Page 113 of A Captive Situation

Jake

She left me. Sawyer left me.

Fuckher.

I gritted my teeth. Grabbing a car. They’d taken the keys. Smart move on their part if they’d been my keys and not Laila’s. My phone was ringing when I got inside my truck. I tossed it on the passenger seat, and Ashton’s voice answered through my dashboard. “What is it?”

I shook my head at his hardened voice. He knew shit was going to go down. He helped set all this up, and he was going to come on the phone like that?

“They bolted.”

A second. “What?”

I was trying to catch them, but Green—who was at the wheel, how did that happen?—kept turning. I was going to lose them in the traffic. I told him, “You said West would have Sawyer’s family. Where are they?”

“Why?”

“Fucking—just do what I say for one goddamn time, Walden! They bolted. Both of them. Why the fuck do you think I’m asking? I need Green for the handoff and I’m running out of time to make that happen. They’ll be going for Sawyer’s family. Where are they?”

“Green’s free?”

“Yes! Catch the fuck up. Aren’t you watching this all happen somewhere through your fucking hacking laptop? They’re gone. Lane’s expecting me to hand over his woman and I don’t have her. She took my woman with her.”

A snicker sounded. “They’re running together?”

I was going to kill him. The second I saw him, I was putting a bullet in his forehead. “Catch up.Where is West keeping Sawyer’s family?”

“Who cares. Green’s going to ditch her the second she can. You need Green, not your woman.”

“She should, yes, but she’s not. They took offtogether. Green was at the wheel. Not Sawyer. Again, she took Sawyerwithher. You’re not comprehending this.”

“Why would she do that?”

“I don’t fucking know! But if I can’t catch Green, I need to get Sawyer and get the fuck out of the city. She’s not safe on her own. Lane will kill her. He’ll do it just to spite me.”

There was a beep on his end, and he cursed. “Uh, you’re not going to like this.”

“What?” My jaw clenched. What next?

“We were keeping her family at Jess’s mom’s house with her and the brother. It’s normal. Civilians. Jess argued they shouldn’t feel they were being imprisoned, but, uh ... they’re gone.”

“Whythe fuckdoes West’s woman have any input on my woman’s family?”

This could not be happening.

Wait. “What did you say? They’re gone?”

“Trace just got an alert. They left three minutes ago.”

“Where were their guards?”

He swore under his breath. “They were never told they were being held captive so the guards stayed at a distance. Jess argued hard for that. You know Trace’s woman. Still a PO in her heart, trying to do good.Trace just got a call. That was the notice I got. His men are down. All of them.”

“I killed three people in her cousin’s house. What the fuck did they think was happening?”

“Jess didn’t want to terrify them. She gave them a version of the truth, told them a cop had already taken care of it.”

“What? Who?”

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