Hoping he wouldn’t be shot by the hostage takers or friendly fire, he slithered like a snake back behind the police line at the edge of the woods where Davis waited for him.
The broad-shouldered African American frowned at him. “You shouldn’t have taken on that job yourself, man,” he said. “I know you like to control your scene, but if you get hurt, those hostages are screwed. We don’t have another hostage negotiator just hanging around.”
“Right now I’m just frustrated that it was an epic fail,” Evan replied with frustration. “They’re more alert in there than I thought they would be after all this time.”
“Maybe you should see about getting some sleep while you have a chance,” Davis said.
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Minutes later the lights were back shining on the building, and Evan was back in the passenger seat of the patrol car. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, fighting off not only weariness, but also a deep frustration.
When they had arrived here earlier in the day, he’d hoped to get the hostages out by nightfall. He was disturbed that hadn’t happened.
He could only hope that when morning came Jacob would be more agreeable to having a conversation that would see the safe release of the hostages.
If that didn’t happen, Evan would need to consider other, more dangerous options. That thought kept him awake for a very long time.
Chapter Four
The gunfire coming from the back of the building jolted Annalise. Thankfully the noise hadn’t awakened the girls, who were likely too emotionally and physically exhausted.
She raised her hand and touched her swollen lower lip. When Jacob had come back in the room after she’d gotten Belinda to safety, he’d backhanded her hard enough to rattle her brain. She’d just been grateful that he hadn’t killed her.
She had a feeling the only reason that she was still alive was to deal with the girls and keep them as quiet as possible.
Once the gunfire began, Jacob cursed and ran out of the room, and Annalise took the opportunity to run to her phone and snatch it off the charger. She returned to her place against the wall, her heart banging unsteadily as she held the phone tightly in her hand.
When the gunfire stopped, Jacob didn’t return and she could hear him yelling in a room down the hallway. She pulled her phone up so the screen was visible.
She had one message. She opened it and read the note from Evan. Thank goodness the 911 call she’d made had gotten through to him. It gave her some solace knowing that of all the people in the world, her life and the lives of the girls were in his hands. She knew just how good he was at what he did, how utterly devoted he was to the job.
Remember the moon.
Tears blurred her vision as she read those words. They were tears of exhaustion and the sweet memory of tremendous love. Remember the moon. She wondered why he had texted that to her. Even as she thought about it, she realized the answer was probably that he wanted her to have a happy thought to help her through this horrible ordeal.
And the memory of that night under a full moon in his backyard was more than just a happy place in her heart, it was a place of warmth and love with the man who, at that time, she’d believed would be her partner through life.
She looked toward the doorway, wondering how much time she had before Jacob came back into the room. Maybe he wouldn’t return for the rest of the night. She’d seen a weight of exhaustion riding his big shoulders. She suspected there weren’t enough men with him to rotate the guard duty at all the doors and windows and also get enough sleep. Maybe this was the night the leader of this group would find someplace in the building to hole up and sleep until morning.
The phone burned in her hand. Her need to reach out to Evan and hear his voice was nearly overwhelming, but so was her fear of somehow getting caught.
Jacob was already angry with her about Belinda. If he caught her with the phone talking to the outside authorities, she wasn’t convinced that Jacob wouldn’t kill her, or get his wife to do the dirty work. If that happened, then who would be here to protect the girls? Who would soothe them when they cried?
She began to softly hum, her gaze going once again to the doorway. She looked back at the phone and Evan’s message, and her fingers hit the phone icon.
He answered before the first ring had completely finished. “Annalise.”
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut at the sound of his familiar deep voice. “Evan,” she whispered into the phone, and once again kept her gaze on the doorway.
“Are you all right? Are you safe to talk?” His voice held the same kind of urgency that sizzled through her body.
“I’m okay...and I’m safe for now. There are four students with me and we’re all okay. We’re hungry and tired and just want to get out of here.” Tears blurred her vision. “Is Belinda okay? Have you heard anything about her condition?”
“I’m sorry, I haven’t, but I know she’s in the hospital where she belongs.”
“They didn’t even want to release her, but I was afraid if I didn’t get her out of here, she would have died.”
“I saw somebody grab you by your hair...were you hurt?”
“No, I’m okay,” she said, and then ran her tongue over her swollen lip. “Jacob is crazy, but his wife, Gretchen, is pure evil.”
“Annalise, do you know what these people want? Have you heard a reason why they burst into the school in the first place?”
“I don’t know what they want. I’ve asked and asked, but I don’t know what they want or why they’re here,” she replied helplessly. She wished she had the answers so
