Page 141 of Lethal Danger

He could’ve tried to get closer to Rebekah like she’d wanted. Could’ve invited her over or hung out with her instead of only seeing her when she wanted news about Sam. He could have told her about the way guys tend to think and the dangers of dressing too scantily. He could have asked her if she was careful not to walk to her car alone at night. If she knew any self-defense.

He could have tried to get to know her, learn who she really was beyond the girl who grieved her boyfriend’s death. They could have done fun things together.

He should have told her about Christ and salvation through Him.

Now it might be too late. For all of those things.

Hawthorne’s heart felt like someone was squeezing it in a vise, trying to crush it completely.

Dear God, please don’t let my mistake cost Rebekah her life.

He still had his freedom. But what would that be worth if keeping it sacrificed his sister?

“Uncle Pierce? What are you doing?” Jazz’s voice came out weak, strangled by the horror filling her lungs.

He smiled, still holding the suppressor-equipped gun to the poor girl’s head. It wasn’t his new smile, the one that was warm and gentle, full of approval and love.

No, it was the old smile. The condescending smile that meant she’d better get out of his way if she knew what was good for her. “I thought you might have grown into a reasonably intelligent person. What does it look like I’m doing?”

Jazz stared at him, her mind as frozen as her body. She couldn’t figure it out. Who was the girl he was threatening to kill? And who was the man on the ground who still hadn’t moved?

She couldn’t make the leap from her uncle’s desperate call, saying he’d been kidnapped, to the scene unfolding in front of her. “Where’s Butch? Or is he not even here?”

“Oh, he’s here. Behind you.”

The man on the floor. She didn’t dare turn her back on Uncle Pierce to confirm it. “Is he dead?”

“I certainly hope so. That was my intention when I choked him that long.”

“You choked Butch?” The man was thickly built and muscled, though not as tall as Uncle Pierce.

“I was in the Army, too, remember? They taught us those things even back in my day.” A coldness seeped into Uncle Pierce’s eyes.

The girl in a hold he could turn into a choke at any moment became paler by the second as tears streaked her cheeks. Whoever she was, Jazz had to get her away from him.

“Okay.” Jazz held up a hand, palm out. “Why don’t you let the girl go, and we can talk about whatever is going on here.”

“Let the girl go? Come now, Jazz. You know I’m not stupid. She’s the only reason you haven’t tried to take me down already. Isn’t she?”

That and the fact that shock seemed to be seeping into every inch of Jazz’s body, shutting down the function of most of her limbs with a numbing sensation.

This had to be a mistake, some massive miscommunication. Her uncle was not a criminal. He didn’t kill people.

He was her future. Her family. The only person who accepted her and loved her.

She wasn’t losing that. She couldn’t.

“Uncle Pierce, this doesn’t make sense. This isn’t who you are. Just tell me what’s wrong, and we can fix it together. Whatever it is, I can help you get through it.”

“You?” A sardonic laugh popped from his mouth, echoing in the large building. “That would be ironic, to say the least, considering you’ve been the problem from the beginning.”

He shifted the girl to the side slightly, as if to have a clearer path to level at Jazz the fiercest glare she had ever seen. “You’re the reason I’m in this mess. I have to do this because of you. I had to do it all because of you.”

The words would have hurt more if they made sense. But they seemed to be the ravings of insanity. “I don’t understand.”

“No, you never understood, did you? But you would have someday. When you came across the evidence in Lawrence’s things.”

Dad’s things…Was that why Uncle Pierce had wanted to go through them with her? But she still had no idea what he was talking about. “What evidence? Of what?”

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