Heath: I fucked up and we’re all paying the price.I’msorry.
Ari: Just tell me where you are.We canhelpyou.
Heath: No one can help me now.It’s time to facefacts.
Ari: DON’T YOU DARE QUITONME!
Iyelledthe words as Itypedthem.
Heath:I’msorry.
Ari: LET MEHELPYOU!
But he didn’t reply.No little dots popped up in the dialogue box to show him typing.And then thirty seconds later, the program showed he wasoff-line.
His phone.He has to be on his phone.My fingers flew as I ran the trace.Heath might have closed the app, but his phone was on just long enough for me to get thelocation.
I sucked in a breath when the addresspoppedup.
My dad’shouse.
Heathwashome?
It didn’t make sense.I tapped Rhett’s contact, but there was no answer.Before I could leave a voice mail, another call interrupted, and I looked down at thescreen.
UnknownNumber.
My hand shook at the knowledge who was probably on the other end, but I forced myself to answer the call.“Hello?”
“You want to see your brother and your father alive again?Or do you want their headsdeliverednext?”
My stomach twisted at the visual.My brother and father’s eyes as lifeless as Erik’s.Igagged.
“What do you want,Carlos?”
“If you’re as smart as I’ve always assumed, you already know exactly where I am, so I’ll tell you when you get here.Bring your trusty little laptop.If you call Rhett Hennessy, I swear he’ll die before he can get out of the airportparkinglot.”
It seemed like every cell in my body trembled with fear.No,terror.There was a difference I’d never truly appreciateduntilnow.
When I didn’t respond, Carlos kepttalking.
“If you’re not at your father’s house, alone, in forty-five minutes, I’ll personally slit their throats.You want them to live out this day, you won’tbelate.”
“Why are you doing this?”My voice shook, but I managed to get thequestionout.
It didn’t matter, though—no one heard it.Carlos had hung uponme.
He had my dad and my brother.My only family, both in the hands of apsychopath.
Logic told me that I shouldn’t go.I couldn’t go.It wassuicide.
But logic’s role in this decision was overridden by terror.Rhett tore himself apart for not answering his father’s phone calls when he had no idea what his father was facing.How could I live with myself knowing Carlos had my family and I didnothing?
Icouldn’t.
It didn’t matter that my father might not remember any of this, or that my brother might be a dirty cop.There was no way I was going to let them die while I sat locked in a safe room where nothing and no one couldtouchme.
I shoved the terror aside and considered the problembeforeme.