Game of Fear (Montgomery Justice #3)(74)

She blinked, her eyes blurring. “I’d just started to lift off when this soldier staggered out of the desert, begging us to stop. He lunged for the helicopter. The lieutenant radioed me to take off. We had to get the patients to base. The soldier fell to his knees.” She shook her head. “God. He raised his hands up to me, his eyes pleading for me to come back, and then someone blew his head off.”

Gabe let out a low curse.

“I found out later he’d been followed. The insurgents took out everyone there. His name was Tate Tinsley.”

“You saved the other soldiers’ lives.”

“Yes, but it’s not their thanks that I remember from that day. It’s his eyes. They haunt me. His family haunts me.”

“If you’d waited, no one might have made it.”

“Maybe. But now, I don’t leave anyone behind. Not unless I know they’ll be safe,” Deb said. “Not ever.”

Gabe pulled her into his arms. “The guys talk about you in the bar, you know,” he murmured, kissing her temple.

Deb gave him a cautious look. “Oh, yeah? What do they say?”

He tucked a strand of auburn hair behind her ear. “Several of the cops have been at locations where you’ve flown. Or they’ve heard Search and Rescue talk. You intimidate the hell out of most of the guys who have seen you in that chopper. They say you can make that bird sing and maneuver in ways no human being should. They say you’ll take the jobs other pilots won’t.” He hesitated. “They say you take risks that are crazy.”

“Maybe I do,” she whispered.

He cupped her cheek. “Take it from someone who knows. Dying won’t make the past go away.”

He leaned forward to take her lips, but his cell phone rang. He reached over and snagged it off the table, his muscles rippling in a most enticing way.

Deb longed to explore his body again. This time more slowly.

“Hi, Luke. What’s up?” Gabe’s brow furrowed, then he shut his eyes. “Damn. Thanks for letting me know.”

Eyes bleak, he turned to Deb. “Ernie’s dead. They found his body in the landfill outside of town. He was missing one of his hands.”

“Oh my God. How?”

“Someone blew his brains out, execution style, and carved snitch across his chest.”




Ashley fell to her knees. “No. Please. Not my brother.”

The Warden grabbed her by the arm and yanked her to her feet. “Come with me.”

She couldn’t think, couldn’t feel. Her entire body had gone numb. She looked back at Justin. He sagged in his chair, then he bent over and vomited on the floor.

The Warden yelled to a guard. “Get Floyd to clean it up.”

He dragged Ashley back to his office and locked them in. “Listen to me, Ms. Lansing. One more step out of line, and I hand you over to my guards. I guarantee you won’t like what they do to you.”

Someone from outside yelled for the Warden, panic in his voice.

“Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” He stalked out.

Ashley blinked back the tears. Ben would hate for her to give in. Maybe it would be okay. Maybe they were lying. Everything else they did was a lie.

Except she knew it was the truth. She knew the game worked. She even knew how.

She glanced up at the clock, barely able to read the time through her blurred vision. She wanted to curl up and cry for her brother. She wanted to call Deb or her father or Rick. Someone. They had to find Ben.

Except she couldn’t do anything. She was a prisoner. With only one way out.

She forced herself to try to read the clock again. This time the numbers stopped dancing. Almost time. Would Justin pull it together enough so he could escape, unseen, from the crowd of kids going to dinner?

Floyd planned to create a diversion by spilling his mop bucket. She hadn’t figured out what she could do yet, but this was their only shot.

Justin and Dave had to be in place when those timed locks released.

She listened at the door. Nothing. No sound.

Would the Warden be gone long enough for her to access anything in here? She dreaded what he might do to her if he found her messing with his things.

Actually, she wondered why she was still alive after the trouble she’d caused already. There was only one possibility. They needed her. That’s why Floyd was still alive. Did he realize getting to the bonus round of Point of Entry meant the game became real? He must. He was brilliant. He had to know every time a kid beat Level 88 they were, in reality, breaking into banking systems, private computer systems, the IRS, Justice Department, Secret Service, FBI, CIA. Even the NSA.

A shudder went through Ashley. The right program could identify the country’s nuclear launch codes. God knew what they were planning to do with all this information.

She scanned the room, then started to yank open the drawers. Most were locked, but a few weren’t. Did she dare grab the scissors? With her luck, they’d be used against her. She wasn’t strong enough to overpower the guards with a stab or two.

She pulled out the top-left drawer and saw the Warden’s tablet. She grabbed it. This she could use. She tried to use the location feature to force the tablet to pinpoint their location. If she could do that, she could tell Justin the best direction in which to go. Maybe forward information about the compound’s location to Deb somehow.