Page 101 of Heated Takeover

There’s a pause.

“You know what I don’t say enough?” he asks. “Fuck you.”

With that, he grabs the door handle again, and Tuck hits the headset.

“They’re moving,” Tuck says into his headset. Agent Chen gives the command, and the tactical teams advance through the trees.

I stay in the van because I promised I would, every muscle in my body locked as I watch the exterior feed. Tuck remains beside the communications officer, relaying the property layout and nothing more.

The screen divides into the driveway, front door, living room, and kitchen. Officers appear at the edges of the exterior feed, moving so quickly and quietly that Reese and Garrett keep arguing for several seconds without realizing the cabin is surrounded.

Garrett reaches the car, looks up, and freezes when officers emerge from both sides of the access road. “Shit!” he shouts before scrambling for somewhere to run. He makes it three steps before two deputies take him to the ground.

At the cabin, officers announce themselves. The front curtain jerks aside, revealing Reese’s paling face, and then the back door opens. She runs directly into the waiting team and is cuffed before she reaches the tree line.

For one terrible second, Jamie disappears from the living-room frame beneath the blanket. I push halfway out of my seat before Agent Chen points at the screen. “He’s still there. Stay with me, Mr. Ashford.” I force myself back down.

“It was her!” Garrett shouts from the road, his voice carrying through an open microphone. “She made me do all of it. The money, the kid—it was her!”

“Fuck you!” Reese screams back.

“Oh honey, fucking you was how I got into this in the first place. Go to hell.”

“You’re going to jail too!” she yells. “If I go, you go.”

“As long as they don’t put us in the same cell, I’m all right with that. Sounds peaceful, honestly.”

The SWAT chief orders them both silent while officers read their rights. Reese starts shouting for a lawyer. Garrett laughs like he has lost his mind and asks how a lawyer is going to help someone who stole a child.

Jesus Christ.

Then the radio crackles. “Cabin clear. Child located. He appears unharmed.”

My lungs finally work again. The living-room feed shows an officer kneeling beside the couch, speaking gently before pulling the blanket back. Jamie sits up, frightened and confused but moving on his own. A medic goes in first while I grip the edge of the console hard enough to hurt.

Waiting through that final medical check is harder than every minute that came before it. I can see my son. I can see the door. Still, I do not move until the radio confirms that the scene is safe.

A minute later, Tuck opens the van door. “They cleared it. Agent Chen says you can go in now. Go get your son.”

My son.

I rush into the cabin, and my eyes scan the room. Jamie is sitting in a huddled ball on the couch, hidden under a blanket.

He hears my footsteps and jumps, whimpering. My heart tightens again.

“Who…who’s there? Aunt Reese?” he says in the bravest, smallest voice. Then, “Mama?”

“Hey buddy,” I say as softly as I can manage as I stop in front of him. Jamie slowly pulls the blanket from his head, revealing his small, trembling, tear-streaked face. My heart breaks in half.

It takes a second, but his eyes widen in recognition, and then he launches himself into my arms, sobbing into my shoulder.

“Ash!” he cries.

“It’s okay, buddy, I got you,” I tell him, my throat tight.

“I want to go home,” he sobs.

“We are going home,” I say. “I’m taking you home.”