Page 26 of Landon

“Dad can wire the money or something. He’ll make sure it’ll happen.”

Tad glanced around the dimly lit room, the only light filtering through the narrow slats of a wooden shutter. The shadows shifted ominously, but his eyes locked onto the faint glow. He moved toward the window, his heart thudding with a mix of hope and fear. Peering through the tiny gap, he could barely make out the outlines of the jungle beyond. The sky had darkened to a murky gray, signaling the storm's approach.

His breath hitched as he noticed what appeared to be a rooftop adjacent to their makeshift prison. Excitement flared briefly—could this be their way out? He gripped the wooden slats tightly and shook them, but the frame didn’t budge. His hope dimmed as his eyes adjusted to the shadows. Several pieces of wood nailed from the outside held the shutters firmly in place. Any attempt to force them open would be loud—too loud.

Tad swallowed hard, his hands trembling as he pushed against the window again. The rattling noise it made was sharp and intrusive in the otherwise silent room. He froze, heart pounding. If the kidnappers heard him trying to escape, they might retaliate—maybe even hurt Penny. His stomach twisted at the thought.

Turning, he saw Penny huddled in the corner, her small frame trembling. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she struggled to wipe them away. The sight of her like that—scaredand vulnerable—broke something inside him. Tad clenched his fists, feeling the helplessness claw at his resolve. He wanted to get her out of there, but the fear of making things worse paralyzed him.

Gritting his teeth, he crossed the room and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. She leaned into him, her tiny body shaking against his. Tad pressed a kiss to her forehead, his voice soft but firm. “We’re gonna get out of this, Penny.”

Her wide, tear-filled eyes lifted to his. “How do you know?” she whispered, her voice quivering with fear. “What makes you so sure?”

Tad drew in a shaky breath, trying to project a confidence he didn’t quite feel. He thought back to all the action movies and cop shows he’d watched, hoping he could sound convincing. “We’re just leverage to them—a way to get money. They won’t hurt us. If they do, it ruins their plans. They’ll keep us here until they get what they want, and then they’ll let us go.”

Penny sniffled, her voice barely audible. “We haven’t seen their faces.”

“That’s a good thing,” Tad reassured her, his tone firm. “It means they know we can’t identify them. That’s why they’ll let us go. We’re safer this way.”

He helped her down to the floor, gently guiding her to sit with her back against the wall. Then he settled beside her, making sure his body was between her and the door. His heart hammered in his chest, the weight of responsibility pressing heavily on his small shoulders. He wasn’t naive—he knew he couldn’t stop a bullet. But if those men came back, if they tried to hurt Penny, he would do whatever it took to protect her. He would stand between her and danger even if it meant sacrificing everything.

Tad squeezed her hand, his jaw set with determination. “I won’t let them hurt you,” he whispered, more to himself than to her. “Not while I’m here.”

13

Throwing the vehicle door open, Landon jumped out and quickly shut the door to keep the rain from blowing inside. After a last look at Noel, who was staring at him, he turned away from her and jogged to the side of the road, where the leaves hung over the narrow lane and disappeared into the jungle's edge.

The jungle afforded some protection from the heaviest rain and wind. The hurricane was now labeled a tropical storm, skirting by Jamaica, and he already knew he wouldn’t want to be in anything more potent. Glad for the bag the Keepers always carried with them, he planned on an extra thank-you to Bert when he arrived back in Montana.

While the former agent always tried to be prepared for contingencies, this simple handoff of money, Pamela's signature, and accompanying the children back to Montana had turned into a clusterfuck. Tapping his radio earpiece, he reported back to LSIMT. “I can see the house in the distance. No lights are on in the two structures without a roof, and no lights are visible in the single-story one. There are lights on the lower level of the two-story building.”

As he came to the jungle's edge, he swiped his hand over his face, flinging the water to the side. Visibility was low, buthe could easily discern the smaller building to the side and a larger two-story building right behind. “My guess is the kids are upstairs. I’m going to circle the building and use my snake camera. I may not be able to extricate them without deadly force.”

“We have already been in touch with the police commissioner and governor-general of Jamaica. We’ve been permitted to do what needs to be done to retrieve the children safely,” Logan acknowledged. “But then we would’ve done so no matter what they said.”

Landon nodded to himself, adrenaline pumping as he crept along the jungle’s edge, keeping to the shadows. The smaller structures nearby were empty and dilapidated, their missing roofs allowing the rain to drench the interiors. They were of no use, which only solidified his focus on the larger building ahead.

He moved stealthily, blending with the howling wind and pounding rain. The storm worked in his favor, swallowing the sound of his footsteps as he approached the outer wall of the main building. Pressing his body against the soaked surface, he took a moment to listen, though the storm's roar made it difficult to discern anything inside.

He pulled the small snake camera from his pocket, keeping his head down to alleviate much of the rain hitting him in the face. Once activated, he stretched the thin, bendable wire with a tiny camera at the end and curved it just over the edge of the windowsill. He knew the camera review was being sent back to LSIMT and what he could see on his watch face.

A crude wooden table in the center of the almost empty room was where two men sat in folding chairs, playing cards. They looked young… younger than he’d anticipated. One was barely out of his teens. They wore dark clothing, and dark balaclavas were pushed down around their necks.

No furniture was in the room except a mattress on the floor against the far wall. The single door at the back opened, and a man walked out, buckling his pants. Landon’s heart threatened to pound out of his chest for a second at the thought of what that man had been doing. As the man stepped out of the way, Landon observed a small toilet and sink in the tiny bathroom with the door now opened, and he let out a long, slow breath.

“We got fifteen minutes until we gotta go.”

The youngest looked up and grinned. “Payday, baby.”

The others laughed. “Fucking easy. She set it up so easy.”

She? Horticia? Was Noel wrong, and it was Pamela?Landon angled the camera to the other side of the room, where stairs leading to the second floor were visible.

“You gonna go up and get ’em?” the other seated man asked.

“Yeah… wave a gun around and threaten the little shits. They’ll be easy.”

Gaining the confirmation through his feed that Tad and Penny were upstairs, he knelt beneath the window, his movements deliberate and quiet as he assessed the rest of the structure. No external stairs led to the second floor, but the smaller building abutted the back of the larger one. A boarded-up window on the second story could provide an entry point.

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