Page 9 of Their Virgins Secret

Jessa went without a protest.

“I’m not coming to you as long as she’s in the car,” Burke insisted. “Let me take her and the child to the police, then I’ll come in. So will Cole. ”

There wasn’t a word of protest from Cole, but then Burke hadn’t expected one. As usual, he and his brother were in synch. They loved Jessa. They would do anything to save her, even die.

Marco chuckled. “You can take her to the police, but as I said, I’ve been setting up this game for a while now. Ask Miss Wade if she knows a friendly deputy named Fred?”

He looked down at Jessa. “You know someone named Fred, sweetheart?”

She nodded. “Yes, he’s the man we need to talk to. He’s my friend. He’s on the police force here. He’ll know what to do. ”

No. He was a fucking small-town spy. A puppet, and Marco was pulling the strings. He’d given them this one hint to prove it. Burke turned away from her, speaking into the phone again. “I get your point. ”

“Then you should also know I have friends in the FBI, DEA, and just about every other agency where there are underpaid employees. Oh, you might be able to find the good ones, but do you really want to take that chance?”

Fuck. His eyes met with Cole’s in the mirror. He could see plainly that Cole was following the logic of the conversation without hearing it.

“No police? No feds?” Cole asked, his voice tight.

Burke shook his head slightly.

Cole cursed. He knew how fucked they were. They could take the chance and risk Jessa, or they could run on their own.

“What do you want, Delgado?”

Marco’s voice went ragged. “I want my father back, but since that’s not going to happen, I’ll settle for you feeling just as fucking bad as I do. I am going to kill your girl. If you follow my instructions, I’ll leave your son out of it. If you don’t, then he’ll be collateral damage. I’ve already given you proof of my good will. ”

“Really?”

“Yes. I waited to blow up the house until you’d taken the child out. I’d rather not kill the boy, but I will if you force me to. You have twenty-four hours to lose the kid. After that, I come in with guns blazing, and I don’t care who gets a bullet. ”

“You do understand that if you hurt her, Cole and I will never stop hunting you. ”

“Ah, then our game can go on. I was rather counting on that. Twenty-four hours. ”

The line went dead, and Burke felt his stomach roll. The road stretched in front of him. Three choices. Left to the police, right to the highway, or straight into god knew what. Fuck. What if he chose wrong?

“He wants to kill me. ” Jessa blinked up at him from her crouched position. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes. ” There was no way to protect her from that. “You can sit back in the seat, sweetheart. We have twenty-four hours to stash our son someplace safe, or he’ll kill Caleb, too. I believe him. ”

“Marco. The son. The gambler. Fuck. I hadn’t even thought about him. He didn’t seem even vaguely interested in his father’s business. ” Cole scrubbed a hand across his face, his eyes bleak.

“He’s interested now,” Burke confirmed. “In revenge especially. ”

Jessa sniffled as she got back to her seat. “We need supplies. Everything I had for Caleb just blew up. We need a car seat and more diapers and clothes. Formula. He needs formula. He’ll get hungry soon. ” She tightened her arms around her son. “God, please let me wake up. Please let this be a bad dream. ”

Burke’s heart ached. “Sweetheart, I’m going to fix this. ”

Her eyes met his, anger making them flare. “Don’t call me that. Don’t ever call me that again. I want to go to the police, but I can’t, can I? Some guy hates you and wants to take it out on me, and I can’t go to the police because this jerk has them on his payroll. My nice friend, Deputy Fred, is working for this guy. ”

“According to Marco, yes. ” He would give anything to take away the betrayal on her face. To remove the danger to her life. “All law enforcement is off the table if we want to be one hundred percent sure of your safety. ”

“Seriously? Even the FBI?”

He swallowed, bile in his throat. This wasn’t how he’d pictured their reunion. “We can’t go to them or anyone else. We’re on our own, Jessa. ”

“And he’ll spare my son if we take him someplace out of the way?” Jessa’s voice caught, but she had so much strength. She was a mother protecting her child, but she was still listening, assessing, processing. She wasn’t trained for this, but she was handling everything amazingly well. “If I give myself to him, he’ll spare my son?”

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