He raised the bullhorn to his mouth once again. “Jacob Noble, tell me what you and your men want. Why are you inside the school and what is it you were after? Talk to me about your mission. Help me understand.”
There was still no response. This had now become an ominous silence. He had a gut feeling this hostage situation was coming to a head. He also had a bad feeling because he couldn’t see exactly how it would end.
HENDRICK HAD A bad feeling. This whole standoff situation at the school was going on for too long, and according to Evan, there had been absolutely no give at all from the hostage takers. The man in charge was not having any real dialogue with Evan.
Unfortunately, Hendrick hadn’t been able to figure out what the group had wanted when they’d stormed the school. He’d searched every avenue he had to try to find the answer without any success.
Even though he had 100 percent faith in Evan, Hendrick knew the man had been thrown for a loop when he’d learned Annalise Taylor was one of the hostages.
Hendrick remembered just how crazy Evan had been over her. He’d talked about her all the time while the two had been dating. Hendrick also remembered how utterly devastated his friend had been when Annalise had left Knoxville to go teach at a private college in Missouri.
He couldn’t imagine what kind of conflict had to be swirling inside Evan’s head knowing that she was one of the hostages in the school. He’d always suspected Evan hadn’t really gotten over her.
Even though the minute she’d left town he had stopped talking about her, Hendrick believed Evan had brooded about her far more often than he’d ever admit.
None of your business, he told himself. Still, their love for each other had seemed so strong, so real to Hendrick.
He was definitely a skeptic when it came to love. He was smart enough to know that his mother’s abandonment and the lack of love earlier in his life had certainly fed into his beliefs. He rarely dated, preferring time on a computer to putting himself out into the dating scene.
At least his computers never rejected him. The computers understood his quirkiness and his need to sometimes control his environment.
He frowned. The last thing he needed to be thinking about was his own particular list of dysfunctions. He reminded himself that his only job here was to provide support and research that might give Evan more tools in his toolbox.
To that end Hendrick had been digging up anything and everything he could about Jacob Noble and his group of followers. He now leaned back in his chair and scrubbed at his burning, tired eyes with his fists.
He’d managed to chase down all the financials of the Brotherhood of Jacob and everything appeared aboveboard, but in digging into Jacob Noble’s personal finances, he was running into some interesting discrepancies.
Jacob Noble and his followers might lead a simple, back to the earth kind of lifestyle on the compound, but Jacob and his wife owned some property in the Caymen Islands, and Hendrick suspected they were also hiding a sizable amount of funds there.
Hendrick was still trying to confirm it. He’d given this information to Evan in their last face-to-face, and he hoped like hell his friend could use it to finally bring this all to an end. Surely Jacob’s followers would be interested to hear that their leader wasn’t being aboveboard with them and instead was lining his own pockets.
One thing Hendrick knew for sure—if Evan wasn’t successful in getting Annalise out of that building alive and well, then Evan would never, ever be the same again.
AS THE DAY wore on, Evan was on the bullhorn every fifteen minutes trying to get a dialogue going with Jacob. The only communication happening was the cult leader screaming and cursing and shooting at him.
There was no question Evan was getting frustrated. Jacob was forcing his hand by not being willing to communicate in a meaningful way.
It was as if the man was so far gone in his own head and into his need for control, he didn’t recognize that he and his followers were in a lose-lose situation. They had no food and no way out. So, how long would it take for them to finally break? Were they going to break, or was Evan going to have to go in forcefully when and if he had an opportunity that would hopefully not endanger the hostages.
The weather had gotten cooler and the sky overhead had become cloudy and gray, reflecting Evan’s current mood. Thankfully Rowan had kept Chief Cummings busy giving regular updates to the press. It was obvious the chief was loving the limelight and his time in front of the cameras. That worked just fine with Evan.
It was late afternoon when he decided to use another tactic. “If any of you men want to just walk out of there, all you have to do is put your weapons down and come out the front door with your hands up over your head.”
If what Annalise had told him about the in-fighting was true, then hopefully he could turn a couple of the men inside and get them to walk out. Eventually, surely that would make Jacob surrender the hostages and come out before anyone else got hurt.
“We will not fire on you if you put your hands up and come out peacefully,” he said.
“It would be nice if they’d all just walk out of there,” Nick said. “I can’t believe that none of the men inside have grown weary of this whole thing.”
“If we can get a couple of them to surrender, then I’m hoping Jacob will give up, too,” Evan replied. “He’s definitely in a delusional state of mind if he thinks
