Page 177 of The Advocate’s Ultimatum

“Let’s go.”

Sabre looked through the courthouse glass doors toward the curb. JP’s truck waited at the red zone. Bob walked her out, she said good-bye, and got into the truck.

“Are you okay?” JP asked as he pulled away from the curb.

“No.”

He nodded like he’d expected that. Traffic crawled through Kearny Mesa while the late afternoon sun dropped lower across the buildings.

Sabre stared out the windshield. “He’s going to run with her.”

JP’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. “Maybe.”

She shook her head. “He’ll disappear. They’ll have new identities, a new city, a new state maybe.” And she believed that completely.

JP glanced over briefly. “Do you think he’d leave Bay?”

Sabre considered it. “I don’t know. Bay complicated things for him. She’s in custody now, charged with murder, and visible. She may be expendable to him.” That bothered Sabre more than she wanted to admit.

JP changed lanes. “DuBois put surveillance around our house.”

Sabre sucked in a breath. “Do you think he’d go there?”

“I think we stop assuming what he would or wouldn’t do.”

Silence settled between them for several blocks.

JP finally said, “He’ll contact you.”

“Why do you think so?”

JP slowed at a light. “Because men like Rourke don’t think they’re villains. He believes he saved Hannah, which means part of him wants you to understand.”

Sabre looked out the window. The city blurred past. “What if Hannah doesn’t want to leave him?”

“We deal with that when we get there.”

Sabre nodded. But deep down she knew that finding Hannah might turn out to be easier than bringing her home.

They were halfway to the house when Sabre’s phone rang. An unknown number.

“Put it on speaker,” JP said, his voice tight.

Sabre took the call. “Hello?”

Silence for a second. Then Daniel Rourke’s voice calmly filled the truck cab. “You disappointed me today.”

Sabre felt her stomach drop.

JP’s eyes stayed on the road, but his entire posture stiffened.

“Daniel—,”

“I really believed you wanted the truth.” He almost sounded hurt. “I didn’t think you’d bring police into it.”

Sabre forced herself to sound empathetic. “No one’s accusing you of anything.”

“You know, Sabre,” Rourke lectured, “one of the hardest lessons in this world is understanding that finding people sometimes hurts them more than losing them.”