Storm (Linear Tactical #10) - Janie Crouch Page 0,67

phone, but one specific sentence from Tanner had Noah’s own spider senses tingling.

“I’m just wondering if maybe Jared Ellis found a weakness none of us were considering.”

Shit.

What Tanner had said earlier now became perfectly clear. There are no weak links in the computer system.

Ellis wasn’t an expert in computers, so he wouldn’t have tried to outsmart everyone that way. He was a sociopath—an expert in manipulating people. That’s how he would’ve outsmarted the system.

Noah jumped up and had paid for the beers by the time Tanner disconnected his call. The look on his brother’s face was not reassuring. They rushed toward the door.

“This all may be nothing,” Tanner said. “I could be grasping at things that aren’t there.”

“Until we know for sure, I think we need to head back to New Journeys. No harm in checking on Marilyn and the kids and standing guard there until we have multiple eyewitness accounts that Ellis is, in fact, still in Denver.”

“I don’t want to get Marilyn nervous if there’s no reason to.”

Noah shook his head. “Believe me, I don’t want to, either.”

But she could handle it. His tiny warrior could handle it. She’d rather know and face the fight head-on.

They rode together in Tanner’s SUV to New Journeys. Both of them were checking the darkness for anything unfamiliar, person or otherwise, as they walked to the door. Ronnie was still there and reported that he’d been walking the perimeter and hadn’t seen anything.

Tanner rang the bell, Noah and him both keeping their faces clearly in range of the security camera so whoever was answering the door wouldn’t get worried. It was nearly midnight, after all. Within just a few seconds the door opened.

“Hi, Tanner,” Francis said. “Bree isn’t here.”

“I know. Actually, we’re looking for Marilyn and the kids.”

“She’s not here, either.”

Tension flooded Noah’s entire body. “What? I just brought her back over here myself not even an hour ago.”

He knew he needed to tone it down a little when Francis involuntary step back. He muttered an apology.

Tanner took over with the charm Noah was never going to have. “How about the kids?” He smiled again. “Are they here?”

“Yes, they’re both in bed asleep. Marilyn went back out to see Bree. Said something about how she wasn’t a marmot and that a good bottle of wine was a terrible thing to waste.”

That made sense. Marilyn wanted to be a good friend. Noah turned from the doorway to look out into the darkness. Why did something not feel right about this whole situation?

Tanner continued to handle Francis. “It’s good for Bree to have someone hanging out with her the night before the wedding.”

Francis nodded. “That’s what Marilyn and I thought, too. Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything’s fine. Just do me a favor. Call it pre-wedding jitters or whatever, but just don’t open the door to anyone you don’t know personally, okay?”

Francis smiled. “Trust me, I never do. But I’ll make sure.”

“I’ll see you at the wedding tomorrow.”

Tanner looked over at him as they both heard the door lock behind them. They shrugged at each other. It had been one hell of a week—truly running the gamut of emotions. Maybe they both had pre-wedding jitters, looking for danger that wasn’t there.

Tanner was saying just that when the phone rang in his hand. He laughed. “That’s probably Marshal Brickman now. Probably going to tell me that Sowers requests that I stop being such an overprotective jackass and let him do his job.”

Tanner pressed the speaker icon so they could both hear. “Marshal. I’m sure I probably owe you an apol—”

“Dempsey, you were right. Ellis had someone holding Sowers’s wife and baby hostage. Ellis is gone.”

Ellis was gone.

Brickman kept talking, but Noah and Tanner were already sprinting for the SUV. Noah had his phone and called Marilyn, but it went straight to voicemail.

Shit. He needed to get to her right damn now.

25

“Bree, it’s me!” Marilyn pounded on Bree’s door, smiling. “I couldn’t leave you on the night before your wedding!”

Coming here was the right decision. She was not a marmot anymore. She was not going to just hunker down and survive.

And damn it, she was not going to let Jared steal any more of her life. He was desperate to get her attention, and now that his friends were dead, maybe he would resort to other scare tactics, like messing with the ankle monitor, knowing it would cause a commotion.

Well, she wasn’t going to jump through his hoops anymore. She’d take it one day at a time until