“Mum?” Jack said
She hadn’t heard that uncertain, shaky voice since he was a toddler, and it jerked her back into action. “It’s going to be okay, Jack. It’s going to be okay.”
Sophie screamed, a siren that wouldn’t stop. Isobel patted her back and tried to shield her with her body.
The hand in her hair tightened. “I ask one more time. Where is chip?”
Two more men came into the room, both armed with handguns. One leaned against the wall, watching with clear amusement. The other stood over Jack.
“What’s taking so long?” The man beside Jack looked down at him and then across to Isobel and Sophie. Calmly, he lifted his arm and pointed the gun at Jack’s head. “The wound is bad, but he might still live. If I put a bullet in his head, he won’t. Answer the question or I pull the trigger. And then I’ll get Arno over there to carve up the little girl.”
Isobel could barely see through the tears streaming from her eyes so fast. “I don’t know where it is. I don’t.”
“He’s going to kill us anyway.” Jack winced as he tried to look up at the man pointing a gun at him. “We know who they are.”
“Do you?” The man seemed amused, but his eyes were blank and hard. “Who exactly am I, boy?”
“Jack, please,” Isobel said, hoping he would stop talking. She wanted the men’s attention on her, not on her children. Her babies.
Jack lifted his chin, his brow covered in sweat from the pain of his injury, but still he was defiant. Blood oozed over his hands and onto his jeans. Isobel sobbed. She was watching her son die while a monster held her in place.
“Jack, concentrate on staying alive.” She looked up at the man with the gun. He seemed to be the leader. “Please, let me help him. I’ll tell you everything I know. I promise. Please, just leave my kids alone.” She was barely able to talk. She needed to get to her son. She needed to shield her daughter. She struggled against the hold on her hair, hoping he’d lose his grip and free her. He only tightened it.
“You’ll tell me everything anyway.” The man pointing the gun at Jack laughed, a cold, dark sound devoid of hope.
“Where is chip?” The guy behind her shook her hard.
Sophie screamed and screamed. There was no calming her, even if Isobel were able.
“I don’t know where the chip is. I don’t. It was on the table upstairs. The one in the kitchen. That’s all I know.”
“Who accessed it?” The man holding her hair yanked it to make her look up at him.
“The computer woman. Elle. I don’t know anything else. I only just met her.” God forgive me for giving Elle’s name to them.
“Is woman still in house?”
“I think so. I don’t know.” She shifted her eyes to look at Jack. He was losing colour fast. There was a grey tinge to his skin that terrified her. And so much blood, everywhere, seeping into his clothes and down onto the rug.
“Mumma!” Sophie wailed.
Isobel swallowed the bile that burned her throat. “Leave my children alone. Don’t hurt them. I’ll tell you everything you want to know. Please, just don’t hurt them.”
“That depends on whether I get an answer to my question or not,” the guy with the gun pointed at Jack said. “Just who do you think we are?”
A gunshot exploded through the room. Isobel screamed. The hold on her hair loosened and the man who’d been restraining her fell to the floor. Isobel flung herself away from him, reaching for Jack, desperate to get to him but terrified to let go of Sophie. She couldn’t see the wound. But Jack had to have been shot—she’d heard it. The guy had to have pulled the trigger. Oh God! Her son had been shot. She reached for Jack, frantic. Sophie wailed, shaking so hard that Isobel thought she might vomit.
Oh God, my children. Save my children.
“I’ll tell you who you are. You’re the fucker who has ten seconds to put down his weapon or I’ll put a bullet through your head as well.”
Isobel’s eyes shot to the door. She blinked hard. The silhouette was massive. Powerful. Confident. Deadly.
Callum!
“Superman,” Jack whispered.
CHAPTER 26