Dread washed over Jenna and she swallowed hard. All the armed men were there to ambush Jon. And Sheriff Parker was involved? He was going after … was ‘the other end’ Lynnette? Or Lance?
Not having the faintest clue what else to do, Jenna tried hard to conjure up some saliva and let it dribble over her lips, down to her chin. She’d have to speak fast before it dried and she still didn’t know if she was anywhere near his range, but if she was—and if she was right about who Drew had baited—she had to try. “Jon,” she breathed, “it’s an ambush. There are at least six other guys here with scary guns. And Steph. Steph’s here.” She could feel the saliva drying, which was gross, and it only made her more upset that she couldn’t wipe her face.
Steph leaned into her. “You shouldn’t talk. They don’t like it.”
Good to know, I guess.Jenna offered the girl the best smile she could and nodded.
On cue, a man appeared from off to the side and slammed something hard against the bars. “Shut up!”
Steph retreated even as Jenna let out an undignified, startled yelp.
Drew cackled and took a couple of steps forward. The light illuminated his face well enough to show the downright evil glint in his eye. “How’s it feel, Hodge? To finally see what a big mistake you made all those years ago, choosing that fucking freak over me?”
Jenna pulled in a slow breath as understanding finally dawned. The clarity brought a swelling tide of rage she could do little with, so she poured it into her expression and her voice. “Are youinsane? That’s what this has all been about? You’re upset because I turned you down inmiddle school?”
Drew’s expression said he did not like her response.
“I wasn’t even with Jon then! I barely knew who he was!” Jenna made an exaggerated sound of exasperation. “More importantly, why in the hell would you be mad about that two decades later?” To say nothing for why he would ever have thought she’d have given any other answer, after the way he’d treated her.
Drew curled his lip and lifted his chin in order to literally look down his nose at her. “I guess you should’ve been more careful about kicking a man’s pride.” Then he turned, like shutting the door on their conversation, and addressed one of the cartel guys. “Why’s the girl still here, anyway?”
Jenna bit her cheek to keep herself silent. She actually wanted to hear the answer, and really, what did she have left to say to Drew?
The guy Drew had spoken to reached up, as if absently latching on to the strap of his rifle. Jenna didn’t know gun types by sight, but that was definitely not a hunting rifle. The man shifted his weight in a casual stance and replied, “PJ thought it was too risky to move her around much so soon, with how messy things were getting. So, we skipped this week’s shipping cycle. She’ll go out next week, get cleaned up, it won’t be an issue.”
Drew grunted. “That scene at the bakery was a fucking disaster. Your guys took too long going in to clean up. We shouldn’t have even been there for that.”
Another man walked over and pointed aggressively at Drew. “Hey, we don’t take orders from you, White Boy. They got there when they were supposed to.Youshouldn’t’ve been there. Those fucking soldiers shouldn’t’ve been there.”
Oh my God.If her hands were free, Jenna would have clapped them both over her mouth. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She couldn’t believe they were so calmly discussing it right in front of her.They definitely … don’t intend to let me live.
Chapter twenty-three
What to do with Drew
Jenna had no ideahow much time had passed since she’d been shoved into the cage with Steph. It felt like days. They were sensory deprived with the rigid artificial lighting and surrounding, unyielding darkness. Her arms had gone numb, even the burning in her wrists, and her legs ached to be stretched. She and Steph had adjusted so they were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, their backs against the backside of the cage. Steph had her legs bent up at the knee, feet flat on the floor.Jenna had gracelessly managed to shift her legs out to the side, bent and angled. At the time, it had been comfortable in the way that relief from the old and uncomfortable thing was by default comfortable. When that faded, Jenna realized she may well have immobilized herself.
With six armed cartel guys and one piece of shit in a badge lounging in the center of the space on honest-to-God camp chairs with probably semi-automatic rifles across their laps and what she feared were beers in their hands, Jenna wasn’t so upset about the cage. But she was very upset about her inability to move the way she might need to if the situation changed.
Never in her life had she more wished Jon could communicate back through water the way he could be communicated to. She wished she had at least that hope, that if she just kept licking her lip, she might hear his voice whispering to her any moment. But that was impossible.
Something wet dripped onto her already chilled skin, splashing onto her cheek and rolling down her chin to drip onto the skin not covered by her shirt.
Jenna barely held in her gasp. The cave was underground, but the closest water source she was aware of ran wide of the entire cave system. There was no reason, no explanation, for anything wet to be dripping onto her face like a small, isolated drizzle of rain.
Except for one.
As soon as she thought it, the water that had pooled at her collarbone defied all logic and gravity and slid up toward her unnaturally bent shoulder. It glided across her skin as it moved down her arm, leaving only dry fabric in its wake. And for as odd as she thought it should have been, it felt exactly like water rolling in rivulets over her body, so it wasn’t bothersome at all. It was almost comforting. Then it reached her cuffed wrist and that comfort turned into a sharp sting as the metal shifted, howeverfractionally, and the water curled around her wrist like a small buffer. Seconds later the same sensation repeated on her other wrist.
Tears stung Jenna’s eyes and her heart beat faster.Jon’s here.And despite all his preparation, despite his confidence, Drew didn’t stand a chance. He’d never comprehended Jon’s power.
But the scene surely about to unfold wouldn’t be pretty. She remembered the way Jon had so efficiently taken out those two cartel men in the parking lot. So, she leaned a bit more—as carefully as she could—into Steph’s shoulder and swallowed to wet her throat before speaking in a whisper. “Curl up tighter and tuck your head down, honey. Something’s coming.”
Steph looked up at her, her eyes wide enough that the edge of the light caught some of the red-rimmed whites. Her mouth opened in question, but no sound came out.
Jenna motioned for her to move.
One of the men made a noise, like a startled grunt, and someone shouted something in Spanish. All she and her one-year-of-Spanish-in-high-school could tell was that it sounded angry.
