“What?”
Sarah pointed up. Someone had an apartment up on the second floor of that building. The balcony was covered with hanging plants, and, right at the corner of that balcony, she saw a small surveillance camera.
“Hot damn,” Wade said.
Now they just needed to get the footage from the camera. She and Wade ran out of the alley. They went around to the front of the building, but even though they banged on the doors, no one answered.
She looked up. “Hello!” Sarah yelled. “Is anyone up there? Hello!”
Wade was still struggling with the door. If it weren’t for those hanging flowers up there, she would have thought the old building was abandoned. But the flowers . . . the video camera . . .
Someone was there.
“There’s another entrance,” she said to Wade. “Has to be. Let’s check the back.” And, once more, they were running through that alley. Goose bumps rose on Sarah’s skin as they headed to the back and . . .
A door was at the rear of the building. A big, red door.
Sarah’s phone rang.
She yanked it out of her pocket, her heart racing because she thought it might be the perp calling her again. But it wasn’t Molly’s number. It was a number she’d never seen before.
It could be him.
Wade ran toward the door.
“Wait!” Sarah grabbed his shoulder.
Wade stared at her as if she were crazy.
She lifted the phone. This could be him, Sarah mouthed. She put the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“Sarah! Where are you?” That low, growling voice—it was Jax’s voice. Only . . . wasn’t Jax in police custody?
“I’m with Wade,” she said, staring into his golden eyes. Wade was frowning and obviously impatient as he glared at her. “We think we found a lead. A video camera, on a balcony just a few streets over from Bourbon. I think the perp took her from the alley here, and I think—”
“He’s after you.” Jax’s voice was dark. “I want you and Wade to get back in the car, and get away from that place, do you understand?”
No, she didn’t understand. Running made no sense. Not if they had a lead on Molly.
“I’ve got my men coming to find you now.”
What? “We’re going to get that video feed. It will show us what happened!” Every instinct she had screamed that this was the place.
“He’s after you.” Jax’s words were grim. “Don’t you see? Everything . . . it’s about you.”
Sarah shook her head.
Wade swore. “We’re wasting time.” He slipped away from her and marched for the door.
“Sarah, listen to me.” There was an intensity in Jax’s voice that pulled at her. “This is off. Everything—it’s wrong. You think you’re the only one who knows criminals? I understand them, too. I’ve lived with them my whole life. This guy—he knows your father.”
“H-How do you know that?”
“Because Eddie told me.”
He’d gotten Eddie to talk? How? When?
“This guy wants you to pay for something your father did. I think he’s been watching you, Sarah. Studying you, and I think he’s trying to lure you into a trap that you can’t resist.”
Sarah glanced over at Wade. He was reaching for the back door. That bright red door. One that was like a giant X mark on a map. She could see the knob turning easily in his hand. But why would the back door be unlocked when the front had been sealed so securely? Her gaze jerked around, rising, up, going to the left, the right, the—
More video cameras. Hidden so that you wouldn’t see them on the first glance, or the second. You had to search to find them positioned so carefully. Positioned to watch the back of the house.
“Wade, no!” Sarah yelled.
“Sarah?” Jax demanded. “What’s happening? Wait for my men! Wait—”
She ran toward Wade. He was pulling open the door. “No!” she screamed at him. Because I think Jax is right. I think this scene is a trap—and we’re walking straight into it!
Wade turned toward her, his face showing his confusion. She grabbed his arm and hauled him toward her.
“Sarah, what the hell—” he began.
She started running, pulling him with her, hauling and yanking at him with all her strength.
And then the building exploded. The force of the explosion picked Sarah up and hurtled her through the air.
“SARAH?” JAX SHOUTED. “Sarah!” He’d heard her scream. Scream even as something had seemed to explode in the background.
Now the line was dead. And fear clawed at his guts.
“What’s happening?” his lawyer, Ty Keith, demanded. The guy cast a nervous glance Jax’s way. His hold tightened on the steering wheel.
“Floor the fucking gas,” Jax snarled at him. “Get us to Bourbon Street, now.”
“B-But what’s on Bourbon?”
From the sounds he’d heard . . . “Look for the smoke.” Smoke that the firefighters would need to battle hell hard.
Sarah—be alive.
If she wasn’t, then Jax would wreak some serious fury on that city. They drove faster, faster, and rule-following Ty was sure racing through those streets.
Jax leaned forward, peering through the windshield. He dialed Carlos. His friend answered on the first ring. “Tell me you’re close to her,” Jax demanded. He knew he sounded desperate, but he didn’t care. This was Sarah. Sarah . . . mattered to him.
There was a pause. “Boss, I see the flames.”
And that was when Jax saw the smoke billowing up into the sky.
Sarah!
HE SMILED AS he stared at the monitor. Fire was shooting out of the old building. Bursting from the windows that had shattered moments before.
“Boom,” he whispered as he leaned forward and touched that screen. Oh, but it had been so easy. He’d tossed a few bread crumbs, and Sarah had followed them so quickly.
The image turned to static. The explosion and the fire had finally knocked out his feeds. But he’d seen enough.
Sarah had been running toward the building. She’d been shouting, probably so sure that she was there to save the day.
But you were like a moth, coming to the flame. A moth that had burned and turned to ash.
He couldn’t wait for her dear old dad to find out that his daughter was dust. If only he could see the expression on the bastard’s face. Not so smug now, are you, Murphy? Now you know what it’s like to have no power. To have nothing—
But fear and rage.
Chapter 7
GET HIM OUT OF THERE!”
Sarah coughed.
“Bring the bastard—the fire is spreading too much!”
She cracked open her eyes. She was . . . moving? Yes, and she was upside down. Slung over someone’s shoulder. Smoke was all around her and Sarah coughed, choking.
“It’s okay, Doc,” a man told her. He was the one carrying her like she was a sack of potatoes and running fast—so fast through that smoke. “We’re taking care of you.”
Another coughing fit racked her body, and Sarah realized that she hurt. Her body ached in about a dozen different places because . . .
Her memory came flooding back. “F-Fire!”
They burst out of the alley. She could hear the sound of fire trucks, and when she turned her head, she saw the flash of their lights. The firefighters always responded so fast in this city—because a fire could spread too easily on these streets. The buildings were positioned right next to each other and a fire could jump from one location to another—this fire was already spreading!
She pushed against the guy’s back, trying to see more.
“Easy, easy . . .” he told her, and then Sarah’s world spun as he lifted her up and sat her down on the sidewalk—the sidewalk across the street from that blaze. “Let me check you out.”
She looked up and found herself staring into the dark gaze of a man who had a long, slashing scar over his left eye. Carlos.