Page 154 of Intent to Kill
Every instinct told him to cry and panic and flee. He closed his eyes once, allowing only one second before he hardened his heart and opened his eyes, ready for a fight.
“You,” Adam said, his tone so rough it could’ve shaved wood. He dragged the phone to the dining table, placing it down where his friends gathered. “What the fuck do you want?”
“I have something you might want.”
Adam dropped his head to the edge of the table, his heart sinking faster than he could catch.
“I warned you that I’d find your fifth,” Blake said. “Not quite who I expected.”
With a deep inhale, Adam straightened again, finding that hard place inside himself. With an uncharacteristic calm, he said, “If you fucking hurt–”
“Oh, I’m gonna fucking kill her.”
Her.Fuck. He did know.
Adam clenched his fists as he placed the phone on mute. It took more than one calming breath before he could speak again. He looked at his friends. “Blake knows this number.”
It was all he needed to say.
“How many people did we have walk through this room today?” Paul leaned across the table, eyes darting around the room.
“Check the fucking room,” Adam said.
He unmuted the phone. “Let me talk to her. You’ve got nothing. I won’t believe it until I hear it.” But he was only saying so to buy himself more time. His body had known something was wrong the minute she didn’t show up on time.
The phone rustled like it was being passed around.
Over his shoulder he checked on Paul, Dan, and Carlos, who were ripping through the room. They searched high and low, throwing cushions off the couch, ripping sheets from the bed, tearing everything out of the cupboards.
“Baby.” Mercedes voice came through the phone, her breath tough and heavy.
“Oh, baby,” Adam sighed. “Just hold on. I’m gonna come for you.”
There was silence on the other end of the line for long enough that he started to panic. But then she spoke again. “The prize,” she said.
“What?” his voice was high-pitched and pained. He knew exactly what the next words to come out of her mouth would be, and what they’d mean, but he didn’t have time to argue as Carlos waved for his attention.
Adam found Dan and Paul standing still, looking to where Carlos had removed a painting to reveal an explosive device strapped to the wall.
Fuck.
Paul turned to the wall behind him, removing another painting. Dan did, too, and sure enough, paintings in their trembling hands, they found more explosives hugging the wall.
“Eyes on the prize at all times,” Mercedes said, jolting Adam back to reality.No, he wanted to shout. He was about to when the rustling line told him that he wouldn’t be speaking to her anytime soon. He waved a signal at the others.Get the hell out of here now.
Blake was back on the line again. “Alright, there you go. I’ve got her and she’s alive. But not for much longer. Just wanted you to know I won’t make it quick.”
His friends bustled past him, collecting supplies, guns, ammo, anything they could carry before they disappeared down the stairs.
“I’m gonna fucking get to her, you know.” Adam rushed to his bed and pulled the radio from his drawer. Placing the receiver at the base of the phone, he held another to his chest and followed his friends out of the building, flipping on the fire alarm as he rushed out.
“This is the end of the line for you, I’m afraid,” Blake laughed, Adam’s radio picking up the signal from the phone inside his room.
“Not a chance in hell,” Adam said.
Other occupants flooded the stairwell beside him. He joined the crowd that burst through the glass front doors onto the street.
The phone rustled again through the radio while he found his friends across the road at the edge of the beach. He stared up at his room from a safe distance.
