Special Agent Lance is waiting for me in the parking lot when I burst through the stained-glass and wood door, leaning against the side of his black SUV parked next to my car, talking to someone on the phone. As soon as he sees me, he ends the call and straightens his posture, and when I approach the vehicles, he tips his chin to acknowledge my presence.

“Where are we heading now, Mr. Decker? To your parents’ house?” he asks assumingly.

“No,” I snap as I unlock my car with the keyless remote. “I’m meeting Jae for dinner.”

I slide onto the leather driver’s seat without any further information. It’s a given that he’s going to follow me, and probably even come inside to eat at a separate table while we’re there, all the while keeping his trained gaze fixed on me, making sure I don’t attempt another sneaky getaway. All I can hope is to keep Jae’s and my conversation as private as possible and pray they aren’t tracking her laptop activity.

The drive to the small Mexican food restaurant I chose for us to meet, not too far from her condo, takes longer than I anticipated, thanks to some construction work and the beginning of rush hour traffic. Ever since all of this started with Blake’s disappearance, the project she and Jae were working on for Decker Enterprises—my company—has been put on hold. Indefinitely. The only reason I ever fucking said yes to Easton in the first place about that stupid video game project, seeing as how it has absolutely nothing to do with what we do, is because I thought if he had an interest in something at work, he’d actually care. Sadly, I was wrong, but the silver lining of it all is that it resulted in me meeting Blake.

But now with everything going on, and upon my request, their employer has agreed to grant Jae a paid leave of absence—one I’m virtually paying for—while he waits for me to give him direction on the next step of the contract. I don’t mind though; Jae and I have quickly become good friends in the last couple of weeks, as neither of us have anyone else we can talk to about what’s going on. It’s amazing how much it can help sometimes just to rant to someone, knowing damn well they have no answers, but that they’ll just sit there and listen to you get it all off your chest. Plus, she’s always quick to fill in the holes of my plans when the thoughts in my brain are whirring too quickly and I leave gaping indiscretions.

Well, she’s the only person other than Easton, and at this moment, I’m not sure how I feel about my little brother. Despite his change of attitude and actually showing up around the office, I still partially blame my brother for everything that’s going on. No, he wasn’t the one who turned Blake over to the Russians, but if he weren’t involved with them in the first place, Emerson wouldn’t have had that point of contact to make the deal happen. However, I have to give him credit in that so far he hasn’t breathed a word of what’s going on to anyone. Not even when they kept him the entire day after Emerson’s note and car were discovered, trying to coax any information he may have about the Kabinovs out of him.

After nearly an hour on the road, I finally pull up to the hole-in-the-wall cantina and notice Jae’s Infiniti already in the lot. Doing my best to ignore Lance parking a few spots down, I hurriedly get out of the car, open the glass door to the restaurant, and duck my head inside. It doesn’t take me long to find Jae in a back corner booth, and when I see the promising smile on her face, illuminated by the computer screen already set up on the table, I add a little pep in my step and hightail it over to her.

“Did you find something?” I ask, the hope in my voice evident as I drop down on the bench next to her.

With the news of Emerson’s death, I’ve spent the time I’m not at odds with my parents at the local FBI office, lying to federal agents about what all I know about the Russians. The fact they’re now aware of who has her scares me more than anything, and I hope to God Raze knows I’m not how they found out. I eavesdropped on one of Lance’s phone conversations yesterday, so I know for a fact they’ve raided several of the Kabinov homes in Southern California, looking for her, but have come up empty. And what concerns me the most is they’re either going to get hasty in the whole lure-Vincent-Ricci-to-her-and-kill-him plan, or they’re going to make her disappear. Permanently.

“Maybe,” Jae replies quietly, glancing up to take note of where Lance settles across the room at a table by the window. Once she’s convinced he’s out of earshot, she drops her chin to her chest in order to prevent lip-reading and continues. “I’ve been working on zooming in with this one satellite all day, and I’ve definitely found a road that’s being used about a hundred and forty miles northwest of Truckee, up in the Cascades. And the interesting thing is, I can’t tell where it leads. The forest gets too thick to see below.”

I stare at the image she’s got pulled up on the screen—a satellite snapshot taken and stamped with this morning’s date and time—and sure enough, there is a road with what looks like fresh tire marks that leads from a mostly deserted highway into the mass of trees limbs and dying foliage. I’m not sure, but it could be it, and I tell her as much. We look through some of the other aerial footage taken in the last few days of that spot, hoping to get a speck of color on the road that could be Raze’s truck, but we aren’t so lucky. She agrees to continue to monitor it, as well as look for other possibilities.

Once the computer is put away, I swing around to the other side of the table so that we’re not doing that awkward side-by-side in a booth thing, especially since we aren’t a couple, and we make small talk about the funeral and the lack of any updated news over enchiladas and a Corona. Just as I’m getting my wallet out to pay for the meal, my second phone, which I’ve got tucked away in the inner pocket of my jacket, begins to vibrate. Startled, I initially jump to reach for it, curious about who in the hell is contacting me via that line, but then remember I’m being watched.

“I’m going to check it out in the bathroom,” I murmur to her. “I’ll be right back.”

She nods as I excuse myself from the table, and as soon as I’m safely inside one of the cramped stalls, I dig the cell phone out and stare at the message on the screen from Raze’s number.

Raze: Things are moving faster than expected. Be on standby in Reno by tomorrow morning. Bring the cavalry with you. I’ll give you instructions then.

I SIT DOWN ON THE couch with a freshly poured cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal, just as I do every other normal morning. Well, as normal as it can be, considering I’m being held against my will and still mentally processing the fact that I’m going to murder a man tomorrow. It’s a strange set of emotions I doubt I could properly put into words—killing another person, that is—but one thing is for sure: guilt is at the top of the list. Even though I know I’m doing society, and myself, a huge favor, I was taught from an early age that only God should pass judgment and persecute those who deserve it . . . yet here I am, with my finger already on the trigger.

I’ve tried to stay focused on mundane tasks around the cabin, instead of my shredded conscience, ever since I made the decision to value my life over Vincent Ricci’s. Because at its core, that’s the ultimate choice I have to make. If I don’t kill him at the first opportunity I’m given, either he or the Kabinovs are most definitely going to eliminate my existence from this planet. Only my demise will most likely involve quite a bit more pain than taking a bullet between the eyes . . . especially if my father-in-law gets his hands on me.

A loud banging noise outside, followed by angry grunts and what I assume is a slew of Russian curse words from Raze, steal my focus away from the bland breakfast and my repetitive thoughts. Carefully placing the bowl and mug down on the coffee table, I unfold my legs from underneath me and tiptoe over to the door to press my ear against the cold wood surface. At first, I don’t hear anything, so I assume he fixed whatever pissed him off out there.