“Talk him down,” Brantley urged. “Get him to lower the weapon. This is a mall. There are civilians around.”
Yes. Civilians. Bad guy. Gun.
It wasn’t real, Reese reminded himself.None of it’s real.
I can do this.
“Breathe, Reese. Slowly.”
Brantley’s voice sounded like it was echoing down a tunnel, but Reese tried to cling to the words and the deep, gruff cadence.
“We’ve got options here,” Brantley continued.
“No, we don’t,” he countered. “We’re too exposed. There’s nowhere to go.”
“He’s exposed, too.” Brantley’s voice sounded near his ear, and Reese realized he’d move directly behind him. “He’s antsy, not payin’ attention. I guarantee I can put a bullet between his eyes before he gets a shot off.”
Reese heard the conviction in Brantley’s tone.
“We’re not helpless. We’re armed, Reese.”
Moving his hand over the butt of the gun on his hip, Reese tried to focus on that. Brantley was right; he wasn’t helpless this time. He was armed and capable of defending himself.
“Let’s go,” the bad guy said, waving his gun as though directing them. “Can’t keep the boss waiting.”
“Look how he’s holdin’ that gun,” Brantley said firmly. “His finger’s not on the trigger.”
No, it wasn’t, but he was twitchy, his eyes scanning their surroundings, straying from where it should be.
“What’s around us?” Brantley asked. “Is anyone else in danger right now?”
Reese took a moment to look left, then right. There was one person crouching low behind what looked like a trash can. Another was ushering their child backward into a store and out of sight. There wasn’t a family of four whimpering in the corner or a waitress frozen in place behind the guy. This wasn’t the restaurant, and Reese wasn’t on the floor.
As he told himself these things, his adrenal glands stopped flooding his system with adrenaline, giving him a moment of clarity.
“Put your gun away,” Reese insisted. “We’ll go with you, but not until you do.”
The guy looked around as though expecting someone else to be there. When he met Reese’s gaze again, there was a hint of concern. As though he just realized he hadn’t thought this through.
The man’s weapon slowly lowered.
“Turn it off,” Reese pleaded to Brantley. “I need a minute.”
Brantley didn’t say a word, but a second later, the simulation ended, and Reese found himself standing in the center of a well-lit, empty room with concrete floors and cinderblock walls behind enormous green screens.
He heaved a breath, then bent at the waist, huffing as though he’d just run a hundred miles through quicksand.
A warm hand settled in the middle of his back, a reassuring weight.
“We’re gonna get you through this,” Brantley promised.
For the first time since that day when he’d been helpless on the floor, on the business end of the gun, Reese felt a glimmer of hope. It wasn’t going to be easy, but with Brantley at his side, he couldn’t help but believe him.
Chapter Eighteen
“How’d it go with Cindy?”
Baz joined the others at the table, setting his plate down and meeting Brantley’s gaze before glancing back to see if Reese was returning. When he saw the man at one of the food counters, he turned back to answer. “Good. I’m not sure we learned much about where Toby might be, but JJ unearthedfartoo many details about their relationship.”
