Page 59 of Cold Case Discovery

Jen Rogers knew how to get away with murder, and he had to put that knowledge away. Set it aside so they could figure out how not to be her next victims.

Jack wondered if Jen knew they had a group of people already on-site. People who, come four o’clock, would start looking for them. And knew exactly where they’d been. Had she been watching them all this time, or had she stumbled upon them in the campground simply because of Ry?

He considered bringing it up to see if it would prompt Jen to panic, to make a mistake. That’s all he needed. One little mistake.

“Now, I want both your cell phones,” Jen said, holding out her free hand.

“What are you going to do with those? We don’t have service in a cave. Can’t ping us in here.”

“It’s calleddistraction, Sheriff. Now, hand them over.”

Jack reached into his pocket. He considered “accidentally” dropping the phone. Destroying it rather than have it be used against him. But Chloe was taking hers out. She looked back at him and held her hand out like she’d take his too. So he tried to give it to her.

But she didn’t take it. She put hers inhishand and gave him a look. A meaningful look.

Then he realized what she was trying to tell him. She had that damn smartwatch on her wrist. No one would be able to track them in thiscave, but it was something. A potential lifeline. Without reacting, he took the two phones and walked them over to Jen. He handed them out to her.

She took them. Then she smiled at him. “You look like your dad.”

Even knowing it was meant to hurt, meant to elicit a reaction, he couldn’t stop it from landing. Hedidlook like a carbon copy of Dean Hudson. He was reminded every time he looked in the mirror of the father he lost all too soon.

“Your mother could have survived, you know.”

Jack held Jen’s mean gaze. Inside, he was a riot of pain, but he kept his expression bland. And he said nothing.

“It could have just been your worthless father. Trying to tell me how to parent my children. Trying to get me into trouble with all those nosy family-service agents.” Jen’s self-satisfied smirk faded into an angry scowl, like she was reliving it. “I would have settled for just taking him out. She could have escaped. But she had to try and save your father.”

“It’s what people with souls do, Jen,” Jack returned, ignoring how rough his voice sounded. “Help each other. Save each other. Love each other.”

“No one’s ever done that for me!” she shouted, stomping her foot like a child. And Jack could see where Ry had gotten some of his self-victimization. It stemmed from right here. He could almost feel bad for the guy. Almost.

Jen kept on shrieking. “No one did anything for me, ever!”

Jack shrugged. “Sounds like you deserved it.”

Even in the orangish glow of the lantern light, he could see her face mottled red with rage. Her hands had curled into fists. Sarah murmured something softly to her, and Jen inhaled sharply, then let it out slowly. Calming herself, minute by minute, until she aimed one of her nasty smiles at him again.

“I want you to know, they died begging for mercy.”

He should let it go—God knew, he should let it go. But when it came to his parents, their memory, he couldn’t let her have the last word. “Sounds like they died fighting for it.”

She let out a cry of rage then, guttural and furious. She wrenched back her arm. Jack went with instinct and blocked the blow by grabbing her arm before she could slam the gun across his face like she’d done to Ry.

It was a mistake—he knew that the minute his hand had come into contact with her arm. But it was just instinct, self-preservation.

It was pure stubbornness and anger that kept his grip on her arm. Until she lifted her left hand, and there was a gun in that one too. Pointed right at his head.Thenhe thought better of his fury and hurt.

“No!” It was, shockingly, Sarah’s voice. She leaped off the chair, grabbed Jen’s left arm. Jack still hadn’t let go of her right. So she was now being held—on one side by her partner and on one side by her victim.

“You can’t shoot him,” Sarah said, seeming afraid. Desperate. “It’s not the plan. You said it yourself. We can’t deviate from the plan. We’ve already messed up once. We can’t mess up again. It all goes to hell. Youknowthat.”

Jack was so surprised by the unexpected save that when Jen ripped her arm out of his grasp, he didn’t even try to hold on. He stepped back, giving the women the space for their argument, and hopefully the distraction was enough so that Jen’s anger was pointed to the woman she worked with.

Maybe that was a weakness that would allow them to escape.

“They’remyplans,” Jen said, her entire body turning toward Sarah. Her back to Jack and Chloe and Ry behind them. Like none of them even mattered. Like they couldn’t be a threat.

Could he tackle her now, Jack considered? Would Chloe be able to get to Sarah’s gun in time to take her out before retaliation? But that still left Courtney, who was presumably outside the cave.

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