Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 71179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Gallo goes back behind his desk, sits in his chair, steepling his fingers.
“Listen,” he says, his voice taking on a softer edge. “I know you care for Savannah. And I do too. But there are forces at work here that we can’t control. And sometimes, sacrifices have to be made for the greater good.”
I clench my hands into fists. Sacrifices? What kind of twisted logic is that?
“Savannah is not a sacrifice,” I say through gritted teeth. “She’s a woman. A person. A human being. She’s your fucking daughter.”
He opens his mouth to reply, but I hear nothing.
I see nothing.
Nothing but blackness.
26
SAVANNAH
Vinnie makes us a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, but I can’t eat. Worry about Falcon consumes me. It’s nine o’clock, and he hasn’t checked in.
He said he was going to Austin.
Where both my family and the McAllisters live.
I don’t think he’d go back to the McAllisters’ place. Why would he? He got me out, and they’ve surely enhanced their security since he broke through it.
Is he going to talk to my father? Give him a piece of his mind about everything that he’s put me through since I got to my new job?
If that’s the case, I’d like to think my father wouldn’t harm him…but I’m not that naïve. Not anymore. I’ve been forced to see a side of my father that I’d blinded myself to by choice. My daddy. My daddy who I thought loved me.
Now I wonder if the man is even capable of love.
“Try to eat, Sav,” Vinnie urges. “You won’t be any good to anyone without adequate energy.”
He’s right, of course. It’s the same reason I ate the salmon that night at the McAllisters’. I needed my strength, and it ended up saving me from a brutal rape.
I twist my spaghetti around my fork and bring it to my mouth. The pasta is cooked perfectly, and the sauce is robust and flavorful, but it’s all mush in my mouth. Still, I chew and swallow and then twirl some more onto my fork.
“Good?” Vinnie asks.
I simply nod.
“You need to trust him,” he says. “Trust that he’s doing what he thinks is right.”
“What if—”
He raises a hand to stop me. “No what ifs, Sav. It’ll kill you. You think I haven’t gone there a million times in my own head? It doesn’t change a damned thing.”
He’s right, of course. I take another bite when—
Falcon’s satellite phone vibrates.
“Thank God!” I grab it without looking at the number. “Falcon?”
Silence on the other end of the line.
I quickly put it on speaker and press my fingers to my lips so Vinnie knows not to speak.
“Falcon, are you there?” I glance at the number then.
It’s not Falcon’s.
Fuck.
“Who is this?” I demand.
“We have him,” says a voice I don’t recognize. “I’m sending an address. Get there as soon as you can.”
My heart goes wild as fear slides into me. The few bites of spaghetti tumble in my stomach. “Don’t you dare hurt him.”
“That depends on you.” The phone clicks off.
I gulp audibly. “Vinnie?” I whisper. “I don’t know what to do.”
He darts his gaze around the room. “He’d want you to stay here.”
“Can they track me?”
He shakes his head. “That’s a satellite phone. They can’t track it. Otherwise they wouldn’t have told you to come. They’d come after you.”
Yes, yes. Of course he’s right.
“How did they get this number?”
“They either held a gun to his head and he gave it to them…”
I shake my head. “No. He wouldn’t do that. Not Falcon.”
“Sav, when there’s a gun to your head, and you’re faced with—”
“Just shut up, Vinnie!” I yell. “Falcon wouldn’t. He’d protect me at all costs.”
Vinnie sighs. “You’re sure?”
Am I? I’m not certain of anything anymore. I no longer know my father and grandfather. Do I know Falcon? “I don’t know.”
Vinnie nods. “If you’re right, then he’s unconscious and they hacked his phone.”
The address comes through in a text. “It’s somewhere outside Austin,” I say.
“I’m going with you.”
“No, Vinnie, you can’t. If Dad and Grandpa are behind this, they’ll never let you go.”
He shakes his head. “It’s not up for debate, Sav. I let you down once. I won’t do it again.”
27
FALCON
I wake up to a sharp pain in my head, and my eyes take a moment to adjust to the light. Where the fuck am I? I try to move, but my hands are tied behind my back, and my ankles are bound together. The rough rope is digging into my skin. When I inhale, I smell dust and mildew. A lightbulb hangs from a string overhead.
“Get up,” someone commands from the shadows.
I don’t recognize the voice. It sounds like it’s coming through water or something.
I look up to see two blurred images.
“Where am I?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Somewhere you won’t be found easily,” the same voice says. “Now, let’s get down to business.”