Behind the Lies (Montgomery Justice #2)(83)

The room was silent.

Zach struggled to breathe against the clamp of emotion squeezing his chest. Jenna’s desperate fear nearly stopped his heart. He had to save her.

With a shaking hand, he reclicked the link. The feed was gone.

Jenna was gone.

He rounded on Luke. “Tell me you can track the signal.”

His brother’s agonized expression shredded Zach’s hope.

“I won’t give up until I do.” Luke pounded on the keyboard for a few seconds, then muttered a curse. “Zach, you have to know…if he’s smart enough, I may need another feed before I can hone in.”

Zach’s eyes closed and he raised his head to heaven. That meant Jenna would be at the madman’s mercy. “Pendar was executed, Luke. I refuse to watch Jenna and Sam being gunned down over the damned Internet by the guy’s brother-in-law.”

Brad cut in. “What do you mean Sam? He wasn’t there.” The assassin stood, his face had gone pale. His hands tugged against the bindings.

“Tie him to the damn chair,” Zach growled, pressing the gun into Brad’s temple, “or I swear to God I’ll shoot him. For all I know the * that kidnapped her is working for Walters.”

“Think what you want, Montgomery, but I’d never put my son in danger like that.”

“Yeah, you’d only beat the crap out of his mother so he thinks that’s normal.”

Seth pushed Zach aside and grabbed Brad’s collar. “If Zach doesn’t kill you,” Seth said, smiling, “I’ll enjoy taking a wife abuser like you apart piece by piece.” The soldier slapped duct tape over Brad’s mouth. “I should let Zach kill you now. Be thankful we have more important business.” Seth glanced at his watch. “She disappeared less than two hours ago. They’re still in Colorado. He’d be hard-pressed to get her out of the Denver area and to another location, even via plane.” He looked at Luke. “We need more help.”

“I already sent texts to Gabe and Jazz. Once we locate this guy—” Luke sent a quizzical look to Zach.

“Farzam,” Zach replied. “His name is Farzam.”

“Right. Once we locate the *, we’ll need support.”

“What about SWAT?” Seth asked.

Zach paced back and forth. He shoved his hand through his hair. “I can’t risk it. I don’t know who in law enforcement we can trust. Not after the FBI involvement. We’re on our own to find them.”

He forced his mind to calm and replayed the scene in his head, frame by frame, using every observation skill he’d ever learned—as an actor and an operative. “The walls were void of anything personal. The room was small, abandoned. I only saw the one chair.”

Luke pressed a button and leaned in.

The video played on his computer.

“You recorded it?” Zach bit, wanting to look away, but unable to stop staring. He pushed Jenna’s beautiful, pained eyes away and studied the surroundings. “Loop it. Turn the sound up.”

Luke complied. For several minutes they stared at the screen. It wasn’t long before Jazz and Gabe joined them.

She went directly to Zach and hugged him tight. “I’m so sorry.”

“Tell me what you see,” he said to the woman whose sniper eyes took in more details than Zach could fathom.

The video played again.

“I recognize the sound in the background,” Jazz said. “Train. I grew up not far from a set of tracks in New Mexico.”

Luke pulled up a Denver map on the laptop, clicking an icon to reveal the railroad lines crisscrossing the area.

“We need to narrow it down more. We can never cover that many square miles of territory,” Gabe said.

“Small house. Boarded up, abandoned,” Seth commented. “Wood. On the inside anyway.”

“Not enough to go on.” Zach’s gut ached. He rubbed his temples. This couldn’t be happening. Not again. Was he about to lose someone else he…loved?

Yes, damn it, he loved Jenna. And Sam.

And now, his life—his own actions—had come back to destroy everything.

First his father, now Jenna.

Zach straightened and thrust his hands through his hair. No. Not this time.

“We have to find them,” he said to his family. “We have to find a way.”

Seth placed a hand on his shoulder. “We will.” Gabe, Luke, and Jazz nodded in agreement. “We’ll get them back for you,” they vowed.

Zach clung to the long shot. He refused to accept he’d found Jenna and Sam only to lose them now.




The small room closed in on Jenna, and she couldn’t stop the chill invading her body.

Her captor closed the phone. “The fool will come. You are his weakness.”

The man was going to kill Zach. Of that Jenna had no doubt. Unless she got away.

“Why are you doing this?”

Her kidnapper didn’t respond. He left the house and returned with a squirming Sam in his arms. “Be quiet or I’ll stuff the rag back in her mouth,” their captor warned. He turned to Jenna. “You love your son?”

Jenna’s heart stuttered. “Of course.”

“You would do anything for him? Even kill?”

Jenna swallowed.