recovering in the hospital, Lisa Daniel tracked me down. She was on to me. I knew she would tell the police soon, too.”
“I tried to call, but you didn’t answer your phone. I don’t understand.”
“I wasn’t able to come get Colby myself, and I was sure you wouldn’t hand him over to my friend Justin. I sent Justin over to take him back.”
“But that only caused the police to look for you even more. It doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s the way it had to be!” Sweat sprinkled across her forehead. Sienna could see it in the rearview mirror. “I needed to disappear again and make a new life for myself. I didn’t have time for niceties or to wrap up my life here. I had to move, and I had to move right then.”
“But Justin wasn’t able to snatch Colby that night.”
Anita frowned menacingly. “No, you guys had to fight back and mess up everything. So we had to follow you guys, waiting for another opportunity.”
“You left that tracking tile in the diaper bag so you could track us. You must have planned this from the beginning.”
“That tile was always in the bag. It was the cheapest type of insurance I could think of. That way, if anything ever happened to Colby, I could find him—as long as the battery didn’t die.”
“Even when you knew Colby wasn’t with us, you kept following us. You even made up a story about us and told people at that restaurant.”
“We just needed to slow you down until we could figure out a plan. We realized we weren’t getting into that headquarters of Jennings Center without you guys, though.”
“And who is this Justin guy? Your boyfriend?”
“We’ve been together for ten years. He loves me and would do anything for me.”
“You rescued him from the woods when we tied him up?”
“Of course I did. Did you think I’d leave him?”
“So you were there also.”
“I got there late, but yes, I was there. I would have taken you both down, but I had to rescue my Justin.”
“Where is Justin now?”
Anita smiled—a satisfied smile. “He’s in the woods keeping an eye on your friend. I’d hate for him to break his promise.”
A cold shiver rushed up Sienna’s spine.