Page 54 of Lone Star Showdown

“I’ll get her back,” Jericho said like a promise.

But it was a promise Rachel knew he couldn’t guarantee. The killer had already murdered innocent people. Of course, they weren’t innocent in the eyes of the killer. In his or her eyes, they were responsible for Marla’s death, and that meant they were condemned to die. Them and anyone the killer considered collateral damage.

On the screen, Ruby motioned for Jericho to wrap up the call with Woody. The woman obviously had something to tell them.

“Woody, take down my phone number,” Jericho instructed, and he read it out. “Call me directly if anything changes about this situation.”

“I will,” Woody promised, and he ended the call.

“What happened?” Jericho asked his boss.

“This,” Ruby said. “Put up the feed,” she instructed the program. “This is live footage from the drone,” she added.

It took a few seconds, but the feed from the drone’s camera appeared on the screen in Ruby’s office. Jericho and Rachel both moved closer, until they were only a couple of inches away.

The quality of the footage wasn’t stellar, but it was plenty clear enough for her to see the car that was parked in a cluster of trees. Trees that she recognized.

“Stronghold,” Jericho and she said in unison.

All four people were out of the car, all still wearing masks, but it was obvious that two were captives and the other two were in charge. The captives were pushed down onto their knees.

Rachel studied each one, and she was pretty sure the person on the right with the petite build was Sasha. The other though, she couldn’t tell since that one was wearing a bulky raincoat.

Heck, it could be Paulie, Jason or Manson.

She could say the same for the two in charge. They were both wearing body armor over bulky black pants and tees. Except for their eyes, the balaclavas covered every inch of their hair and faces.

One of the people in charge looked up at the drone, and for a second, Rachel thought he or she was about to shoot it out of the sky. Instead, the person reached in the backseat of the car and pulled out a posterboard sign.

The writing on it was basically a scrawl, but Rachel still had no trouble reading it. No trouble reacting to it, too. Her stomach dropped hard and fast, forcing her to catch onto the counter to steady herself.

“It’s Rachel or them,” Jericho read aloud. “No cops or Maverick Ops involved. She comes alone, or they both die.”

And there it was.

The culmination of this sick quest the killer had to get so-called justice for Marla, a miserable excuse for a human being. The killing would just continue if she didn’t do what Rachel had known all along she would have to do.

She turned to Jericho. Their gazes connected. Held. And she was certain he already knew what she was about to say. Still, she spoke it aloud anyway.

“Jericho, I have to go to Stronghold.”

Chapter Nineteen

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There were so many things about this mission that Jericho didn’t like. No surprise there. Anything that put Rachel in certain danger wasn’t going to make his approval list.

Still, he hadn’t seen a way around it.

Or rather a way around her going to Stronghold.

However, there were some measures he could take to give her the best possible chance of survival.

Step one, he was going with her. Yeah, he was doing that even though the killer had warned her to come alone. That wasn’t going to happen. He would go and hang back out of sight. Close enough to eliminate the threat but not close enough to give the killer an immediate excuse to gun Rachel down.

Of course, the killer might try to do that anyway. It was possible he or she would start shooting the moment Rachel came into view.

That’s where step two might save her life.

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