“Definitely. He’s killed before,” Xavier replied, with a grimace. “When we were working together, he was always trigger-happy. Most of the time, they were the kind of people who would have ended up dead one way or another because of their line of work. Sampson just took great pleasure in being the one who pulled the trigger.”
“Why do you think he’s come after you now?” Aaron wondered out loud.
Xavier sighed again. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I guess because he finally tracked me down and found a way to get closer to me without arousing any suspicion. Sending Jed in first… I don’t know what he’s promised that guy, but I think he’ll just take him out the first chance he gets. He uses people to get what he wants. And he’s going to use whatever means he can to get his hands on that USB drive.”
“That doesn’t even exist anymore,” Lawson finished up for him. “Do you think he’s going to believe it when you try to tell him that?”
“No,” Xavier replied. “From what I know about this guy, he’s going to put up as much of a fight as he can. That’s definitely what Jed was looking for in here.”
“And where did he go?” Lawson asked urgently. “Do you have any idea where he is now?”
Xavier slowly shook his head. “I wish I did, but he knocked me out and then took off. Next thing I knew, Aaron was waking me up here.”
“Hell,” Lawson muttered and began pacing back and forth.
Xavier could practically see his mind racing. His own was going a hundred miles an hour, despite the aching pain at the back of his head. He couldn’t think straight. Was Sampson here on the grounds? Had he been watching from afar, making sure that his plan came together? Though he might have been a psycho, he wasn’t stupid—he wouldn’t have made it that far in the CIA if he was. Jed had to be in contact with him somehow to get his orders. Now they just needed to find Jed.
Hannah.Xavier felt a flood of terror grip him when he thought of her. She was out there, and she didn’t know what had just happened. Yes, she had her doubts about Jed, but she wasn’t aware of just how serious things had gotten. Hopefully, if she saw him, she would know to steer clear of him, but Xavier needed to get to her and catch her up on everything that had gone down. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her and he hadn’t been there to stop it.
“I’ll call Bailey, tell her to come up here and get a statement from you and process the crime scene,” Aaron offered. “And I’ll ask her to bring River along to look at that wound on your head and check for a concussion.” He stepped out into the hallway, phone in hand.
“I need to get to Hannah,” Xavier growled, trying to get to his feet.
Lawson put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down again. “You need to sit your ass right there and wait to get checked over,” he replied firmly.
Xavier knew there would be no arguing with him.
“You can’t walk into a fight with a wound like that on your head. You’re going to be more of a liability than anything else,”Lawson pointed out in his infuriatingly calm and logical way. “Now, tell me everything you remember about Sampson. He might have other people here he’s been using to watch you. We’ve had an influx of new guests this week alone.”
Xavier tried to catch Lawson up on every detail he remembered, but they were hazy. Their time at the CIA was long behind them—or so he’d thought. It had been the incident with Sampson that had driven him to leave in the first place, because he knew he couldn’t handle winding up on a mission with someone else like him again.
He needed to get out and do things on his own terms, and he couldn’t rely on the CIA to do the right thing. There were plenty of agents who had to be aware of what Sampson was up to, but they were willing to look the other way, either because they were scared of him or they were on his side.
And Xavier had no idea if that made him the enemy here. What if Sampson had the full force of the CIA behind him? Xavier would bet money that Jed had been an operative before Sampson pulled him into this, hell, maybe he still was. He seemed to have a certain comfort with putting on an act the way he had since he arrived here, as though it wasn’t the first time he had gone undercover.
After Aaron had called Bailey, he stepped back into the room, eyes darting between him and Lawson, his face pale.
Xavier’s stomach turned, and his nausea came on full force. He knew before Aaron even opened his mouth something terrible was wrong. There was only one reason he would have that look on his face. Xavier swallowed heavily, trying to prepare himself for the worst.
Lawson sensing the same, clenched his fists at his sides. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Bailey just got off the phone with Sarah. There’d been an incident in her office, so Bailey’s on the way. But…” His gazeshifted between the two men again. “It’s Hannah. They’ve taken her.”
“Jed.” Xavier all but growled. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths trying to control the immediate range that flooded his system. Tuning out Lawson’s forceful steps pacing the room and his muttered curses.
That was the one thing he didn’t want to hear above everything else—the one person he couldn’t lose. Not now. Not after they’d just come clean about their feelings for each other and were finally together in the way he’d always hoped for. Hannah had always been special to him, but now she was his to protect. He wouldn’t let her slip through his fingers. He wouldn’t let some ghost from his past snatch her away.
He didn’t care what it took. He was going to get her back. Sampson and Jed didn’t know what kind of storm they had coming their way.
Chapter Twenty-Two
In, out, in, out, in, out.Hannah tried to count each breath as it came, doing everything she could to keep the panic from getting the better of her.
But as she sat in the back seat of the black Ford she had been bundled into, her hands bound behind her, she didn’t know how much longer she could hold out.
Jed had forced her out the back door of the lodge and into his truck—the same one that had driven them off the road that night, she was sure of it. Wrapping her wrists in a plastic cuff, he had shoved her in the back and told her to keep her mouth shut.
She had done as she was told. She knew better than to fight him on this, when she was so clearly at a disadvantage. She didn’t know where he’d taken her, some secluded wooded area, but she knew she just needed to stay alive, and then…
