Page 128 of Sweet Sin

“Ancient history.” He turns the car around. “We’ll park a few blocks away.”

“I’m not armed.”

“Not a problem. I’ve got everything we’re going to need in my trunk.”

“She may not even be in there,” I say.

He keeps his gaze focused on the road ahead, but I feel it penetrating me as if he were looking me straight in my own eyes. “Do you want to proceed? Tell me something. Do you feel her?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Think about your time inside, Falcon. Think about what you learned. You had to rely on your sixth sense. It’s what I had to do as well as a SEAL.”

I close my eyes, try to concentrate. “Yeah, you’re right. I knew when a threat was imminent, but how am I supposed to know if Savannah’s in there?

“You already do. You told me to come here rather than to the kid’s house.”

He’s right. I did. And for the life of me, I can’t feel shit now.

“Your call,” Leif says. “We can try to find her in there, or we can go somewhere else.”

I breathe in, hold my breath a moment, try to clear my mind.

The only time I had to try to clear my mind during the time I was incarcerated was at night. I needed my sleep. If I didn’t get my sleep, I wasn’t at my best the next day, and some inmates—myself included—learned to smell weakness a mile away.

But this—this clearing of my mind while awake—is new to me.

I attempt it, and I try to feel Savannah.

I jerk my eyes open. “Let’s go in.”

“You think she’s here?”

“Leif, I don’t have a fucking clue. I’m not sure I feel her. But I’m using logic. This is the most likely place she is. We know she hasn’t flown anywhere, and as you say, this has more security than Miles’s actual place.”

“You got it. We’re in.”

We get out of the car, and Leif opens the trunk. He hands me a black ski mask and a black hoodie. “Put these on.”

I zip the hoodie. “I feel like I’m getting ready to do a SWAT mission.”

“You are. The only difference is that we don’t have anybody at our backs.”

“We have each other,” I say. “That’s all we needed when we were kids.”

Of course, when we were kids, the worst we had to deal with was Burlington Hays stealing our lunch money.

“True enough.” Leif pats me on the back. “We’re going to get her back, Falcon. We’re going to get her back.”

I simply nod.

I have to believe we will, because I don’t know that I can live if we don’t.

Leif hands me a pistol, fully loaded, and I shove it in my waistband.

He’s already armed in his ankle holster, and he takes another piece as well, shoves it in his belt.

Then he hands me a burner phone. “Turn your phone off.”

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