“Give me your gun.”

Her eyes widened. “I-I can’t. You know I can’t!”

He held out his hand. “How much is family worth?”

She flinched at that. “You know… you know what’s going to happen.”

He grabbed her and kissed her with the desperate rage that pumped through his veins. He kissed her even as his hands swept down her body and took her gun.

No, he took the gun because she let him have it. Max’s head lifted, and he stepped back.

Sam stood before him, her lips trembling, red and swollen from his kiss. “Max, what did he say?”

“He wants me to come to him.”

“Where? Just tell me—”

“I don’t know.” But the bastard wanted her. Max had put Samantha in his sights. He won’t touch her. “He hasn’t told me yet.” Hurry; no time to waste. “Remember,” he said, “he always knew every move we made.” Just as he’d know now, because he was close.

Watching.

“Max.”

There was no choice, not for either of them. “Some things are worth too much,” he said quietly.

And he left her.

Sam stood for a moment with her shoulders hunched and her heart racing too fast. She watched Max leave because there was no other choice. If the kidnapper had told him to get into the car alone, then she’d make sure he went alone.

But I won’t leave you alone.

She’d given him her weapon, but she had a backup. And no way would she let him face the hell that was coming on his own.

Sam reached for her phone. The other agents would need to stand down and not interfere, yet. Max would take them right to their prey, and she’d be there to make sure he didn’t end up like Frank.

I’m coming.

“We’ve got Donnelley.” Excitement had Kim’s voice rising. “The cell signal was traced to the four-hundred block of New Curtis.” She looked up. “He’s in a motel room.”

“Get over there,” Hyde ordered, crossing his arms over his chest. “You and Dante, go.”

“Already going, sir,” Dante called out as they ran for the door.

Monica stepped forward. Hyde saw the worry on her face. The attachment between her and Dante grew stronger every day. She’d told Hyde the news about their engagement, and while he was damn happy for Monica—about time she had a life outside the SSD—he couldn’t have married agents working together in his unit.

Time for Monica to take that promotion.

“Stay on guard!” Monica called out as the agents slipped into the elevator. It was a warning they didn’t need. But Dante looked back at Monica, and his green eyes softened.

“This isn’t right,” Monica whispered. “Donnelley doesn’t fit the profile of our lead kidnapper.”

Hyde agreed. He’d read Donnelley’s file. Drug use. The guy was lucky to still have a medical license.

But Donnelley had been working privately for the Malones for years. You could learn a lot of secrets when you were that close to a family. Secrets worth killing for.

“Quinlan is the one we need,” Monica said, her voice calm and certain, even if her hands had clenched into fists. “The links all circle back to him.”

“Then we’ll find him.” The phone on Kim’s desk rang, a long, low peal. Sam. He hurried forward and grabbed the phone. “Hyde.”

“He’s gone!” A rough edge hardened Sam’s voice. “Max is going after Donnelly, and I’m not letting him go alone! I’m—”

“Sam, we’ve got Donnelley’s location. He’s in a motel on New Curtis. Dante and Daniels are on their way to apprehend him now.”

“If Donnelley is there, then there’s no way he’s watching us now.” Soft, muttered, almost as if she were talking to herself. “I’m going after him. I’m not letting Max get caught in the crossfire.”

Hyde’s fingers tightened around the phone. “Turn on the GPS in your car.” Instinct and fear drove the demand. “In case we lose phone contact, make sure we can track you.” Because he’d be damned if he ever lost her again.

“Yes, sir.”

“And Kennedy?”

A door slammed in the background, and he knew she was already on the move. “Sir?”

“Keep him safe.”

Max’s rental car raced out of the garage. Good thing Samantha had gotten another agent to bring it by early that morning because he really hadn’t been in the mood to steal a ride.

His phone vibrated before he’d even reached the street. Swearing, he glanced down. Different number, one he didn’t know. He picked up the phone.

“Max…”

“I’m coming, okay?”

“Put the bitch on the line.”

Ice froze his blood. Not watching, not yet, or he’d know—

“She’s not with you.” Anger snapped in the whispered words.

“No, she’s not, and you’re not getting her.” Max braked the car, heard the squeal of tires, and demanded, “Now tell me where the hell you are.”

Silence.

“Where are you?”

“Get on the highway.” A whisper. “Go West.”

Max drove forward.

“Take the second exit ramp.”

Max’s teeth were clenched so tight that his jaw ached. How had it come to this?

“You’ll pay for not bringing the whore.”

His foot slammed on the gas. No, you’ll be the one who pays.

Sam wrenched open her car door, jumped inside, and revved the VW’s engine. In less than three seconds, she was out of the garage. Just in time to catch the flash of Max’s taillights. Hurry.

Her heart thundered in her chest, and her sweaty palms gripped the steering wheel. She wouldn’t lose Max.

The VW flew out onto the highway, and Sam realized they were heading the wrong way. New Curtis was toward the east, just a few moments away.

But Max was heading in the opposite direction.

“Max.” She fumbled with her phone. This was wrong. A setup. She had to warn the other agents.

His phone rang again a moment later. Max still had it gripped in his right hand. He punched the screen. “What?”

“4219 Willow Way.”

His breath hissed out at the familiar address. The agents wouldn’t have searched that old cabin because it wasn’t Frank’s; it was his. Left to him by his mother.

“Now roll down your window and throw your phone out.”

He hesitated. It would be so easy to just call the Feds, to call Sam and tell her the address.

But if he did, would the guy be long gone before he arrived?

“I can see you….”

His gaze swept around the highway. All he saw was a swirl of cars. Was the bastard watching now? Or lying again?

“Throw the phone out.”

Max hit the button for the automatic window. It lowered with a whir of sound, and he tossed out his phone.

The maid was shaking as she unlocked room 203 at the Highline Motel. Luke grabbed her arm and pulled her back the second that the door squeaked open.

“Federal agents!” he yelled. “Nathan Donnelley, we’re coming in!”

He kicked the door open the rest of the way and went in with his gun drawn. Moving soundlessly, Kim was right at his back.

And Donnelley was waiting for them.

Sam’s phone rang just as she was preparing to call the SSD. She grabbed the phone, not even looking at the screen as she kept her eyes on the rental car. “Hyde, did you get—”

Max was turning again. Her foot pressed harder on the accelerator.

“Throw your phone out the window, bitch.” The rasp made her breath choke out.

Her gaze shot to the mirror. Sam caught sight of the dark truck with tinted windows that was closing in on her.

Following us.

She glanced down at her phone. That wasn’t the number she’d seen for Donnelley. The a**hole had switched phones.

“Do you want him to die? It will be so easy to kill him.”

Sam lowered her window. Wind whipped into the car and sent her hair flying.

The phone dropped onto the pavement. Shattered.

Luke stared at Donnelley’s face. Pale and still. A red smile had been cut into his neck, a grin that stretched sickeningly from ear to ear. And the bastard’s chest had been carved open.

Luke inhaled the stench of death and spun around, the phone already at his ear. “Hyde! We’ve got a problem. Yeah, yeah, we found the phone.” Tossed next to the corpse. “And Donnelley.”

“Get him in here. I want him to tell us—”

“Sir, he isn’t going to be talking.” Luke threw one more fast glance at the body. “Not to anyone.”

So Donnelley damn well wasn’t the one who’d made the call to Ridgeway. “Can you get Sam? She’s got to know what’s happening.”

The pause on the line stretched too long, and Luke knew Hyde was trying to connect with Sam on one of the SSD’s other lines. Then Hyde said, “She’s not answering.”

What? No, shit, she—

“But don’t worry,” Hyde continued, “she’s showing us exactly where we need to go.”

Sam’s hands had a death grip on the steering wheel. The black truck had disappeared, veering away minutes before. Just a few miles down the road, she could see the trunk of Max’s car in front of her. Had he seen her yet? She’d stayed back at first and tried to keep other cars between them.

The VW jolted when she hit a pothole. Woods surrounded her, and the old road had sure seen better days. Traffic had thinned quickly. No one else was traveling on this deserted stretch as she drove farther from the bustle of the city and into the thick woods of the countryside. No one else was there—Max had to see her. No place to hide now.

Virginia. They’d crossed the state line at some point. As the road snaked deeper into the woods, Sam wondered where this chase was leading them.

She lost sight of Max for a moment when she rounded a curve, and fear spiked her blood. The VW pushed forward, taking the sharp curve too fast, and Sam glimpsed the glittering water of a river. The river waited on the left, narrowing up ahead as it flowed hard and fast under a metal bridge. The sunlight hit the surface of the water, reflected back, and made the waves look gray, not black as—

Something slammed into the side of her car. Sam screamed, and her head whipped to the right. The black truck. It had shot out from a dirt road—a road almost completely hidden by the thick pine trees—and plowed right into her.

Glass shattered around her, and metal screeched. She slammed on the brakes as she fought to control her car. The VW was shaking, sagging, and the passenger side air bag had exploded out, blasting white and blocking her view of the truck as it reversed—

And then lunged forward, hitting her again. Metal screeched once more. She screamed, and the truck’s motor revved as the horsepower kicked in. The truck started to push her car toward the edge of the road.

“No!” She fumbled, trying to unsnap her seatbelt. Glass rained down on her, cutting her hands, her face, and the blood made her fingers slick. The VW shuddered as the truck forced it closer to the water.

The seat belt popped free. Sam reached out to shove open her door.

Too late.

The VW rolled over the edge of the road and sent her tumbling inside the car. Her head slammed into the ceiling, and her body twisted. Her back rammed into the windshield, and her knee hit the gearshift. Sam felt something pop.

Roll. Roll. Roll.

Another loud screech filled her ears as the front of the car scraped past the edge of the bridge. Then the car crashed into the river. Water came flooding in through the shattered windows. The car filled up fast.

Cold. So cold. Holding her down. Killing her.

Sam opened her mouth and screamed as the water rose.

Max’s gaze darted to the rearview mirror. He thought he’d caught a flash of red moments before. Red… Samantha’s car was red….

Would she have followed him? Hell yes.

As he cleared the bridge, his gaze drifted to the river. After a moment, he glanced back in the mirror—and saw a nightmare.

A black truck plowed into the side of a red VW—Samantha’s car. The truck rammed the car again, and the little vehicle rolled down into the river.

The water.

“Samantha!” His foot shoved the brake pedal all the way to the floorboard. He wrenched the wheel, spinning the car around in the road and sending up a cloud of dust. Then he flew hell fast back to her.

The drumming of his heartbeat filled his ears, and he whispered her name, again and again. Be alive. Oh, Christ. She had to be okay.

He jumped from his car even before it had come to a full stop. The black truck sat near the edge of the road, the engine idling, the door hanging open, swaying. But the driver’s seat was empty.

Bastard’s out there. Waiting.

Watching. He’d known Samantha was tailing Max. He’d taken her out and deliberately brought Max into the open in order to attack.

Screw him.

Max ran for the river. He screamed Samantha’s name because he didn’t see her. The VW was sinking quickly in the deep water near the bridge. A fist squeezed his heart as he prepared to dive into that icy water—

A bullet tore through his shoulder. The blast of the gun echoed in his ears even as he fell. Max tumbled down the embankment and rolled toward the water. The fiery pain stole his breath, and when the damn world stopped spinning, he was in the water.

Samantha. He rose up, struggling to his feet.

Another gunshot—this one hit him in the back of the leg. He couldn’t see the VW’s tires anymore. The car had flipped, and it had sunk so fast, going completely under.