Page 99 of Countdown

Wait. What? He wasn’t going to kill her? He was leaving?

To go find Michael.

“Fine.” The last thing she wanted was to be unconscious. “I’ll go.” At least she’d have a fighting chance to get away if she was awake. Once she was in the bedroom, he shut the door and she heard the deadbolt lock. No doubt this was where he planned to keep Michael.

“Don’t worry,” Keith said, his voice carrying through thedoor, “I’ll be back soon. I’m just going on a little recon mission. I need to get the lay of the land, so to speak. You won’t be alone long.”

Raina rested her forehead against the door and closed her eyes. She refused to respond, and soon, his footsteps headed away from her back toward the den. She gulped in a steadying breath and turned.

The room was simple, with a queen bed, two end tables with lamps, a dresser on the opposite wall, a closet, and an en suite bath with all of the toiletries one would need.

She didn’t plan to be there long enough to need them.

Raina went straight to the closed curtains and yanked them apart. Only to come face-to-face with a piece of metal in place of a window. “What in the world?” Her whispered words still echoed in the room.

Now what?

????

Simon paced the den while his son tried Keith’s phone once more. After leaving a blistering message to call, he hung up and tossed the device on the end table. “He’s not answering.”

“I noticed.” That earned him a dark look, but he didn’t have time to baby anyone’s feelings. “He went after the kid, didn’t he?”

“That’s probably a safe assumption.”

“I should have smothered him as a baby,” Simon muttered.

“Dad!”

“Well? If I had, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“No, you’d be in prison!”

Simon waved a hand. “I’m not serious.” Much. “But we’ve got to get him back here ASAP. He’s going to ruin everything.”

“I thought you had someone watching him.” Christopher rose to pour himself a splash of whiskey and downed it in one swallow. Which brought on a coughing fit. Simon raised a brow. His son never drank. Ever.

“I thought I did too,” Simon said, “but apparently, not close enough.” Freddy Harper had ghosted him. “Where’s Leslie? I haven’t seen her lately.”

“She flew out this morning. She wanted to visit her sister to help her pick out furniture for her new house. It’s probably good that she’s not here for all of this.”

“No kidding.” Simon wished he was anywhere but here as well.

“Try Freddy again. Maybe he’s following Keith and just can’t answer his phone at the moment.”

Simon grunted and made the call. It went straight to voice mail. He disconnected the call without leaving a message. It was kind of odd that the man didn’t answer. But Keith was just flat-out ignoring him. He looked at Christopher. “Can you track his phone?”

“Keith’s? Or Freddy’s?”

“Keith’s, son, Keith’s.” He was running out of patience with both of his offspring.

Christopher studied him. “Yes, I can track him, but I can’t make him answer the phone.”

“Then where is he?”

“At Copper Mountain by now.”

“You couldn’t stop him?” Simon gritted his teeth and pulled out his phone, dread in his gut about the search he entered. “He went after the kid. I’m going to kill him.”

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