Page 78 of One More Chance

Three didn’t turn from the window.

Jax asked, “Are there any other rooms off this one or passageways?”

He didn’t answer.

Kenna strode to him, tugging around his shoulder. “This is the world you want Dana to live in? Or do you want to do some good, make it a whole lot safer for her because you took down this evil?”

“If he dies, I die.”

“Because of some kind of failsafe device he put in you both, or because you won’t get your treatments? Assuming you aren’t just being esoteric?”

Three said, “We need the treatments, or we die. And so do you.”

She sucked in a breath.

“Both of you need to put that aside for a second and help me figure out who else is here.” Jax’s steady tone birthed a steadiness in her.

She latched onto it, thanking God for providing this man to be in her life. Praying they would get through this. “Come on.” She tugged Three over to Jax.

“There’s someone behind this wall.” Jax shone his flashlight through the dark, cutting it with a beam that chased away the shadows.

“It’s a storage closet.” Three pushed on the wall, his fingers splayed. He stepped to the side and pushed again. A latch was released, and the panel slid to the side. He shoved it more,pushing it into the wall so the opening revealed the closet inside. Rows of shelves stacked with medical supplies.

In the center, a man sat on a chair.

Jax moved the beam from his canvas shoes, up the man’s scrub pants to a scrub shirt. Gooseflesh rose on the man’s bare arms below the sleeves, wrinkled with age and pale as if he hadn’t seen the sun in a long time.

He shifted the flashlight up to the man’s face. Gaunt from malnutrition, his eye sockets seemed sunk into his face. Where his eyes should have been, scar tissue covered the space—as if his eyes had been removed or the lids were sewn shut.

His mouth opened, and he sucked in air.

Three pulled his gun and leveled it at the man.

Kenna shoved him to the side. “Don’t!”

The gun went off, the shot going wild. It hit a gallon container of liquid, which started to pour out onto the floor. The man in the chair screamed.

She didn’t let go of Three. “Don’t shoot him!”

“I recognize him.” Jax took a step into the room.

Kenna shoved Three’s gun down. “Holster that weapon.”

Jax stopped in front of the man. “Special Agent Walter Collins?”

Kenna gasped. The missing FBI agent from the cold case?

He was here.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Let go.” Three struggled against her.

Kenna didn’t back off. “Are you gonna kill him?”

“I should. Freak like that.”

The man in the chair was breathing hard and listening to the conversation.

---