Jasper

I’d silenced my phone, but I felt it buzz in my pocket as Sam pulled up to the woodshop. He wasn’t paying attention, too busy grunting and groaning as he hefted his weight out of the seat and onto the ground, so I chanced a quick glance at the screen. A wave of hope washed over me as I read three words.

We’re with you.

Scott had sent me that assurance, trusting that I’d get the message. I wanted so desperately to look around and try to find the car following us, or the men who might already be watching the place, but I trained my eyes straight ahead as I slipped the phone back in my pocket and followed Sam into the shop. “Why are we here?” I asked. I didn’t see any of the others, and all I wanted was to find Mina. If she wasn’t here, I didn’t know if the police would find her in time. I hated not being the one calling the shots.

“We’re waiting,” he said, reaching into the fridge and pulling out a beer. Of course he would. He never seemed to stop drinking these days.

“Waiting for what?” I wasn’t going to relax and pretend I wasn’t anxious. And I wasn’t going to settle for cryptic half sentences that didn’t explain anything. “Are the others coming? Is someone bringing Mina here?”

He drank from the bottle until there was barely a swallow left, and then he smacked his lips and burped loudly. I didn’t react. I didn’t care how foul he was, and I didn’t care how much he enjoyed the beer. I wanted answers. “I made a call earlier, just before you showed up. I’m waiting for an answer, to see if we’ve got a deal.”

“A deal?” What the hell was he talking about. “I swear to Christ, Sam. You better start talking. I don’t care what you’ve got going on. I’ll slice you from neck to nuts before you can even put down that bottle if you don’t tell me something meaningful.”

He grunted and shook his head. “You’re impatient, Jasper. And you’re impulsive. Do you realize that, even if you’d gotten the paintings, you wouldn’t have sold them in time to pay for Cindy’s treatment? And if you had, she was too far gone anyway? She was going to die, no matter what, but your impulsiveness and impatience put an idea into everyone’s head. And even when you did time, no one ever forgot. Hell, maybe that just proves how screwed up in the head we are, but it’s true. So, it might sound cliché, but you brought this on yourself.”

I was fuming. He had no right to bring Cindy into this. And honestly, it wasn’t about the fact that she was my wife, that we’d lost a child in all this, or that I loved her that bothered me. It was the fact that he used her to blame me for the fact that the woman I truly loved, here in the present, was being held hostage and I was being forced into doing something insane. It was the idea that I had to cooperate with the same authorities who wanted to crucify me before, just to make sure that Mina was safe, and still, he blamed me and the way I wanted to take care of Cindy.

“I’m not going to ask again, Sam.” I spoke slowly, in a measured tone, trying to keep the monster at bay. But I saw red, envisioned blood running down his face. I wanted to hurt him, to take out everything that had happened to me since high school on him.

He waved a hand in the air, scowling. “Look, you don’t need details. Let’s just say that some people have a guilty conscience, and others have turned into sociopaths who don’t care about anyone but themselves. In an effort to satisfy both without any further damage, I called someone who might be levelheaded enough to strike a deal that would get us something and get you something. Fair enough?”

I couldn’t even think straight enough to comprehend what he could mean, and I slammed my hand on the table saw. “There’s only one deal here, Sam. You release Mina, and I give you exactly what you want. That’s the deal. If you don’t let her go, you get nothing, and I don’t care how many threats or how much pain you throw my way.”

“Sorry, Jasper, that’s not how it’s going down. She stays, until we get what we want.” I went for him. I couldn’t stop myself as I launched at him, until he pulled a gun. I froze, staring at it in disbelief.

“Don’t make me do something I regret!” he screamed at me. “I’m trying to save some lives and some heartache here, okay? Just calm the fuck down and wait. It’ll all be over soon, one way or another.”

I didn’t know what that was supposed to mean, but it made my blood run cold. I had to think of something, anything, to end this. I felt my phone vibrate again, and I forced myself to calm down enough to think rationally. I had to see who it was, what it said, but I couldn’t chance Sam finding out I had the police on their way already. He’d shoot me on the spot and take off. I didn’t want to die, but I certainly refused to ask for my own death like that. No, I had to be smoother about it.

I held my hands up in surrender and nodded toward a stool. “I’m going to sit down now. I’m sure you can understand, Sam. I’m angry, and I’m hurt. I’m going to be a little irrational, right?”

“Fair enough. Now, add the pressure I’m under into the mix, and maybe you’ll stop acting out like a damn teenager reacting to hormones and thinking with the head in your pants.”

He had a point. I was letting my concern for Mina override my better judgment. She’d be better off if I thought more clearly, without clouding my mind with horrible thoughts of what she was going through. “Who has her?” I asked, calmly. “Who took her?”

“You talked to Eric,” he said, reaching into the fridge for another beer. “He was there, waiting for you to come back. You’re so predictable, you know that? You couldn’t even miss your meeting with your parole officer, could you?”

I didn’t like it. Eric was my exact opposite – completely unpredictable. His trouble with PTSD made him more dangerous that the typical violent man, who you at least knew would explode. With Eric, it was always a question mark. “Is he alone with her?”

“You think I’m stupid?” Sam chuckled, but his expression was grim. “He’s not alone. He’d do something unforgivable if I didn’t have someone to babysit him.”

My mind spun. Tyler? Rick? Jake? All of them? I didn’t know what was worse. “They aren’t all with her. So, where is everyone?” I ventured a guess.

He shook his head. “They’re all close. I asked Rick and Tyler to be scarce until everything’s settled. I didn’t want them interfering with my offer.”

It still wasn’t making sense, and I was low on patience. “What’s the offer, Sam? Is it really that big a deal to tell me?”

He flashed me a glare, and I knew he wasn’t going to tell me. “It doesn’t concern your opinion. In fact, if we make this deal, you’re completely out of the picture, off the hook. So why don’t you just sit back and relax? Everything will come around soon enough.”

I clenched my jaw to keep from railing at him. Whatever he had planned was dangerous, and too much hung in the balance. I couldn’t let it get that far. I had to act, consequences be damned. I thought about my phone as he took another slug of beer, and I had an idea. It was stupid, but it just might work. “Hey, you want to give me one of those? Might calm my nerves.”

He tipped his bottle at me with a haggard smile. “Now, that’s the Jasper I know.” He turned to the fridge, and I pulled my phone far enough out to read the text.

We’re outside.

I typed a quick SOS and tucked it away, bracing to make my move just as Sam straightened with a beer in one hand and the gun still in the other. I leapt for him, before he could turn around, hoping he didn’t get a chance to leverage the pistol at me. I felt the base of the bottle strike my shoulder, and then I heard the glass shatter on the floor. I didn’t know if it had broken against me or not. The pain was intense, but I ignored it, too busy slamming Sam’s arm against the counter. I needed to knock the gun away if I was going to gain control of the situation.

But something – probably Sam’s elbow – collided with my nose, and my vision blurred. I lost my grip on his arm, and he swung around. I grabbed wildly for him, trying to stop the turn of events, but the explosion of the shot rang in my ears, a deafening sound, and I fell back.

Mina

The loud crack interrupted everything, and I froze as Eric and Jake both turned toward the door. “What the hell was that?” Jake asked, sounding close to hysteria. He put up a good front, to the point that I believed he was the worst of the bunch, but I could see something soft and nervous inside him. He’d bitten off more than he could chew, and I hoped I could make that work for me.

“It’s Sam. The gun.” Eric spoke in quick, clipped words, and my heart lurched into my throat. If Sam had a gun, and he was with Jasper…

Jasper didn’t have a weapon on him, as far as I knew. If that was a gunshot I’d heard…I couldn’t even think of the implications without sobbing out loud. I pushed the thought out of my head. it was a car backfiring, or maybe the gun had discharged accidentally. Or it was a warning shot of some kind. It hadn’t landed in Jasper’s chest or head. I couldn’t fathom that.

“Go, now!” Jake shouted at Eric, who took off running at breakneck speed. Jake turned to me, fear plain in the tightness of his features and the wildness of his eyes. “Trust me, lady, I don’t want anyone hurt. If Eric goes in there and finds either of them pointing that gun at the other, he won’t be quick enough to stop them from shooting him. The violence will end there.” He reached behind me with a key and unlocked the cuffs that had left my wrists raw. My shoulders ached as I pulled them in front of me, rubbing the delicate skin.

“Why’d you release me?” I asked, suddenly suspicious. It didn’t seem like the thing to do at a moment when everything had suddenly gone a little haywire.

He shook his head. “If Eric happened to come back, I wouldn’t want you caught in the crossfire. You duck out that window behind you. It’s unlocked.”

“Why don’t you just let me go?” I asked, seeing hope in the situation.

He shook his head. “Tyler and Rick could pull up anytime. If they saw you run, they’d cut you down, and I don’t want you to get hurt. I never wanted it to go this far.” He scoffed, his eyes going dark. “I wanted the money. That’s all. And I saw an opportunity. But when Jasper backed out, when I saw he was happy, I didn’t want to push him. There’s always another way, and I tried to push for it. No one else wanted to do that much work, though.”

“That’s why you asked for the money and offered to let me go.” He nodded, looking away. “It wouldn’t have worked. You know that. One of these other crazy men would have come after me.”

“Not if I put them in prison.” His eyes seared me. “I would have turned myself in, and the rest of them with me. It would have been worth it. I owe Jasper everything. You’re right about that. Life hasn’t been half bad, even if I had to struggle. At least I could live out here, in the open.” He reached behind his back and pulled a pistol out of his waistband. I sucked in a sharp breath, but he backed away. “It’s not for you. It’s to protect you until I can figure out if Jasper’s alive.”

I cringed. He had to be alive, didn’t he? “And if he’s not?” I asked, my voice suddenly hoarse.

“Then I’m going to get you out of here myself. Just trust me.” He walked toward the door, standing against the wall next to it as he peered around, looking for something or someone. When he pulled his head back, he flattened against the surface, gun poised to aim, and waited. His chest barely moved, his breathing shallow, but I could hear it from where I sat. Or maybe that was me, terrified of what was going to happen, what I was going to find out when I got out of this room.

If I got out.

“Where are they?” I asked quietly. “Where are Sam and Jasper?”

“We’re in the shed out back,” he said softly. In other circumstances, I would have inquired about how this could possibly be just a ‘shed’. It was finished, ready to house someone. But now, it didn’t really matter in the grander scheme of things. “I think they’re in the shop. That was the plan.” He cursed under his breath. “I should have just gone and told him you agreed to the money. I shouldn’t have taken the time to argue with Eric and his neurotic ass.”

He pressed his lips together, as if he felt he’d said too much. “By the way, that whole call you heard from Eric when you woke up? That was staged. He wanted you to think Jasper was using you.”

“You can still go,” I urged him. “I won’t move, unless someone comes after me. Okay? You should go see if you can deescalate the situation.” Maybe it wasn’t too late.

But Jake shook his head. “I can’t do anything now. It’s not worth trying.” He came away from the door, pacing back and forth in front of me for a minute and scratching his head with the barrel of the gun. “Eric would have been back by now if something wasn’t wrong. And we would have heard another gun shot before Sam or Jasper got here. It’s all wrong. It’s over.”

He stopped moving, but his hand trembled, and I swallowed hard, not sure what to expect. “Jake, why don’t you put the gun down? You’re a little distraught, and I don’t want you to accidentally pull the trigger, okay?”

“I’m sorry about all of this. It should have never happened. I wish you and Jasper the best, and I mean that.”

There was no inflection in his tone, and I realized what he was about to do. He lifted the gun, placing the barrel under his chin. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. I just shot out of the chair and reached for him. I didn’t want to see anyone die today, and I wasn’t going to let this man kill himself if I could help it. He stepped back, and I fell into him, moving his arm slightly as the boom of the gun releasing the bullet assaulted my ears. It deafened me as I fell to the floor with Jake, and the blackness around the edges of my vision threatened to close in before I could catch a glimpse and find out if I’d managed to save Jake’s life.