Maya hoped they had enough people to do what they needed. The drive from Denver was about two hours on good roads. If the snow came in early, there was a chance that the team coming from Denver wouldn’t make it in time. But Maya had radioed Deputy Wilson and he had arrived. If they had to go in, they were better off than before.
They waited in silence. Finally, a vehicle could be heard before it could be seen.
“I hope that’s the senator,” Maya said as more snow started to fall.
“Me too. Because if we wait too long, we might be snowed in and staying the night,” Kessler said.
They waited and a black SUV pulled down the road to the research campus. They parked behind some trees, making it difficult to see who was getting out.
Shock went through Maya as she recognized the person stepping out of the vehicle with Tony and Ian. It wasn’t the senator.
“I didn’t see that one coming,” Kessler said.
“Me either,” Maya said. Then her heart started pounding as Tony pulled another person out of the vehicle. At first all she could tell was that the person was female and her hands were behind her back. Then it hit her. She knew who it was.
Bianca.
Maya pulled out her phone and texted Josh and Pops about the situation. They were using Bianca against them, and that changed their plan.
“Great,” Agent Kessler said, getting on his phone to see how far out the HRT was.
As Maya finished sending her messages, she knew things had suddenly gone from bad to worse.
* * *
Josh’s phone buzzed. It was Maya. She would only text if something wasn’t going according to plan. He read her message and then put his phone away. This was bad. And the person behind all this wasn’t who they were expecting.
“What’s wrong?” Elena asked.
“Tony and Ian are here too. They have my sister as a hostage.”
“What?” Elena asked.
“My sister. She’s been taken hostage and is being held at gunpoint.”
“Oh my God. Maybe we need to abort this plan,” Elena said.
“Too late,” Josh answered as the door opened. He froze for a moment, seeing his sister held captive. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Let her go. I’ll give you whatever you want. You don’t need to involve her in this.”
Josh tried to give Bianca a look to tell her that it would be okay. Bianca continued to cry as Tony and Ian gripped her arms. But Josh kept staring at the person he wasn’t expecting—Laura.
“Sydney is already dead,” Josh said. “So is Amber. Do you really want to hurt Bianca too? Let her go.”
“Why should I?” Laura asked, then she laughed a little. “You should see your faces. You really expected my husband to show up here, didn’t you?”
Josh didn’t answer. She was right, but he was working on regaining his cop poker face.
“Yes, that’s exactly who you expected. Where’s your evidence? And I mean all of it. I’m not stupid. I’m sure you made copies,” Laura said.
Josh thought through what to say. How could he defuse her? “I’ll give you what you want. Just let my sister go. Then we can talk about all this.”
Elena hadn’t said a word. Josh figured she was as shocked as he was. But she finally said, “I’ll drop this case. I’ll tell my boss this was nothing. Whatever you want, but just end the violence. I don’t know what happened with Sydney, but this isn’t worth it.”
“What makes you think they’ll listen?” Laura asked.
“Because they need that evidence to prove that the wrong person was convicted. Although setting up someone who was killing a child across town at almost the same time wasn’t the smartest move.”
Josh took a deep breath and shot Elena a look that said,Please don’t antagonize Laura. She’s obviously on the edge of completely losing it.
