All He Has Left(55)

“She’s not here. Get off my property.”

“You’re lying. Get out of my way!”

Jake moved toward the door, but Lars didn’t budge. There was no way Jake was going to allow this man to slow him down. Not after everything he’d been put through to get here. So Jake punched his father-in-law as hard as he could in the gut. It felt good. The man let out a grunt and doubled over. Jake rushed past him into the house and started searching. There was no one in the study or a guest bedroom. The end of a hallway led him into a spacious master suite. The lights were off in the bedroom, and the shades were drawn. Someone was under the covers in the king-size bed. Jake’s heart was on the verge of exploding. He rushed over to the bed. Piper.

She was asleep. Jake stood there for a moment as every emotion he’d been holding on to so tightly rushed through him. He’d found her. He’d kept his promise. She was safe. But he knew they had to get out of there. Jake gently nudged her awake, so as to not frighten her. His daughter’s eyes fluttered open. When she recognized her father standing over her, Piper lunged at him with both arms. “Daddy!”

Jake pulled her in close, holding her so tightly. Tears flooded his eyes as a powerful relief he’d never experienced before flowed through him.





FORTY-ONE


Dani had followed Lars Kingston back to a secluded house near Lake Austin. Because she’d been suspended, she had no real authority to directly confront the man. So she parked just up the street and tried to sort out her game plan moving forward. She wanted to be careful that her engagement with this matter didn’t jeopardize the FBI’s official investigation. Wealthy people with powerful attorneys had ways of ripping holes in investigations in court. If Lars was behind the hiring of Logan Gervais, as she suspected, she didn’t want him getting away with it on a technicality. But then, in her rearview mirror, she noticed a white truck suddenly park right outside the gated driveway. A man got out. Dani perked up. It was Jake, and he was in a hurry. Jake quickly climbed over the security gate and rushed up the driveway. Something big was about to go down. Dani knew she couldn’t tap-dance her way around this anymore.

She reached for her phone, called Mitchell.

“How’re you doing, Dani?”

“I’m sending you a location. I need a team here ASAP.”

“What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain when you get here.”

“But you’re suspended.”

“Just get over here, Mitchell!”

Dani hung up, climbed out of her vehicle, and raced over to the gate.





FORTY-TWO


“Are you OK?” Jake asked his daughter.

He couldn’t stop hugging her. They had their arms tightly wrapped around each other. Over the past several hours, he’d tried so hard to not think about how he’d even go on with life if he lost her, but the dreaded thought constantly hovered just below the surface. To finally release it from his mind was surreal.

“Yes, just really scared. What is going on, Daddy? Grandpa won’t tell me anything.”

“You’re safe now. With me. But we need to get out of here right away.”

“OK. But I really need to go to the bathroom.”

“Go, but be quick.”

Jake hugged her tightly again. Then he watched her hurry into the master bathroom. Stepping out of the bedroom, Jake was eager to find a phone and call the police himself. He didn’t want Lars driving off and then trying to grab a private jet out of the country. The man had the means to go hide anywhere. He wasn’t going to let Lars get away. While his father-in-law wasn’t responsible for Piper’s abduction, Lars’s actions had caused the deaths of several other people—and nearly Jake.

When he returned to the living room, he found himself once again standing in front of his father-in-law. Lars hadn’t tried to leave. Instead, he was taking a different approach. One Jake hadn’t anticipated since he’d never known Lars to own a weapon. But now, Lars had a gun in his hand and was aiming it directly at Jake.

Jake stiffened. Had he come this far only to be stopped by a bullet from his bitter father-in-law? Had he risked everything just to have it end this way? He couldn’t let this happen. “Don’t do this, Lars. Please. Piper is in the next room.”

“I should have done this a long time ago. Sarah deserved so much better than you.”

The man had an unstable look in his eyes. One Jake had never seen before.

“I loved your daughter. And she loved me. Sarah would not want this.”

“Piper should be with us. Not you.”

“This isn’t the answer. Hasn’t this family seen enough death? Sarah. Caitlin. Steve.”

Jake’s mention of Steve’s death seemed to jar Lars. His forehead bunched, and his eyes started twitching, like he was having a difficult time processing it. It dawned on Jake that the man didn’t know his youngest son was also dead. Lars must’ve been ignoring his phone for the past hour.

“This has to stop,” Jake said. “It’s over.”

He watched as his father-in-law’s face pulsed red with rage. “It’s over when I say it’s over. Not you.” He was not putting the gun down. If anything, Lars was clutching it even tighter. The man had lost any sense of reality. He was so far over the edge now. Jake looked around for a way to defend himself. He was too far away from Lars to make a move for the gun. If Lars wanted him gone, finally and forever, Jake could do nothing about it.