“But why did she come with him?” Wade asked, sounding confused. “Dean told us that her friends at college said Molly never hooked up with strangers. She’s the classic ‘good girl’ here, Sarah. She doesn’t just wander away at night with a strange man.”

Sarah thought of her father. “Even good girls wander when you tell them the right things.” She looked up at him. “Her brother was supposed to pick her up, but this guy . . . he made sure her brother wasn’t around for that job.”

Wade whistled. “He sent the brother after you.”

“A diversion.” She headed into the alley. A big, green Dumpster waited to the right. “So maybe this guy showed up, and he told Molly that Eddie had sent him.” You told Molly just enough that she felt safe walking with you.

“Why her, though? Why would he go after her?” With Wade, it was always about the victims. He identified with them, no, he wanted to save them. Maybe because he’d worked homicide for so long in Atlanta. By the time the cases had crossed his desk, those victims had been long past saving. Now . . . now he wanted to bring the vics home alive.

But we can’t always do that.

Sarah made her way to the Dumpster. She hefted herself up. The place reeked, but if this was the scene of Molly’s abduction, they might need to check for—

The Dumpster was empty. It had already been cleaned out by the city’s team. Dammit.

“Sarah? Why her?” Wade pressed.

Sarah shoved away from the Dumpster. She dusted off her hands and stared around at the buildings. And up at them. Her gaze drifted to the upper left. “Got you,” she whispered.

“What?”

Sarah pointed up. Someone had an apartment up on the second floor of that building. The balcony was covered with hanging plants, and, right at the corner of that balcony, she saw a small surveillance camera.

“Hot damn,” Wade said.

Now they just needed to get the footage from the camera. She and Wade ran out of the alley. They went around to the front of the building, but even though they banged on the doors, no one answered.

She looked up. “Hello!” Sarah yelled. “Is anyone up there? Hello!”

Wade was still struggling with the door. If it weren’t for those hanging flowers up there, she would have thought the old building was abandoned. But the flowers . . . the video camera . . .

Someone was there.

“There’s another entrance,” she said to Wade. “Has to be. Let’s check the back.” And, once more, they were running through that alley. Goose bumps rose on Sarah’s skin as they headed to the back and . . .

A door was at the rear of the building. A big, red door.

Sarah’s phone rang.

She yanked it out of her pocket, her heart racing because she thought it might be the perp calling her again. But it wasn’t Molly’s number. It was a number she’d never seen before.

It could be him.

Wade ran toward the door.

“Wait!” Sarah grabbed his shoulder.

Wade stared at her as if she were crazy.

She lifted the phone. This could be him, Sarah mouthed. She put the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

“Sarah! Where are you?” That low, growling voice—it was Jax’s voice. Only . . . wasn’t Jax in police custody?

“I’m with Wade,” she said, staring into his golden eyes. Wade was frowning and obviously impatient as he glared at her. “We think we found a lead. A video camera, on a balcony just a few streets over from Bourbon. I think the perp took her from the alley here, and I think—”

“He’s after you.” Jax’s voice was dark. “I want you and Wade to get back in the car, and get away from that place, do you understand?”

No, she didn’t understand. Running made no sense. Not if they had a lead on Molly.

“I’ve got my men coming to find you now.”

What? “We’re going to get that video feed. It will show us what happened!” Every instinct she had screamed that this was the place.

“He’s after you.” Jax’s words were grim. “Don’t you see? Everything . . . it’s about you.”

Sarah shook her head.

Wade swore. “We’re wasting time.” He slipped away from her and marched for the door.

“Sarah, listen to me.” There was an intensity in Jax’s voice that pulled at her. “This is off. Everything—it’s wrong. You think you’re the only one who knows criminals? I understand them, too. I’ve lived with them my whole life. This guy—he knows your father.”

“H-How do you know that?”

“Because Eddie told me.”

He’d gotten Eddie to talk? How? When?

“This guy wants you to pay for something your father did. I think he’s been watching you, Sarah. Studying you, and I think he’s trying to lure you into a trap that you can’t resist.”

Sarah glanced over at Wade. He was reaching for the back door. That bright red door. One that was like a giant X mark on a map. She could see the knob turning easily in his hand. But why would the back door be unlocked when the front had been sealed so securely? Her gaze jerked around, rising, up, going to the left, the right, the—

More video cameras. Hidden so that you wouldn’t see them on the first glance, or the second. You had to search to find them positioned so carefully. Positioned to watch the back of the house.

“Wade, no!” Sarah yelled.

“Sarah?” Jax demanded. “What’s happening? Wait for my men! Wait—”

She ran toward Wade. He was pulling open the door. “No!” she screamed at him. Because I think Jax is right. I think this scene is a trap—and we’re walking straight into it!

Wade turned toward her, his face showing his confusion. She grabbed his arm and hauled him toward her.

“Sarah, what the hell—” he began.

She started running, pulling him with her, hauling and yanking at him with all her strength.

And then the building exploded. The force of the explosion picked Sarah up and hurtled her through the air.

“SARAH?” JAX SHOUTED. “Sarah!” He’d heard her scream. Scream even as something had seemed to explode in the background.

Now the line was dead. And fear clawed at his guts.

“What’s happening?” his lawyer, Ty Keith, demanded. The guy cast a nervous glance Jax’s way. His hold tightened on the steering wheel.

“Floor the fucking gas,” Jax snarled at him. “Get us to Bourbon Street, now.”

“B-But what’s on Bourbon?”

From the sounds he’d heard . . . “Look for the smoke.” Smoke that the firefighters would need to battle hell hard.

Sarah—be alive.

If she wasn’t, then Jax would wreak some serious fury on that city. They drove faster, faster, and rule-following Ty was sure racing through those streets.

Jax leaned forward, peering through the windshield. He dialed Carlos. His friend answered on the first ring. “Tell me you’re close to her,” Jax demanded. He knew he sounded desperate, but he didn’t care. This was Sarah. Sarah . . . mattered to him.

There was a pause. “Boss, I see the flames.”

And that was when Jax saw the smoke billowing up into the sky.

Sarah!

HE SMILED AS he stared at the monitor. Fire was shooting out of the old building. Bursting from the windows that had shattered moments before.

“Boom,” he whispered as he leaned forward and touched that screen. Oh, but it had been so easy. He’d tossed a few bread crumbs, and Sarah had followed them so quickly.

The image turned to static. The explosion and the fire had finally knocked out his feeds. But he’d seen enough.

Sarah had been running toward the building. She’d been shouting, probably so sure that she was there to save the day.

But you were like a moth, coming to the flame. A moth that had burned and turned to ash.

He couldn’t wait for her dear old dad to find out that his daughter was dust. If only he could see the expression on the bastard’s face. Not so smug now, are you, Murphy? Now you know what it’s like to have no power. To have nothing—