it?”
“I’ve got it,” he said, pulling a set of zip ties from his pocket. He pulled the bald man’s arms behind his back and slipped them on, pulling it tight.
I checked on my mom over my shoulder. “Mom, are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
“I’m fine. Angel, what are you doing? How did you find me, and who is this?”
“Oh, Mom, meet Jax. Jax, this is my mom.”
“Please to meet you, ma’am,” he said without looking up, pulling the ties tight around the guy’s legs. “Is there anyone else in the house?”
She shook her head. “No. There was only me and him.” She pointed at Baldy. “Then tonight another man with a funny voice showed up.”
“Glen Sampson. He’s using a voice modulator.” I unwound the scarf from my neck and handed it to Jax. “Here, use this for a gag.”
“Thanks,” he said before wrapping my scarf around the guy’s head and mouth and knotting it into a ball before stuffing it into his mouth. I wondered which class at UTOP would have hog-tying and gagging in the syllabus. Jax already seemed to have the skill, and I wondered where and how he’d learned to do that. I guessed that would have to be a conversation for another time.
Jax straightened, helping both me and my mom to our feet. He slipped off his jacket and wrapped it around my mom. “Get her to the car while I haul this guy over there so that he can’t be rescued and come after us. He’s already coming around.” We all looked at him as he began to twitch and moan.
“She can barely walk, Jax,” I said. “Her legs are still tied together. Do you have a knife or something I can cut the zip ties with?”
Jax pulled out a pocketknife and bent down in front of my mom. “Hold still,” he said, sawing the zip tie in half. “That should be good for now. We’ll get the rest of it later.”
“Thank you,” my mom said as Jax slipped his pocketknife back into his pocket, grabbed the bald man’s arms, and started dragging him away.
“Who exactly is Jax?” my mom asked me as we limped through the forest toward the cars.
“I’ll explain later,” I whispered. “We have to stay quiet now.”
Since Mom’s legs were weak, I insisted she put an arm around my shoulders so I could support her as we walked. It seemed to take forever just to go a few steps. I was already tiring, my shoulders screaming from her weight, even though she probably weighed less than me. I felt like we were making an incredible amount of noise as we moved, but no one had accosted us yet, and I hadn’t heard Mike report that Sampson had left the house yet looking for his buddy.
Actually, I hadn’t heard Mike or Kira or anyone report for a couple of minutes now. “Report. Is anyone there?” I asked.
No response.
Panic gripped my throat, but I couldn’t worry about it, because my mom tripped over a root we hadn’t seen. I couldn’t stop her fall, so we both tumbled to the ground. If anyone had been tracking us, we’d be as easy to find as a herd of elephants.
Spitting pine needles out of my mouth, I rose to my knees and began helping Mom up again. “We have to hurry,” I whispered.
“Okay, but—”
She never got to finish, because someone clamped down hard on my shoulder, twisting me around. Another flashlight clicked on, this one inches from my eyeballs, blinding me completely. I squeezed my eyes shut, reaching out for my mom, but meeting only air.
“What’s going on here?” a man said.
Chapter Forty-Four
ISAAC REMINGTON
Isaac picked up Thai food on the way home from work. He’d stayed late preparing for his meeting with the director selection board the next day. After a long, steaming shower and a change of clothes, he heated up the food and opened an excellent bottle of pinot gris to go with it. He let the wine breathe a bit before pouring it into a wineglass and taking a sip.
Perfection.
He leaned back in his chair at the dining room table, listening to classical music playing in the background, and enjoyed the moment. He’d just picked up his fork to resume eating when he heard the ping of his cell phone. Annoyed at the interruption, he stood and went to the kitchen to check his phone. The text had not come on his personal cell, but the burner phone.
I relayed the message. The