Infinite Possibilities (The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #2)(58)

“I’m going to shoot straight with you because I think it’s the only way you can make a clear decision about what comes next.”

I clutch the blanket on the bed. “What does that mean?”

“It means, Chad was urgent and whispering on the call, clearly hiding. He said…” He hesitates, a muscle flexing in his whisker-dusted jaw.

“He said what?” I demand.

“He said he wasn’t going to make it through the night and all he cared about was you.”

“No. No. That can’t be. You said--”

“I haven’t given up hope on him. He was calling me to ensure you survived. He’s a survivor too, though, Amy. We will fight for him. I promise you.”

Hope is my enemy. It’s worse than lies. It promises and it takes back. It teases and it rips my heart out. “What else did he say?”

“He told me he left you instructions to protect yourself and 111 is the way to do it, whatever that means.”

“111,” I murmur and at first I think of the locker number at JFK where he’d left me a note but another memory surfaces. He and I had been at a dig site in Egypt, alone in a tent, hanging out as we often did, and Chad was stuffing pieces of paper he’d written on in an old wine bottle.

“What is it?” I’d asked.

“One hundred reasons why and eleven *s.”

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing I ever want you to understand.”

“You know what it means?”

“It’s his lucky number,” I say, and know what it means and where to find it. “He used it for a lot of things. What else?”

“He told me to tell you he’s sorry this hell happened and he knows you can never forgive him, but he loves you.That was it,” he adds. “The line went dead.”

My breath hitches and I lower my head, pressing my hand to my forehead. I’ve lost him before I ever found him again. No. No. No. I push to my feet and start for the door. Jared grabs my arm. “Whoa. Where are you going?”

“They have my brother. They gave me four days to get them what they want or they’ll kill him. Maybe 111 is what they want. I have to go now.”

“You know what he was telling you with 111?”

“Yes.” I tug on my arm. “I need to go. We need to go now.”

He doesn’t budge. “Who is ‘they’ and how did ‘they’ contact you?”

“I don’t know who ‘they’ are. The man in the photo. Oil people. The Underground. It could be any of them but right now I don’t even care. I just want to know what 111 tells me before they kill him.”

“How do you know they plan to kill him?”

“Meg. She showed me a note and a text message. That’s how she got me to go with her. That’s why I used the ID. There was no time to travel and I had no resources for a new one. I have to figure out what they want.”

“We need to think before we act. They’ll be watching. They could take whatever you’re after from you and kill him.”

“If they haven’t already.”

“They won’t kill him if they think he’s the way to motivate you to give them what they want. And they won’t kill you if they think you know what that is. Chad isn’t a fool. He’s knows how to spin information.”

I shove his chest. “We can’t just stand here. What I’m thinking of might not even be what they want. I have to get it. There’s no time.”

“I just told you. They aren’t going to kill him if they think you have what they want.”

“You don’t even know who ‘they’ are or what they want so you can’t be sure.”

A knock sounds on the door and Liam’s voice follows. “Amy.”

My heart lurches, and a mix of dread and absolute happiness fill me but Jared pulls me to him, keeping me grounded in the reality of my life and the hell I live in. “What ‘they’ might do is kill lover boy out there as an example and leave Chad alive. Get rid of him. Tell him you’re f*cking me. Tell him that you used him for money to save your brother. Whatever you have to say, you get rid of him. And if you can’t, be worried he’s one of them. Understand?”

“Yes. Yes, you’re right.”

He studies me a moment, his stare probing, then sets me away from him, reaching for Berta. “Why do you need that?”

“Amy, damn it, open up,” Liam shouts.

Jared ignores the demand and answers me, “Making sure neither of us end up dead,” he replies, walking toward the door. There’s a grace and comfort to the way he handles the weapon that says experience. Lots of experience. He is far more than a hacker and I suddenly want to warn Liam.

I turn for my purse, intending to reach for my weapon, but I never get the chance. Jared unlocks the door and it bursts open. Tellar stalks into the room, and his empty shoulder holster is resting over his t-shirt and jeans, his gun pointed at Jared.

I blink and Tellar and Jared are split at the foot of each bed, both stiff-armed and pointing weapons at each other. Watching them, I back against the nightstand but then Liam steps into the room, and I see no one but him. In distressed jeans and a pale blue t-shirt, he oozes exactly what he did the first night I met him. Money, power, sexy, but he is so much more to me now. He is compassion, trust...love.