Grave Secrets (Manhunters 1)

“We want to go home,” she told the group, primarily holding Roman’s gaze. Then she glanced at Everly. “Everly can take us.”

Fuck. Ian felt like he’d swallowed a boulder.

Everly glanced at Jamison and said, “Sam, why don’t you show Jamison how you make your special snowballs.”

“My what?” Sam said.

“Stop with the absentminded-professor routine,” she told him. “Your. Special. Snowballs.”

Roman nudged Sam’s shoulder. “Go play with the kid, would you?”

When Sam and Jamison were out of earshot, Everly gave Savannah an apologetic look. “Sorry, girl, you can’t go home.” She turned her gaze on the guys. “Someone called in a Savannah sighting at Bishop’s house. He left the board meeting and discovered everything missing from the safe. Then found Savannah and Jamison MIA.”

“Shit,” Ian bit out.

“He’s geared up his cavalry of half-wits and sent them out on the hunt with an order to use any force necessary to capture Savannah on sight and to bring Jamison and the contents of the safe back.”

“Oh my God,” Savannah murmured, stricken. Her gaze instantly locked on Ian, her expression scared and searching. But then dropped away a split second later, as if she realized he wasn’t her ally anymore.

“Every cop in the county is looking for them. He said to take the back roads to get out of Hazard. Join up with the highway once we’re fifty miles clear.”

“After all the recent snow?” Ian said. “That’s going to take hours. Do we even know which roads are plowed?”

“Sam will be able to tell us,” Roman told them. “He can hack into the state transportation database. Let’s get moving. The bigger our head start, the better. Liam and I will switch cars with Ian and take the lead. Everly, you and Sam take Jamison and the middle position. Ian, you and Savannah are the chaser.”

“I don’t know what a chaser is,” Savannah said, “but Jamison is not going in a different car. He stays with me.”

“He can’t,” Ian told her.

“Don’t tell me—” Savannah immediately attacked.

“We aren’t trying to keep him from you,” Everly cut in, her voice soft but deliberate. “It’s safer to have you in different cars.”

Liam stepped away from the conversation to pull the seat and the DVD player from the truck.

“Why?” Savannah demanded. “Safer how?”

“His chances of getting both of you are significantly diminished,” Ian told her.

“If he captures you,” Roman told her in his signature all-business commander tone, “he won’t kill you if he thinks you have Jamison’s location.”

“And we’d get you back before he realizes you can’t help him,” Ian added, hoping to calm the hysteria brewing in her eyes. “If he captures Jamison, you stay alive, and then we’ll find Jamison.”

“This isn’t a fucking video game.” Terror pulled the color from her cheeks. Shock darkened her eyes. Ian ached to reach out to her, reassure her. But he sank deeper into enemy territory with every new complication that slashed at her life. “This is my life.”

“Which we’re trying to save,” Roman told her. “Sam, get the kid. Let’s go.”

In a snowbank to the left, Jamison hit Sam with a snowball and giggled. But terror broke across Savannah’s face. “Oh my God. I can’t believe this is happening.”

Everly stepped up to Savannah and gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll keep him in his seat and run the DVD player nonstop. Sam’s just a five-year-old genius in an adult’s body. He’ll be Jamison’s new best friend in twenty minutes.”

She finally looked at Ian. “What do you think? Where will Jamison be safest?”

Hope buoyed her heart. Until he had to tell her, “With Everly and Sam in the middle car.”

Tears welled in her eyes. But she pressed her lips together and turned back to Everly. “You promised…”