* * *
Summer pulledinto the parking lot at Buffalo Dave’s a changed person. Last time she’d been here, she’d been heartsick, dejected, broke, and alone in the world. Now? Now she had the stability and security she needed to feel confident and together.
She had Jamie and Halia. The two greatest loves of her life.
She had a family. A group of truly selfless men and women.
And she had herself. Stronger. Happier. More self-assured than she’d ever been.
Even the drive had been easier, her brand-new Range Rover having a lot to do with her newfound love of the open road. Adam hadn’t just replaced her car; he’d bought a top-of-the-line SUV with more safety features than she knew existed.
A beautiful glossy white on the outside, the vehicle had a sleek gray interior with advanced electronics she’d have to spend some time learning about. But not today. Excitement spiking, she eased into a spot in the almost vacant lot and put the shifter in park.
Connor Walt! Jeez, her stars had to be aligned or the universe in sync or something. Ever since she stepped into the JTT world, good fortune seemed to keep coming her way. Yes, she’d felt more than a little selfish about wanting to seize this opportunity. Had even been embarrassed by how much she wanted to share her music with the world.
Especially now, knowing the threats they faced. The risks, not just to the people she loved—but to all of humanity—were unfathomable, unthinkable, and very real. The world teetered on the brink of devastation and disaster, so yeah, wanting to write songs seemed frivolous and unnecessary in the grand scheme of things.
Jamie had been the one to put a stop to her misgivings. He claimed he didn’t know much about music, but he knew the impact it had. The conduit it could be for people to connect. Total strangers brought together through shared experiences and stories expressed through song.
Words, notes, instruments, artists, listeners—all coming together as one—magical. Transformative. Something she wanted to be a part of. No. Something sheneededto be a part of. Something Jamie had understood and encouraged, despite taking a few minutes and a sandwich to come around.
She grinned and hit the stop engine button. Excited as she was for this meeting, she was just as eager to get back home. She already missed Halia. And Jamie? She couldn’t get enough of him. She released her belt, grabbed her purse off the passenger seat, and pulling on the handle, she opened her door only to have it slam back shut, jamming her knuckles, and trapping her inside the vehicle.
Startled, she yelped, her throbbing hand flying to her chest on instinct. At the same time, the passenger door opened, and a man she didn’t recognize slid into the seat beside her. “Hello, Ms. Summers.” He shut them in together, pulled a pistol, and pointed it at her. “You’re hard to find.”
Her gaze locked on the gun in the man’s gloved hand, everything stopped, including her heart, the sudden contraction causing an intense pain behind her ribs. Incomprehension stunned her.Who? How? Why?He wrenched her bag out of her clutched fist with his free hand, upending it into his lap and rifling through the contents.
Now. Go Now.Her brain screamed, and her heart went from zero to race car fast as adrenaline flooded her frozen body. She shifted her head slightly to look out her side window. A second man blocked her escape, his large chest and shoulders framed in the glass.
“You can have the car,” she blurted. Trapped and at the mercy of the men holding her hostage, terror raised the pitch of her voice. “The fob is in my coat pocket. I’ll give it to you.Please,just let me go. I won’t—”
“We don’t want the car.” He tossed her purse into the footwell where it joined the rest of her things, including her JTT phone. “Where’s the flash drive?”
“What flash drive? I don’t underst—”
“The computer stick. The one you took from Marla Wagner’s office. Where is it?”
The blood drained from her head, and the world outside the windshield warped. “I don’t know what you’re talk—”
He jammed the barrel of the gun into her side hard enough to leave a bruise despite the winter coat she wore. “Don’t fuck with me, bitch. Where is it?”
“I don’t…I…” She searched her memory. John chasing her, running into Marla’s office, knocking the tray of papers over. In her panic, the images flickered through her mind like a slide show, and she saw herself on her knees behind the big desk, the flash drive in her hand morphing into a red Lego block.Oh God!
“We know you have it,” he said. “There’s a hidden camera in Marla’s office.”
Oh God. Oh God. Oh God!
Her favorite hoodie. The one with the front pocket. The one she’d left in the box. In Jamie’s closet. The one she couldn’t bring herself to wear again.No!
No. No. No!
This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t tell these men where the computer stick was. Not without exposing and endangering every single member of the JTT. Halia. Jamie.No!She couldn’t—she wouldn’t—bring this danger to their doorstep. “I left it,” she lied, her voice trembling with fear. “In my room at the Wagners.”
“Bullshit.” He jammed the gun in deeper.
“It’s true!” she cried, her torso twisting until her shoulders were pressed against the door, and she had nowhere else to go. “I found it by accident on the floor in Marla’s office and left it on the table beside my bed after she fired me. I don’t know what’s on it.Please, let me go!”
“We searched the room. It’s not there.”
