Page 110 of Mission: Possible

"No, no..."

"Vanessa, where is Zach?" I glanced at the holdall again, having seen one just like it in Zach's apartment. I dropped my voice. "Here's here, isn't he?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. I was also waving my hands under the desk, hoping Maddox and Farid could see my motions. "Just blink if he is," I continued softly. "You're already implicated. Don't make things any worse for yourself. Get ahead of this."

Vanessa stared at me. The fight dropped from her face. She blinked.

"It's time to go," said Zach stepping out from the backroom, a gun drawn and pointed at us. "C'mon, honey."

Vanessa stepped backwards, her hands out from her sides, her fingers splayed to show she was unarmed. She stared hard at me, her lower lip shaking. Beyond that, I saw anger. She had no idea her brother was dead.

"Don't pay any attention to her, she's just making trouble. We're getting out of here and leaving this stupid town behind us," he said, coming to stand behind her.

"What about your sister?" I asked.

"What about her?" scoffed Zach.

"You didn't even go to her funeral," I said, guessing. A good guess, I thought. I wasn't totally sure but I saw the painted fingertips in the photo Annie sent me. Only the paint was on the fingertips of the Sophie who now lay in a hospital bed. She wasn't a copycat; she was always the woman who knew how to paint.

"And I don't regret it."

"And your wife?" I asked.

Zach froze and I had my answer. "You figured it out?"

"I did."

"Then you just signed your death warrant," he said, moving slightly so the gun was pointed directly at me. The gun was small. It had to the nine millimeter we were looking for. Zach grabbed Vanessa's arm with his free hand, holding her in front of his body like a shield.

From the corners of my eyes, I saw Maddox and Farid approaching him from either side, their footsteps soft and deft. But I knew they couldn't shoot him from their angles. They might hit Vanessa but not Zach.

"No," said a voice from the shadows, the word followed by a click. "You just signed yours."

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Wow," said Lily. "I'm surprised he didn't shoot you."

"Me too," I agreed. We both rested our arms on the edge of the spa's pool. I kicked my legs, half floating, while Lily sipped soda through a red and white-striped straw.

"I mean, it would have been dumb if he had, given that Maddox and Farid would have shot him a bazillion times."

"Not before Solomon did. He saw Zach through the rear window and crept up behind him while Zach was trying to work out what I knew and whether he should ditch Vanessa and just get out of there." I paused and took a deep breath. The memory of that chalet wouldn't leave me any time soon. "He already had her car keys but she knew where he was going. If he left her behind, she could have told us where he went."

"Do you think he would have killed her in the cabin she rented?" asked Lily.

"Maybe, if he got tired of her or she started to smell a rat. He told her so many lies. They were just going to lie low a while but there're plenty of places to hide a corpse in the woods."

"You have such a dark imagination."

"Thank you," I said, taking another refreshing sip.

"Are you sure you don't want to hang out later too? We can put a photo of Zach in the garage and throw axes at it."

I frowned in alarm. "You have axes?"

"Sure!"

"We need to talk about this someday," I told her. "I have to go to the hospital after we leave. Austen said Sophie woke up yesterday and apparently, wants to talk. Solomon is coming, and Maddox and Farid are eager to interview her too."

"Jord isn't thrilled that the FBI swooped in and took the case."

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