Nate took a deep breath. “I lied.”
Her eyes flicked to Julien, then back to Nate. “Who’s Nate?”
Nate took a deep breath. “I am.”
“But … what about … you said your name was Andrew.”
“Liz, we need to get you out of here.”
“Why would my brother want you here?”
“To protect you.”
“Protect me?”
“He knew you were in danger.”
“I don’t believe that for a second.” She started pushing against him again.
“Julien. Get Quinn on the phone.”
“Who the hell is Quinn?” Liz asked.
He looked at her. “Your brother.”
Nate knew it was all coming at her too fast. He could almost see her mind overloading.
“Quinn? It’s Julien. We have a problem.” Nate listened as the Frenchman described their situation to Quinn.
When he was finished, Nate said, “It would be great if he would talk to her.”
Julien relayed the request, then walked over to the couch and tried to hold the phone up to Liz’s ear. But she moved her head away, twisting it and turning it so Julien couldn’t get the phone in place.
“It’s just a trick,” she said. “It’s not him.”
“Use the speaker,” Nate said.
Julien touched the screen of his phone, then said, “Quinn?”
“I’m here.”
Liz froze.
“Quinn,” Nate said, “we need to get Liz out, but she’s not cooperating. We’ve got five minutes tops before we run into a potential overlap. Could you please convince her we’re not here to hurt her?”
“Liz,” Quinn said, “you need to listen to them. They have to get you out of there now.”
“I don’t know who you are, but you’re not my brother,” she said.
Quinn took a moment before responding. “When we were out on the lake after we flipped, and I grabbed ahold of you, remember?”
“Shut up!” she yelled. “Shut up!”
“I whispered something in your ear.”
“Please stop,” she said, only this time some of the fight was missing from her voice.
“I said it over and over. Do you remember? I said, ‘I’ll never let anything hurt you.’ ”
Liz’s hands began to shake. “Jake?”
“My friends are there to keep you safe. You need to listen to them, and do exactly what they say. Can you do that?”
“Jake, what’s going on?”
“We’ll talk about that later. I promise. Right now you have to get out of your apartment.”
“I … I don’t understand.”
“Someone is on their way to your place right now. If they get there before you leave, they will kill my friends and take you. They very likely will kill you, too. You have to leave now.”
“Kill us? Why would they—”
“Liz! You’re running out of time. Once my friends get you someplace safe, I’ll explain everything to you.”
The stunned look on her face turned defiant.
“Why should I believe you?” she said. “You haven’t cared about me for twenty years.”
“Liz! You can hate me all you want, but you still need to get the hell out of there. Please, listen to Andrew.”
“Ah, yeah,” Nate said. “About that. She already knows my name.”
“I don’t care what she knows! You all need to leave right now!”
Julien’s phone beeped.
“What’s that?” Quinn asked.
