“No, Colonel Jones is the only one who is going to pay now.”
119
Miranda had been ordered by the director to stay behind, after Max had run from the bullpen, yelling for someone to get agents to Jac’s place.
The director had ordered her to coordinate the teams from the PAVAD tactical op room. Then the director had run, on Max’s heels.
Max was already on his way to her.
To get Agent Lytel. But Jac lived fifteen minutes from the building.
Fifteen minutes was long enough to die. Miranda bit back the panic.
Now, Jac’s phone was on the big screen in front of them, audio playing around them. Carrie Lorcan had remotely accessed Jac’s bureau-issued phone as if it was right there beneath her fingers. Had done what she could to keep the call open.
Max had given Miranda his phone. So that PAVAD could see what was happening.
It was the only connection to what was happening that they now had. All the resources PAVAD had, and Miranda knew they were useless to stop what was happening.
It was all up to Jac and Nat now.
Dani was there; Dani and Agent Ward and Carrie Lorcan and Shannon. People who had already been in there when Miranda had run in and demanded someone get Jac’s phone on the big screen.
Four minutes. It had taken four minutes to make that happen.
Four minutes, Jac had stood there, staring at Eugene Lytel as he held Nat in front of him.
Jac’s sister. Her baby sister. If it had been one of Miranda’s sisters, she didn’t know if she could have been as calm as Jac appeared right there on the grainy screen.
Not her sisters.
It was Miranda’s job to protect them. Jac felt exactly the same for Nat.
They were all just waiting. There was nothing else they could do.
Miranda just stood in the center of the room and listened.
Someone put a hot hand on her shoulder.
Miranda turned. Knight was standing there next to her. Big and strong and a little frightening, in a perfectly pressed suit.
He had the glasses off now. Gray eyes the same color as that suit showed his concern.
He wrapped his other hand around her arm, just above the damned cast. “Jones is on his way to her now. You won’t do any good standing here worrying about her.”
She knew he was right, but that didn’t help. She was too far away to do anything else. “She lives fifteen minutes away, Knight. He won’t get to her in time.”
Everyone was watching her. She hadn’t realized that. Miranda turned back to the screen. Just as Nat spoke again.
120
“What does the colonel have to do with this?” Nat asked. “He has no bearing on our lives.”
“Well, he has bearing on mine, sweetheart,” Lytel said. “Constantly doing what he can just to keep me down. Colonel Jones is a real piece of work, you know.”
“We know,” Nat said.
Jac kept her weapon steady. Nat was staying calm. She wasn’t stupid.
This was a scenario their bastard of a father had made them role-play time and time again, when his paranoia that someone was after them in the dozen foreign countries he’d dragged them to would rise up and take over him too.
Over and over and over, he would put them in similar situations with differing men every time. So they could practice. Prepare.
Time and time again, he would yell at Jac that it was always her responsibility to protect her little sister. That failure was never an option.
Jac had learned that lesson long ago.
“We know he’s a bastard, Eugene. How well do you know him?”
“Pretty well. Well enough to know he’s not the only bastard in the Jones family. Bet you don’t know that, do you, honey? Your sister isn’t even his. I’ve always wondered if he knew that. We were overseas together, too. I watched that arrogant son-of-a-bitch get four young men killed, with barely a blink. Like he didn’t care. Then he went home to your sister’s birthday here. How old was she? Nine, maybe? Same age as Max’s girl is now.”
Jac didn’t waver. He was trying to get her off her stride, bringing up Emery.
“Maybe after I leave here, I’ll go find Emery. Have her give her father a message for me. Or from you. I bet you would like that, wouldn’t you? I know you love her. A good little mommy you are.”
“I remember that day. He was angry with me for not wearing the right dress. After the party, he beat me with a belt for forty-three minutes,” Jac said as levelly as she possibly could. “I could see the clock. Could hear Nat screaming at him to stop. I counted the minutes that day. I was twelve.”
“Seems like we all have bad memories of that day,” Nat said.
“What are you hoping to accomplish here? Killing either one of us, or both of us, won’t even be a bleep on the colonel’s radar. If anything, he’ll just benefit from the outrage and sympathy to have both his daughters murdered by a rogue FBI agent, after losing his wife so tragically. Just make him even more popular. None of us wants that.”
“Well, no,” Lytel said, shooting her a small smile. His hand tightened on Nat, pulling her even closer. “No one wants to make Boyd’s life better, stupid son-of-a-bitch.”
He was six four or so. Broad.
Nat was a full fourteen inches shorter, and one hundred sixty pounds lighter. She looked no bigger than a twelve-year-old right now.
There was plenty of target space. Even with the bullet-resistant vest.
But he was an experienced federal agent, with years in the special tactical forces. He’d faced down weapons before.
Jac would have to be careful.
She would have only one chance to do this right.
He was studying her every move. Just as she was studying his.
He knew they were at a stalemate.
What he most likely didn’t know was that her phone was still on. Right there pointed straight at them. She had no doubt help was coming.
Max had been on the other end of the line.
