Page 220 of On a Fault Line

Granted, nothing about tonight has gone to our plan, and I’m mentally kicking myself for not having more safeguards in place.

We’ve been served up the shittiest slice of shit pie.

So many little things have worked in Mark Tanner’s favor tonight, and while we are making huge assumptions, I know he’s going for Penny and he won’t stop until he destroys every part of her. We don’t need actual trackers on him to know that he’s heading her way.

Tanner might assume he’s a dead man, so why not leave this world with a bang?

Rain pelts against the window, streaking and splattering. My eyes follow the little vertical rivers while they make their way north from the wind beating against the glass.

The pilot steers the helicopter through the night sky. I can’t help but have flashbacks to the numerous times I’ve been in the air on night missions with the military, and I can’t help but draw symbolism to what I plan to do when I get to the facility.

My mind races with so many worst-case scenarios that can still happen before this all ends.

It will end.

I’m done living in limbo where Tanner’s concerned.

“Who’s watching the girls?” I ask.

“My guy, Tyler,” Nic responds.

I nod.

Graham takes a seat. “And another three of my men.”

It’s best that none of us take anyone’s safety for granted. Who knows who’s ready to pounce at the first sign of a weak entry point.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” I mutter. I really can’t.

Out of all the work I’ve done for the Hoffmans, this will be the most important yet and a life I’ll never take for granted.

And when I get my girl back, I’m never letting her go.

Glancing at the weather app on my phone, I see that the West Coast storms have let up enough for the flight to hopefully continue as expected, cutting down the trip’s time by two-thirds. But every minute I’m in the air and not at Soulful Mind is terrifying enough. I can’t help but wonder what is happening to Penny, and the thoughts of her suffering in any way because of that madman are causing soul-crushing anxiety to hit me hard.

“Our baby sister is potentially trapped in a mental institute with a psychopath, and authorities don’t think it’s worth checking out?” Nic asks, appearing to be at the end of his rope. “Not to mention that a prisoner has escaped and is on the loose.”

“They fucking want to run a DNA test on the corpse they found resembling Tanner,” Graham scoffs. “We gave them the exact address for the transport van, and they are all over the news gloating about how amazing their department is.”

“I’m not surprised,” I mutter.

“And just as a very small precaution, since I obviously pushed back on their lack of urgency, they promised to send out some local search teams in a three-mile radius from the crash site. You know, in case they are wrong.”

I sigh. “It’s asinine. The guy obviously wasn’t Tanner. It can’t be that hard to confirm.”

“Right. Yet they think if Tanner isn’t dead, then he’d be moseying around on foot,” Nic adds sarcastically.

Graham sighs, while rolling his shoulders. “And then they’ll wonder why we decided to take matters into our own hands.”

“I’m going to murder Mark Tanner,” I say with certainty. “And I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”

Graham runs his hand along the back of his neck, glancing at his screen. “Not if Nic or I get to him first. For the record, I don’t want any time wasted on ending things. We can’t ever leave this up to the authorities again.”

“Understood.” And I wholeheartedly agree.

“Nic and I may have been bitches to the system in the past, but I don’t give a fuck about the justice department right now. Penny’s probably terrified. We need to stick to our mission and not deviate from the end goal.”

I nod and then glance at my watch. “I’m twenty minutes away from the landing pad.”

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