Charlie had meant to stay awake and wait for Finn. She’d thought she would be too wound up to sleep at all. She’d sent Peyton and Jess home, waved to the officer who had obviously drawn the short straw, and made herself a cup of coffee. Then she’d sat down on the couch, wanting to see Finn when he walked in.

Next thing she knew, she was waking up with a start. She looked around, trying to figure out what was making her heart race. Was it Ethan? Had he woken up? Was Finn home? Or maybe it was just the sun starting to rise that had woken her.

She walked over to the window to peek out and saw the cop outside talking to someone. The man standing outside the squad car wasn’t big enough to be Finn. She yawned and tried to rub some of the sleep out of her eyes, which were already blurry from last night’s smoke. If the guys were on their way home, she needed to make more coffee.

She was turning away from the window when sudden movement at the car caught her attention. She glanced back out, and her mind froze in shock.

The man had just stabbed the officer.

She stumbled back until she ended up against the wall, hand flying to her mouth. Someone had just killed a police officer ten yards from the front door. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that person was here to kill her. Her legs felt weak and her breath sawed in and out of her chest in panicked gasps. She could feel the room starting to spin around her.

She slammed her hand against the wall. Pull it together, Charlie.

She had two choices: she could get her shit together and figure out a plan, or die.

“Charlie? What are you doing here? Are you okay?” Ethan was standing at the edge of the living room staring at her.

Whoever killed that officer outside with such casual efficiency wouldn’t hesitate to hurt anyone else, including a child. She pushed away from the wall. They had to get out of here.

She ran over to Ethan and knelt in front of him. “Hey, buddy. Your dad sent me to hang out with you until he could get home.” She didn’t want to scare the kid, but not telling him at least part of the truth was going to get them both killed. She ran her fingers over his head before settling them on his shoulders. “Ethan, I don’t want to scare you, bud, but there’s a bad guy out front. I need you to be brave. I need both of us to be. You and I have got to run.”

Those green eyes, so much like Finn’s, grew big. “Really?”

She squeezed his shoulders and tried to give him a reassuring smile. “Yes, really. We’ve got to get away until your dad can get here and help us.”

The boy nodded. “Dad will come. He promised if I ever needed him he always would.”

She gave a silent prayer of thanks for all the hours Finn had taken to build his son’s trust.

They both jumped at the loud banging on the front door.

“Shoes,” she whispered. “Then we go out the back. Hurry.”

“What about Sky?” Ethan’s little face was pinched, worried about his puppy. “Will the bad man hurt Sky?”

They couldn’t take him and he was too tiny to be of any assistance. “Is he in his crate?”

Ethan nodded.

“Then he’ll be fine. The bad man will just ignore him, if he even notices Sky at all.” She prayed that would be true.

Ethan scurried away to get his shoes and she grabbed hers, careful to stay out of the line of sight of any windows. She and the boy ran toward the back door.

“Ready?” he asked as they both arrived at it. He was calm and collected, just like Finn.

“I love you, kid.” She couldn’t help the words. Wished she had said them to his dad too.

Ethan just rolled his eyes, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world, and quietly opened the door.

A loud bang came again on the front door again. “Charlie? It’s Henry. Finn sent me. Open up.”

Henry? Oh God. And she pushed Ethan out the door. “Go. Go.”

They ran. She heard the front door crash open as they rushed toward the woods surrounding Finn’s house. They had a good head start, but Henry had seen them go out the back door.

“Charlie, come back!” Henry yelled. “I just need the code you memorized.”

She didn’t slow down. If he just needed the code, there would’ve been no need to stab that police officer.

They ran into the woods, Charlie praying they could lose him. But the next time Henry spoke, he was even closer. He didn’t seem nearly as out of breath as a paper pusher ought to be. That did not bode well for her and Ethan.

“Charlie, you don’t have to get hurt,” Henry said. “I just need those codes. You said you have them all memorized, right? You give them to me and you and the boy get to walk away.”

She grabbed Ethan and pulled him behind a tree so they could catch their breath. There was no way they were going to be able to outrun Henry.

The best thing she could do right now was to get Ethan away from him. Because she had no doubt that Henry was lying about letting them go, even if she gave him the codes. She grabbed Ethan’s hand and began running again. He didn’t complain, just ran as fast as his little legs would carry him, nearly as sure-footed as her. He and Finn must spend a lot of time together out here. She ran until they were both gasping for air, then pulled him behind another large tree.

“Ethan, you play out in these woods with your dad all the time, right?” She could barely get the words out while trying to suck in oxygen.

Ethan just nodded.

“Do you know where you are?”

Another nod.

“We need to split up,” she said. “I’m going to lead the bad guy in the other direction.”

Now the boy shook his head vehemently.

“You’ll be okay. You can hide until your dad comes for you.” She prayed Finn would figure it out and find him.

“We’re not far from Jess’s house,” Ethan said, grabbing her hand. “We can go there. Dad wouldn’t want me to leave you alone.”

She snatched him against her in a hug. He wasn’t scared for himself, but for her.

God, she really did love this kid. Just as much as she loved his dad. And knowing they were close to Peyton’s house made it clear what Charlie needed to do, although she hated using Ethan’s friendship with the girl against him.

“You have to go to Jess’s house, buddy. To protect Jess. Tell Ms. Peyton what happened. She’ll find your dad and he’ll know what to do.”

Ethan looked torn. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“I’ll be okay. It’s Jess who needs you now.”

Ethan nodded. “Babies need someone to protect them. I always try to protect her.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Is that why you like to hang out with her so much? To protect her if she needs it?”

He gave a tiny, heartbreaking shrug. “Nobody protected me when I was a baby. So, I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

She hugged him again. That was why he was hanging out with someone so much younger than him. Not because of some sort of stunted emotional growth on his part, but because he had so much of his father in him that he couldn’t stand the thought of someone innocent getting hurt.

“You’ve got to go to her, buddy. Protect her.”

He nodded solemnly.

“And when you get to your dad, I need you to give him this message. The symbols for fire his pretty chair horse and blue baby eat just when my old dog sleep. That’s a lot. Can you remember that? Think of the symbols in your head if you have to”

He repeated them to her.

“Perfect.” She smiled at him. It was the best she could do. Hopefully Ethan would be able to get the symbols to Finn. “Okay, as quietly as you can, get to Jess. Her mom will call your dad. I’ll see you on the other side, buddy.”

Not if Henry had anything to say about it, but she didn’t care what happened to herself so long as she kept Finn’s son safe. His tiny arms wrapped around her waist and squeezed. She prayed this wouldn’t be her last hug. She squeezed back, and then he let her go and headed silently into the woods. Her little soldier.

She once again was so thankful Finn had taught his son skills to survive. That he had played with him out in these woods for hours, rather than just leaving him to video games.

When the small, black-haired head had disappeared, she went in the opposite direction, making as much noise as reasonably possible. Breathing like she was about to have a heart attack did not require much acting.

She ran as far as she could as fast as she could, trying to give Ethan as much time as possible to get away. Henry was catching up with her—she could feel terror eating away at her insides. Still, his flying tackle caught her off guard. He knocked her to the ground, but she scrambled away again, kicking and punching at him.

“You bitch.” His fist crashed into her jaw, snapping her head to the side. “Where’s the kid?”

She spat out blood where her teeth had cut her cheek. “Gone. Hiding. He’s Finn’s kid. Finn is a survival expert. Don’t you think he taught his son wilderness survival? At least enough to get away from you.”

Thank God that was true.

Henry backhanded her, then yanked her to her feet. “It doesn’t matter. We don’t need him. He doesn’t know who I am, and even if he did, who’s going to believe a kid?”

Finn. Finn would believe Ethan without a single doubt.

“Especially when I’m done spinning this to look like you were behind it and that you ran off with a bunch of money.”

Knowing how bad her finances were, would Finn believe Henry? Think the worst of Charlie? That she’d betrayed him again?

Not that she was going to be around to know.

“What do you want, Henry?”

“I want the code you memorized.”

She shrugged. “Fine. Got a piece of paper?” She’d be glad to write down some random symbols for him.

He yanked her hair back, bringing tears to her eyes. “You think you’re so clever? You’ve been hanging out with Linear Tactical for too long. Those damn Special Forces guys, always thinking they’re God’s gift to humanity. Saving the world one mission at a time. Did you know Bollinger’s nickname in the Army was Eagle? Ironic, considering he couldn’t even see what was right in front of him the whole time. Me.”

“You were the one behind Operation Sparrow? Selling the information about air space?”

Henry rolled his eyes. “That intel’s so small-time, I wouldn’t even get out of bed for that. But believe me, Cline deciding to do it provided the perfect cover for what I’ve been waiting years to do.”

“And what is that?”

“Those codes you have inside your head are what I need to access the override sequence for eight NORAD drones. Once I have them I’ll be able to redirect them anywhere I want or sell them to someone who might like to use the United States’ own weapons technology against them. Do you know how many can be killed with a single drone attack when used correctly?”

She didn’t nor did she care. What she did know was that she was never ever giving him the information inside her head.

He yanked her to her feet. “Give me the code, Charlotte.”

“Wow.” She tapped her finger against her lip, ignoring the pain, the picture of nonchalance. “This opportunity to give you the code and die, or not to and die . . . Let me think about it.” She spat more blood on the ground and glared at him. “I think I’m gonna go with not helping you.”

That got her another fist crashing into her face. She tried not to moan but couldn’t keep it in. As soon as she recovered, she tilted her chin back up. “You may as well kill me now, Henry. I’m not going to give you the information you want.”

“Look at you.” Henry leaned back against a tree. She guessed it was too much to hope he’d get bitten by some unknown bug that would leave him paralyzed. “You’re all tough, just like your Linear boyfriend. He may have taught you quite a bit . . .”

He yanked her closer by the front of her shirt. Finn’s, which she’d put on last night after a shower. She felt it rip. “Did your Special Forces lover teach you how to withstand torture?”

She didn’t say anything. Refused to in case she gave away the terror pulsing through her. Henry gripped her chin and forced her face to within inches of his. “Did he teach you the most fundamental rule of torture?”

She refused to show her fear. “What’s that?”

“No matter how tough you are, how strong you are, how much training you have . . . Everybody eventually breaks. You will too, Charlotte, and you’ll tell me what I want to know.”

Henry pulled out a gun from a holster at his waist and she thought he was going to shoot her. She didn’t even have time to throw up her arms as the gun flew down and cracked her on the back of her skull. All she could do was watch the world fade quickly to black.