Page 104 of Every Last Breath

“Sybil Parker, insider threat monitor,” she said low. “She and her two underlings are the only ones here Sanborn didn’t hire and can’t fire. They keep an eye on personnel, communications, networks—make sure no one is looking at porn or sending out classified information on an unclassified open system.”

“Who monitors her?”

Amanda shrugged. “I guess no one.”

The tall, slender man walked past in front of the wall of televisions, headed in the same direction as Sybil Parker.

“He works for her?”

“Yep. Minion numero uno Ricky Olsen.”

“Are he and Janet good friends?”

Amanda’s brow creased at the question. “Odd thing to ask. No. The Jedi and Sith can never be friends.”

Perhaps it was nothing and he was reading too much into the small gesture between Janet and Olsen. He wouldn’t be able to think straight until they found Maddox.

Something flashed in Amanda’s light-brown eyes. “You’re the guy from the picture in Maddox’s locker. The one she won’t talk about. I didn’t recognize you before.” She lowered her head. “I asked Maddox once if she ever wanted to get married and have children.”

Cole leaned in, riveted, needing to know. “What did she say?”

“With all her heart. She wanted nothing more every single day.”

The answer filled him with gripping sorrow and unexpected hope. One day, he wanted to give her that. More than anything.

Amanda sipped her coffee. “I asked why she wasn’t out there making it happen. Working isn’t living. You know?”

Yeah, he knew all too well. He gave a nod.

“She told me it wasn’t possible because the only man she had ever loved was dead. That it was her fault. And if he was no longer able to have those things, then neither could she.”

It was a meat cleaver to his heart. He’d been such a damned fool.

Amanda rested a light hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to find Maddox. I know it.”

His throat closed, chest tightening. He nodded, wanting to take her words and cradle them in his hands. Man, he needed to believe.

“You should eat something,” Amanda said. “To keep up your energy.”

Wasn’t possible. Not while that psychopath had Maddox locked up somewhere and Cole didn’t know if she was in pain, gagged, or even conscious. The visuals were killing him. His hand clenched with impotent anger, utterly powerless in this holding pattern. He thirsted to end Novak, but the only thing that mattered, really mattered, was getting her back safe in his arms. “I can’t eat. Not until I find her.”

Harper spun in her chair, plucking out her earbuds. “Maddox didn’t use iOS. I’m close in terms of hours, not days. The personal data helped. I should be able to crack it.”

The tension in his body eased a hair. Maybe the universe was on their side after all, but he had no idea what to do with himself for hours.

* * *

Somewhere along the Potomac River

11:05 a.m. EDT

After Novak left, Maddox heard a door slam closed and a car drive away. Silence reigned in the dilapidated building for nearly an hour, she estimated. She was alone.

The fuzziness from the drugs finally lifted. Maddox’s thoughts cleared, and her mind scrabbled for a way to escape. She swung her legs to the side, tipping herself onto her knees. The angle twisted her arms, pinching her rotator cuffs.

The old metal bar ran about twenty feet in length, bolted to the wall at both ends. Brackets spaced every two feet reinforced the bar’s anchor to the wall. She tugged hard. The zip tie cut into her wrist. The bar didn’t move, but something clanged. She yanked again. The bracket three inches to her right jangled. She shimmied closer, knees grinding into fallen bits of plaster.

Curved in shape, the four-inch-long rusted bracket wobbled on the pair of screws holding it in place.