Run To Me (Lazarus Rising #4)(30)

Only it hadn’t taken long at all. It had just taken moments for Jay to get the location. Maybe they’d gotten there sooner than Wyman had anticipated.

I don’t like this. Flynn let out a rough sigh. Then he spoke out loud, “Something is wrong.”

Yes, something was very wrong, and Sawyer wasn’t ready to land, not just yet. “Pull up,” he barked at West. “Pull us the hell up and then let’s figure this out. We should sweep over the woods again. Make sure we aren’t missing anything.”

But West gave a negative jerk of his head. “If Wyman’s out there, he’s heard our bird. No way would he miss the chopper. That’s probably why he picked this place. So he could hear a threat coming from miles away. This is our chance. I’m not going to let Jay down.”

This was their chance. It was also Wyman’s chance. Sawyer knew how the guy operated. He’d gotten a firsthand glimpse at the way Wyman’s mind worked. Wyman would eliminate anyone in his way, no hesitations.

“He knew we would come,” Flynn mused. “And he isn’t going to leave some kind of prize sitting inside that empty cabin for us.”

No, he wouldn’t. “Pull up,” Sawyer ordered flatly. “Now.”

Wyman had known they would come, all right. Because he’d wanted them to come? Only maybe the wily bastard had thought Jay would come to the scene, too. After all, Jay was the one baiting the bastard. Jay was the one in the spotlight. Jay was the one with all the fancy tech.

Maybe Wyman had thought Jay would be the one leading the hunt, and if that were the case…

“I see something down there,” Flynn shouted. “Oh, hell—”

Wyman has set a trap for us.

The cabin exploded.





Chapter Eight


An alarm was beeping. A slow, steady sound. Jay hadn’t been sleeping. How the fuck was he supposed to sleep? He’d left Willow upstairs, naked, in his bed. She’d been sleeping. He’d slipped downstairs to wait, hoping for word from West.

Instead of a call from his brother, he’d just gotten an alarm blast on his computer. He sat in front of the double monitors, his fingers flying over the keyboard. He pulled up exterior shots of his grounds, searching for the guards, but they weren’t at their posts.

They’re not at their fucking posts.

And the alarm had just shut off. Only he hadn’t been the one to deactivate the alarm.

He stiffened, right before his office was plunged into total darkness.

Jay knew someone had just cut the power to his home. He also knew that his generator would have power flowing back on within fifteen seconds. Jay yanked open his top desk drawer, counting as he did so. He found the weapon inside, he yanked it up, and he spun around.

Ten, nine, eight…

He heard the creak of his study door sliding open.

“I’ve got a gun on you, you sonofabitch,” Jay growled.

Seven, six, five…

He eased from his chair, slipped to the side. “Did you think I wouldn’t expect you to show up here? Why do you think I stayed behind? Because I don’t trust your ass.”

Two, one…

The lights flickered back on. And Jay found himself staring across the room at none other than Wyman Wright.

Except…the guy looked different.

Thinner. And his hair had been dyed a muddy brown. He wore contacts that turned his eyes green. The man looked as if he’d had a nose job, and his jaw shape was a little different, too. Rounder. If Jay hadn’t studied the bastard so thoroughly, if he hadn’t made Wyman Wright into his damn obsession, he might not have even recognized the fellow at first glance—

“Put the gun down, you fool,” Wyman snapped. The voice—the voice was the exact same. “We both know you aren’t a killer.”

“You don’t know anything about me.” Jay didn’t lower the gun. “Who else is in the house?” When he’d grabbed the gun from the top drawer, he’d also taken the liberty of triggering the alarm he had wired in that drawer. An alarm that would send a message to guards who weren’t at that location, but a secondary team that would be arriving within five minutes. He’d tried to have plenty of back-up plans in place, just in case.

“I didn’t bring any men in with me.” Wyman’s hands were at his sides. He didn’t look armed, but Jay was willing to bet the guy had a gun and probably a couple of knives on him.

“You just left them outside?” Jay snarled at Wyman, his body still tense. “If they’ve hurt the security guards I had on patrol—”

Wyman shrugged. “Your guards are unconscious, not dead. And my men are making sure they stay that way.” He exhaled. “I get annoyed when people point guns at me.”

“And I get pissed when a shady asshole breaks into my home and knocks out my guards, so I guess we’re even, huh?”

Wyman’s gaze went glacial. “We are a very long way from even.”

Jay knew he just had to keep the guy there for five minutes. Five minutes. “You look pretty good for a dead man.”

Wyman just glared at him.

Jay smiled. “She brought you out, didn’t she? I figured she would. Willow was different from the others, I knew it right away.”

“Willow is special.” Wyman’s jaw hardened. “Very special.”