Page 28 of Invisible Scars
I smile, despite every part of me hating the idea of him leaving. “Once you walk out the door, right?”
Jonah’s eyes soften, and I can’t lie to myself about why this time. I’m the only one here, and it’s me he’s looking at with that dark onyx gaze full of longing as the hard line of his jaw clenches.
“This wasn’t nothing,” he says and takes a step toward me.
“No,” I agree. “But it’s over.”
He stares at me, breath becoming short. He opens his mouth to say something, but then his phone blazes to life again, and he groans. “I need to take care of this.”
“Yeah, I need to make a few calls.” I’m scrolling through my contacts when Jonah pulls me in for a deep, desperate kiss.
“We’ll talk about this later!” he yells over his shoulder as he rushes out the door.
“No, we won’t,” I call after him, only to hear the front door slam. “Stubborn brat,” I mutter, sitting on the floor and letting Calgary curl at my feet with his head in my lap.
I keep scrolling until I find who I’m looking for, a contact saved under a fake name with a burner phone number that’s never had incoming or outgoing calls. Until now.
I dial, praying I’m not too late. Hoping Maddie was right and Harlow is becoming rash, making moves that expose him to too many eyes and will eventually flush him out from the darkness he’s shrouded himself in.
“It isn’t a good sign, you calling me,” Sienna’s wary and tired voice answers on the other end of the line, and I let out a relieved breath.
The last time I heard it was when Sawyer ran off to find Maddie. A lot can happen in four months when you’re being hunted by a sophisticated crime lord with endless access to government resources.
“He’s made a move. You need to get to Columbus ASAP.” The line goes dead, and I stare at the phone, biting into my lower lip.
Two burners, each for exactly one phone call, the order in which she’d turn them on predetermined in the instruction letter she left me. One burner to tell her when she needs to move to her rendezvous point with Sawyer, the second to summon her back to the land of the living, as she so dramatically put it.
I’ve just exhausted the last means of communication I had with my best friend. All I can do now is wait and pray that the people who put their lives on the line to help Maddie disappear don’t fall into the hands of a psychopath turning desperate.
8
EFFIE
It isn’t even10 AM, and I’m already on my third cup of coffee, this being one of the more brutal Mondays of my career.
“Do we have a way to get in touch with Maddie and Sawyer?” Micah asks, his demeanor unusually grave.
Milly takes Micah’s hand in her own and gives it a squeeze.
“No, but from the little I know about Maddie, she probably has all sorts of digital alerts set up.” She turns back to me. “And nothing indicates this was about Harlow, right?”
“We can’t be too safe,” I answer, staring thoughtfully at the data we’ve collected so far. “Could this be the mole?”
“How would it even know about Bethlehem?” Elijah asks, leaning back in his chair and stroking his bushy beard. “It’s just one out of dozens of clients we have. Five of those are banks. Plus, we were doing Bethlehem’s security sincebeforeJonah was discharged, and we’ve been extra careful.”
“I don’t know, but someone tipped Harlow off.” Jonah limps in, his gaze hard and lips pressed firmly together as if to bite back pain, eyes bloodshot and wary. “They didn’t even try to be sneaky about it. They just went straight for our security upgrade data. They were trying to find Maddie’s hidden code, but they couldn’t even get through the first layer of security.”
The room stays quiet at Jonah’s relay of information. I keep my gaze on my screen, avoiding eye contact. I knew this was coming. We had a plan for when Harlow makes a direct and bold move like this.
First step was calling Sienna, making sure she’s back on the grid here in Columbus. She’s Harlow’s missing piece, the last person to be in direct contact with Sawyer and Maddie except for Gia, but much more likely to have information on where they’re hiding.
He’ll do whatever it takes to get his hands on her. She’s our bait, a part she’s more than willing to play, if only for kicks. It’s part of why I love her so much.
The heaviness of the silence becomes palpable, and I glance up to see everyone looking at Jonah with worry. I’m confused about why until Zee finally speaks, his voice timid.
“Were you out there until now, Joe?” Jonah only nods. “You shouldn’t be on your feet for so long.”
“I’m fine,” Jonah dismisses him in a tone that leaves no room for argument. I wait for someone to argue, to tell Jonah he looks like crap and needs to get some restnow, but all the big burly men seem to fold in the face of Jonah’s authoritative voice.
