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Javier raises his gun at me, that last bullet I knohy he didn’t use it on her

I stand frozen, one hand still on the wall behind me, the other somehow made its way tothere I stuainst the wall to let it hold s weak and unstable, threatening to give way beneathJavier and I I stare into his cold, bottoun pointed directly at me, but his eyes I hear a click, just a click, and we look blankly into each other’s faces, both of us confused by what just happened Then a shot rings out and ainst the ithon the floor just like Samantha Limp and spent, just like Samantha The rooray

And I close my eyes and let the darkness take me

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Victor

I’et the call

"Victor," Niklas says into the phone, "Javier is not in Tucson He was reported to have used a known credit card with an old alias, just outside of La Grange, Texas"

I raise my back stiffly from the seat

"That’s less than a two hour drive to Houston," I point out, more to myself "At what time did the card process?"

"At three-twelve this afternoon"

My body beco up the phone, I crush it in my fist down at my side as I make my way to the cockpit

"Turn the plane around," I deh traffic heedlessly, I knoing unneeded attention to hts, not knowing how I ed to drive all the way back to Sah-speed chase on my way there

There’s a car parked out front on the street between Sa that one before I left With et out and rush up the driveway, using Sahts on inside the house It’s unusually quiet Saled up in theblind by now, trying to see out after hearing a vehicle pull up

I hear another, larger dog, barking in the backyard of the opposite neighbor and I stay crouched low,my way underneath the carport and next to the older car parked there

One figure ees from the side of the house just after I move silently across the space and rab him by the throat too fast for hiun hits the concrete and in that sah his temple before he has a chance to seize it

Anotherfor the man I just killed I don’t wait for hiht out in front of hiet rass

I wait only seconds in case there are anyh the side door underneath the carport

The house has been destroyed; Saun sne

The first body I see is Samantha’s The second, Javier’s

"Sarai?" I say when I see her sitting against the wall to my left, partially hidden by the darkness I take off o over to her "Sarai?"

She doesn’t look up at un I left underneath her mattress lies next to her foot I slip it into the back of ainst her chest, her hands lay palm-up beside her on the floor

"He’s dead," she says, her words distant as if she’s still trying to process the truth She raises her eyes to me; pain and confusion and disorientation reside within them "I killed hioing to get you out of here"

Holding her close to h the death and debris and out of the house She doesn’t speak, but she holds onto me as if she’s terrified I’ll drop her Or, perhaps, terrified I’ll intentionally let her go

I set her carefully in the passenger’s seat

Three police cars fly past toward Sa the speed limit this time around

Sarai is quiet and motionless, emotionless, all the way back to the private airport where the jet awaits us