His pacing picked up.
Pacing, pacing, pacing.
He growled again. Dug through Pop’s drawers and found duct tape.
Great. She’d done it now. She’d asked one question. Okay, maybe two. He tore off a piece and then grabbed her cheeks, pinching hard to make her cry out—but she refused to givehim that satisfaction—then he plastered the tape across her closed mouth.
I will not cry.
But she really wanted to. She was ready for this to end and wished it had never started. She should have fought, but he claimed that all he had to do was press a button and Hawk would die. He might have been bluffing, but the risk was too great. She would find another way out of this.
Except ... well, Hawk. That button—real or not—remained a risk.
Jo held on to hope that Cole had arrived at the safe house by now and had already found Hawk alive and well somewhere. He could be looking for her even now. But how would he find her? This place was probably not on his radar and would be the last place he would think to look.
“He’s not coming.” The man kicked the desk, then her chair.
“I’m here.” Her father emerged from the front of the shop.
“Pop!” But the word was indiscernible with duct tape covering her mouth. Tears streamed from her eyes. Her father had shown up. Now they could both die together. He should have stayed away. She twisted and turned, fighting the ties.
Her father stepped into his old office, looking like his old self—the one she’d known anyway. He was in coveralls. He looked like he’d been working on building something all day. Where had he been after she’d seen him earlier in Seattle? All these questions she wanted to ask him, but she had been silenced. Could this Martin jerk give her a few moments with her father?
There was still so much more she wanted to say to him before they were both silenced forever. She forgave him the instant she saw him, believing with all her heart thatall could be explained. He’d done it for her. He’d left for her sake. She knew that now.
“You wanted me. You have me. Now let her go.”
“I want you, but you know what else I want. Now, where is it? Give it to me now.”
Pop stepped forward. He never looked at her but kept his gaze pinned on Martin. He looked haggard—more worn-down than she’d ever seen him—and at the same time intimidating.
“Once she’s free.”
“You don’t hold any cards, Driscoll. You never did. Give it to me now, and I’ll let her walk out. But refuse me, and I’ll set the bomb off. It’s under her chair.” Martin showed the trigger device. The same device he’d shown to her, threatening to kill Hawk. He was bluffing. There was no bomb under her.
Imean,I don’t think there is.
Oh,I hopethere isn’t a bomb.
“You wouldn’t blow yourself up,” Pop said. “You killed your own wife to keep the secret that you were using substandard materials that could not hold up under the pressure, the forces of acceleration, eventually killing people. TheLibertyblew up because of you. I warned you it would happen. Helen tried to talk you down, and you killed her.”
Pop looked at Jo. “I knew that your mother was next, Jo. If Martin lost the NASA contract due to his ineptitude, he lost the company. He lost everything. He was willing to kill anyone who stood in his way. Your mother and I had no choice but to disappear. I wish I would have stayed and fought. But Martin owned the town, and he owned the chief of police, his brother.”
“And you were just a lowly engineer,” Martin said. “If you had stayed, you’d be dead, and I wouldn’t have to be here now. But here we are.”
“Yes, here we are. You’re not going to blow yourself up after all the trouble you’ve gone to.”
“You called my bluff. But Iwillshoot her in the head.” Martin produced a gun, whipped it out faster than Jo could have imagined. And pointed it at her temple.
Jo half wished her father was a sniper rather than an engineer so he could just take this man out from a distance and be done with it. No one else was going to do it. No one else would save them because there was simply no place to perch and see inside this space.
Pop tossed the model space shuttle to Martin, and he caught it. “What’s this?”
“Everything’s inside.”
All this time, the space shuttle must have had a small data card in it.
Martin smiled. “Smart man. Now, walk with me.” Pointing his pistol at Pop, he gestured for him to step outside into the back.
