Darting back to the living room, Dani paused at the hallway corner, took a quick peek, but spotted no one. She was certain she’d heard a door. But it wasn’t the front door. She was sure of that. A back patio door? Gun aimed, she peeled off the corner and entered the living room, her eyes searching everywhere. Two patio doors led out to the pool. Dani noted that one of them was unlocked. She opened the door, stepped out onto the back patio. There was a dining table and sectional sofa in front of a built-in fireplace. A black metal railing secured the area around the pool, which looked to drop off significantly into a yard somewhere below. Dani scooted around the outdoor furniture and made her way over to the metal railing. She could see nothing in the grass and woods beyond the yard. But then she heard movement behind her.
Spinning around, Dani came face-to-face with a man with a gun aimed straight at her at about twenty feet away. He was probably in his twenties with a goatee, wearing blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a black leather jacket. She recognized him. He was the same guy from the photo that Carl Kingston had sent over to her earlier. The guy who had Piper freaking out at the birthday party yesterday. Dani kept her gun down, trying to keep herself from being shot. But the look on the guy’s face told her he was going to pull the trigger anyway. Before he did, someone else suddenly appeared from a patio door, rushed the guy, and put his shoulder right into him. Together, the two of them crashed into the metal railing and flipped over it before falling into the yard about ten feet below. Dani raced to the metal railing herself and stared down. The man in the cowboy boots was already scrambling off toward the woods. The other guy who’d tackled him seemed dazed by the fall as he tried to get himself up off the ground.
Dani raised her gun, aimed it down at the guy who’d just saved her life.
“Don’t move!” she commanded.
The man looked up at her.
“Jake?” she said.
THIRTY-THREE
Jake froze. Behind him, the intruder was already disappearing somewhere deeper into the woods. The last few minutes had been a blur. After hearing a noise in the house earlier and a man cursing, Jake had cautiously searched. But his searching had been interrupted by Dani’s sudden and unexpected entrance into the house. Jake had hidden in the media room on the opposite side of the kitchen, waiting for an opportunity to get away. He didn’t want Dani or the FBI thinking he had something to do with Steve’s death. The police were already wrongfully pinning other deaths on him.
Then Jake heard the opening and shutting of a back patio door. He’d carefully crept into the kitchen to get a better look. He couldn’t see anyone at first. When Dani appeared in the living room, he hid behind the kitchen island. He again heard the back patio door open. Jake slipped through the kitchen toward the front door. He was ready to bolt when he took one last peek out to the back patio. First, he’d spotted Dani looking out toward the woods. Then he noticed a man he recognized as Eddie Cowens from the photograph he’d found in the trailer earlier suddenly appear behind her with a gun in his hand. Jake had every opportunity to just run away. To dart out the front door and protect himself. But he couldn’t do that. He’d responded on instinct instead. And now he was staring up at Dani, who had her gun aimed directly at him and seemed ready to pull the trigger—unlike their last encounter in the alley.
“Hey, Dani. Been a long time.”
That’s all he could think to say in this surreal moment. He was staring at a woman who’d once held his heart. A woman he probably should’ve married. Would this same woman now take him down with a bullet?
“Jake . . . why’re you here?”
“Probably the same reason as you. Searching for answers.”
Dani moved closer to the metal railing, her gun still pointed at him. “Steve Kingston is dead.”
“I know.”
Her forehead wrinkled. “Did you . . . ?”
“No, of course not. I’m guessing it was the guy who just got away.”
“Do you know who he is?”
“The same man who took my daughter and is holding her captive somewhere.”
Her forehead bunched. “How do you know that?”
“It’s complicated. You need to put your gun down.”
She held it even firmer. “I can’t, Jake. I have a job to do.”
“I’m innocent, Dani. You have to believe me.”
“I do believe you.”
He tilted his head. “You do?”
“Yes. But you have to turn yourself in right now so I can actually help you.”