12. Knox

12

KNOX

“Let me see her phone again. I want to run intel on the room they’re in,” Dylan says.

I look at the coffee table, and Kali’s phone is gone. “She must have taken it in the bedroom. I’ll be right back.”

I’ve wanted to check on her anyway, so this is a perfect excuse. I push open the bedroom door, and she’s not in there or the adjoining bathroom. I know I saw her come this way. I walk back out across the living room and into the two guest rooms. She’s not there either. I run out, and the first thing I notice is that my keys are gone from the ring. “Fuck!” I scream. “She’s gone.”

I don’t even wait for the others. I grab a set of keys off the counter and run out to Dylan’s truck. I almost get out of the driveway when Dylan comes running and jumps into the seat next to me. “Would she—?” Dylan asks.

I push the gas pedal to the floor. “What? Would she go to save some girl she doesn’t know from Nick? Yeah, she would. She felt guilty having us involved. So yeah, she’ll go to save the girl.”

I’m quiet the rest of the way as I haul ass across town and into Jasper. Dylan is calling it in to the others, and we’re going in blind without a plan, but there’s no way I’m stopping now. I’m devastated that she didn’t trust me to help her, but more than that, I’ve never been so scared in my life for another person. This is not like any other job I’ve done. This isn’t just personal... it’s everything.

As soon as I pull into the parking lot of the address, I park next to my truck, pull my gun from my waistband, and run inside the building. It’s an abandoned warehouse on the west side of town. The area is known for prostitution, drugs, and shootings. As soon as I clear the door, I see a young woman sitting in a chair with her back to me. She has long hair just like Kali, and I sprint across the room to her. I’m holding my breath, gun drawn, but the closer I get, I realize it’s not my Kali. It’s one of the girls from the picture, and she looks petrified. She’s still in her cheerleading uniform, and there’s a bomb strapped to her chest. I watch as the digits on it are counting down.

Her eyes are big as saucers, and they’re pleading for help.

If Bear, Nash, or one of the others were here, I’d leave them to unarm the bomb. Dylan is a pro with computers and tech stuff, but I can’t chance his skills with the bomb.

I pull a tool from my pants pocket and get to work.

“It’s clear. No one is here,” Dylan says as he squats beside me.

“Call Nico. He’s in my contacts,” I tell Dylan and toss him my phone.

I stare at the bomb on the girl’s chest. I know she’s scared, and I try to calm her. I pull the tape from her mouth. “Look, I’m going to have you out of here in just a minute, but you have to stay calm.”

“He took her. He took some woman,” the girl says just as Nico’s voice fills the air.

“Knox, what’s up? Carter picked me up at the airport in Knoxville, I couldn’t get into Jasper’s airfield. I’m an hour out.”

As calmly as I can, I speak loudly enough for him to hear while still analyzing the bomb. I cut one wire and stare at the others. “Look, listen to me. I’m in the middle of disarming a bomb. Your sister-in-law snuck off, and Nick has her. I need you to track her phone and tell me where she’s heading.”

“What the—?”

“We don’t have time for this. You can cuss me out later, whatever. Find your sister and tell me where she’s at.”

I cut another wire and hold my breath. This is definitely a homemade bomb, and it’s hard to tell exactly how he put it together.

I wipe the back of my hand across my forehead. Hold on, Kali, I’m coming for you .

Kali

Nick is so pleased with himself that he slowed down Knox and the others with the bomb. “You can learn a lot when you’re sitting around rotting in prison.”

I’m furious with him and myself. My elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles are bound together, rendering me helpless in the back seat of his car.

I only arrived a few minutes before Knox, but that was all the time it took for Nick to threaten the young girl with the bomb strapped to her chest and force me to consent to being tied up. I screamed through my gag at Knox as I saw him through the window running into the room where the girl was tied to the bomb, but he wasn’t looking out the window to see me.

Nick had tossed me into the car and driven away.

I’m angry at myself for playing into Nick’s hands, but I’m not going to believe that Nick won. I won’t let him.

Knox is smart and fast. He isn’t going to be taken out by Nick’s homemade bomb just like I’m not going to be taken out by Nick. I have too much to live for, and I know if anything happens to me, Knox is going to blame himself.

“What was Miles’s plan? He was going to sell you, right? Not me. I’m going to keep you to myself. At least until we get to Arizona.”

I don’t give him the satisfaction of answering him or even making a sound in my gag. I stare at him in the rearview mirror. I’m not going to let him get to me. And there’s no way I’m going to let him make it to Arizona where my family is. I’ll stop him if it’s the last thing I do.