20
Kinsley sat across the table from Jada, while Colin had taken his computer to his room where he could focus better on researching Yapp. Kinsley couldn’t concentrate on the puzzle as they waited for Dev to return. They needed to share the information they’d learned from Russ and hear what he’d had to say at Reid’s place.
Come on, Dev. Where are you?
He should be back by now, but she wasn’t worried about him. The odds of him running into some kind of trouble on the secured compound were pretty low. Or at least that’s what he kept telling her. Still, she wished he was there.
Fatigue settled in, and she stifled a yawn. She couldn’t believe she could even be slightly tired with everything going on, but the stress was finally getting to her. She had to be alert for any danger, not yawning and closing her eyes. Splashing water on her face might help.
She stood. “I need to go to the bathroom.”
Jada held up a puzzle piece. “I’ll be right here when you come back, probably still trying to fit this stupid piece in somewhere.”
“You could move on to another one.”
“And let this one get the best of me?” She gaped at Kinsley as if she’d suggested having open heart surgery. “No way.”
Kinsley laughed and strode to the bathroom connected to the room she shared with Jada in the back of the cabin, her mood a bit better after Jada’s antics.
She turned on the faucet, twisted the handle to cold, and splashed her face with a shocking wake-up of water. She dried with a towel and looked at herself in the mirror. Her fear, anguish, and stress still lived in her eyes. Maybe when Dev arrived, he would have some good news to share. She needed good news for a change. If she thought about it, Russ’s news was good, too. They likely had their suspect and just had to find Yapp and arrest him.
“Just.” Who knows where he could be. If Ozzy had been right about prisoner behavior when they were discharged, there was no telling if Yapp was actually residing at the address he provided to the prison.
No. They would find him. They had to.
She straightened her shoulders and convinced herself to take a positive attitude, then left the room.
In the dining area, she came up short. Jada still sat at the table, but she wasn’t alone. Yapp stood next to her with a pistol to her head.
“Hello, Kinsley,” he said. “It’s about time we talk.”
“No need to use a gun,” Kinsley said, sounding calmer than her quivering insides let on. “I’m glad to talk to you and force isn’t necessary.”
“Hah! If you were willing to talk to me, you wouldn’t put all these bodyguards in the way.”
“Speaking of bodyguards, what happened to them?”
“Your sidekick, Devan, is down at the lake tied to a tree.” He grinned. “He found out the hard way what it feels like to have a spear from my speargun cut through a hip and then be strangled with the cord until he passed out.”
“Is he okay?” Kinsley cried out, visions of Dev in need of help, maybe dying, nearly taking her down, and she had to grab onto the table.
“He’ll be fine as long as you do what I tell you to do. Your buddy in the other room, too. Keep your voice down, and he won’t even have to know I’m here. So far, I’ve overpowered your bodyguards without killing them. But you bring him out here, and he’s dead. I’m too close to getting what I want to let someone interfere.”
She’d thought to call out to Colin, but she wouldn’t put him in danger as well. “And what about Hayden on the front porch? How did you get past him?”
“I slipped up on the side of the porch planning to incapacitate him with a well-placed bullet.” He grinned, something evil and vicious. “But he thought I was Devan, allowing me to get close enough to him to take him down with a sedative before he even knew I was injecting him. He’ll be out for several hours and wake up embarrassed as all get out.”
She hated that he was right. That Hayden would be embarrassed to have been taken out like that. But she was sure it happened to the best of them at times. Dev included. He would feel bad, too. Was likely already feeling bad, and doing everything within his power to escape.
Ifhe even woke up and was able to act. She had no idea how long someone might be out from an attempted strangulation. She just never had to deal with something like that, and she hoped to never experience it.
She removed her hands from the table and lifted her shoulders. “So what do you want?”
He snorted. “Like you don’t know.”
“I have no idea.”
He pressed the gun harder against Jada’s head, and she grimaced.
