Jenkins refused to answer.
Things progressed for several minutes. Finally, he broke. “General Sinclair! It was the General who gave the orders. We’re acting on government authority!”
“To murder children?”
“Not murder. We were supposed to take her and bring her to the General. That’s all.”
“How did you know which house was hers?”
The hostile winced. “The General knew. He had a map of the town and circled the road and the house. Once we penetrated the perimeter, we surveilled the house all afternoon. I saw the woman bring the baby here. We waited until everyone was asleep and in-between patrols. Then we broke in. Get in, get the baby, get out. Those were our orders.”
“There are two babies. You were after them both?”
“Just the girl. Didn’t know there was another kid. Almost grabbed that one by accident. It was the girl he wanted.”
“Why?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
Liam went at him again.
The hostile convulsed like electric volts were shooting through him. When he could speak again, he said, “The kid is related to him! A granddaughter? Great-granddaughter? I don’t know! Hell, it hurts!”
Shaken, Liam sat back. Cold sweat broke out on his brow.
His mind whirled, cycling through the possibilities, the ramifications, what this meant for them, for Fall Creek and for Hannah.
The General knew.
Rosamond hadn’t shown a shred of interest regarding her blood ties to her granddaughter. Evidently, her father felt differently.
That mealworm scumbag Sutter had told the General about Charlotte. Or else Luther had.
Maybe Luther was playing both sides.
If he was, Liam would find him and filet his skin from his skeleton.
“That’s why the General hasn’t attacked yet,” Jenkins wheezed. His eyelids fluttered. His makeshift bandages leaked thick dark blood. A widening puddle stained the carpet beneath him. “Just…waiting on the…kid. He’s gonna blast you terrorists to hell…”
Once he had the intel he needed, Liam gave Jenkins a quick death, as he’d promised.
He stood slowly, back twinging, and wiped his hands on a towel. He cleaned his tactical knife and sheathed it.
Sickened, he turned from the corpse.
He’d done what he had to do. If it meant he kept his loved ones safe, he would let his soul burn for eternity.
“What does this mean?” Reynoso asked, dismayed.
Liam couldn’t answer him. He needed to talk to his spy. He needed information.
He seized the radio, switched to the correct channel, and radioed Luther.
The radio hissed static. There was no answer. It wasn’t their prescribed check-in time. Besides, without the repeater stations, the radio was out of range.
Dread settled in his gut like a block of ice. Liam tried again and again.
Again and again, nothing.
32
Hannah
Day One Hundred and Ten
“It’s not over,” Hannah whispered.
“It is for tonight,” Liam said. “You’re safe now.”
She didn’t feel like it. Try as she might, she couldn’t still the fear pulsing through her. She couldn’t stop trembling.
Reynoso and Perez had conducted a thorough search of Fall Creek, and Liam had ordered increased patrols and twenty-four seven surveillance of Hannah’s house. He refused to leave her side.
Lightning flashed outside the window. A moment later, thunder rumbled.
A storm was coming.
Hannah was back home, Liam with her. They sat on the sofa, Milo and Charlotte asleep in their beds. The fire crackled in the fireplace as orange shadows flickered along the walls.
Ghost stretched out in front of the hearth, alert but rested his head on his front paws, his brown eyes watching their every move. Every so often, he’d nose his injured hind leg and give a plaintive whine.
It was three a.m. Neither she nor Liam had slept.
Anxiety wound a knot in Hannah’s belly and wouldn’t let go. Her mind kept rewinding and replaying the night’s events. “What if I’d missed? What if Charlotte was seriously hurt? What if—”
“You did everything right,” Liam said.
“She could’ve died. L.J., Milo. Evelyn and Travis—”
“They didn’t. You can’t beat yourself up about what might have been.”
She nodded dully.
“You did good,” Liam said, pride in his voice. “The bad guys are dead, and you aren’t. Charlotte is safe. You’re safe.”
“I killed a man tonight.”
“You did what you had to do.”
She stared at the fire. The flickering flames danced and blurred. “I didn’t miss, Liam. I was scared to death, but I didn’t miss.”
Not like before. She remembered the night of the blizzard, trapped in the house with Pike. The confrontation in the hallway when she could’ve shot him dead but missed, her hands shaking with panic, her bad hand unusable.
How much had changed.
She had changed. She was stronger.
Still afraid, but fear wasn’t a lack of courage. True courage was action in the face of fear.
And she’d acted.
“That makes you strong, Hannah.”
She looked at him with burning eyes. “He wants you dead. He wants my baby.”
“He’s not going to get what he wants.”
She shuddered. “This family is poison. It’s like they never die. When Pike was chasing us, that’s how it felt, like he was the devil himself.”
“He wasn’t, though. You killed him. He was a human being, just like General Sinclair. He can be killed.”
Hannah rubbed her crooked fingers. “The evil in that family. Do you think it started with Rosamond’s father? What if it’s a genetic curse passed from generation to generation?”
“We all have choices,” Liam reminded her. “No one is born evil.”
“What if Charlotte has it?”
“She doesn’t. She won’t. You’re raising her with love, kindness, everything good.”
Her chest went tight. Now that the danger was over, she was shaky and weak. The tension and fear crashed down upon her. The stress, the pressure, the exhaustion. She couldn’t get enough oxygen.