A dial tone.Oh, thank you Jesus. Thank you.
She processed her options in the space of three breaths and made the call.
She didn’t have a choice.
She waited for him to answer, knowing that with this colossal failure, the darkest parts of her soul would be forced into the light.
USSECRET SERVICESpecial Agent Zane Thacker glanced at the phone screen. The number was local, but not one he recognized. He sent it straight to voice mail.
He had a love-hate, mostly hate, relationship with cell phones. But he kept his phone on him twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five (or six) days a year.
He had his reasons. Most of them were depressing. Which was why even though his phone was always nearby, not everyone who called reached him. Especially now.
Zane would have been happy if he’d gone his entire life without being shot by a grieving, revenge-driven assassin. But life hadn’t exactly made a habit out of taking it easy on him. No reason to start now.
The doctor had allowed him to return to work, but he moved slow, his reaction times remained sluggish, and the pain refused to leave. Which was why he was awake, dressed, and on his second cup of coffee before 8:00 on a Saturday morning. He’d given up on sleep hours ago.
The phone rang again.
No one who knew him would call this early.
Unless they were in trouble.
He accepted the call. “Thacker.”
“Zane,” Tessa gasped out in a voice that trembled. “I need you to pick me up.”
He had his keys and weapon before she’d finished speaking. “Where are you?”
“I ... I don’t know.”
He disarmed the security system. “Are you hurt?”
“No. But I can’t leave.”
Everything in him iced over. “Where’s your phone?”
“With me, but it’s dead. I’m calling from a phone in the room.”
“Hang on.” He’d made it to his car and eased behind the wheel of his newish sedan. If he rushed, it would hurt, and that would slow him down. Better to move at a pace his body could manage.Once he was settled, he opened the Find My Friends feature that all the Raleigh Secret Service agents had willingly enabled a few months earlier. When someone’s trying to take out your entire office, there’s a small comfort in knowing you could be found.
One glance was all it took to confirm what Zane already knew. Everyone was where they were supposed to be. Everyone except Tessa.
Tessa Reed was not in her fancy apartment. The one with high-end security cameras in every communal space and well-lit parking lot. Her phone’s last tracked location was in a part of town no one should be in. Especially not someone who looked like her.
“The last GPS signal shows that you’re at the Tropical Oasis Motel.”
“Okay. That’s probably where I am. Although there’s nothing in here that has the name. And no one in their right mind would call this place an oasis.”
“I’m on my way. Looks like it will take me twenty minutes to get to you.”
“Okay.” Tessa’s whispered word held no relief or understanding.
“Is there a particular reason you chose to be there?”
“I ... I don’t know.”
Zane slammed his hand on the steering wheel. He had so many things he wanted to say. But he knew better than anyone else that nothing he could say would fix this. Tessa had a problem. It was huge. It was going to cost her everything.
