by Sheri Landry
Kill Shot
Book Two: Zero Day Trilogy
Sheri Landry
Kill Shot by Sheri Landry
Copyright © 2021 by Sheri Landry
All rights reserved.
This book or any portion of this publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written and signed permission of the copyright owner. This includes but is not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be copied in any manner.
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and coincidental.
Cover designed by The Pretty Little Design Co.
ISBN 978-1-989366-28-8 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-989366-10-3 (eBook)
Contents
Note
Prologue: 1 year ago
1. Michael
2. Dana
3. Michael
4. Dana
5. Michael
6. Dana
7. Michael
8. Dana
9. Michael
10. Dana
11. Michael
12. Dana
13. Michael
14. Dana
15. Michael
16. Dana
17. Michael
18. Dana
19. Michael
20. Dana
21. Michael
22. Dana
23. Michael
24. Dana
25. Michael
26. Dana
27. Michael
28. Dana
29. Philomena
30. Michael
31. Dana
32. Michael
Kill Zone is next
Did you enjoy Kill Shot?
Acknowledgments
For my mom.
Note
Kill Shot is the second book in the Zero Day trilogy. These books must be read in order. If you haven’t read the first book, Kill Code, you can DOWNLOAD IT NOW.
Prologue: 1 year ago
DANA
A foggy weight settles over my body as broken words filter into my consciousness. The baritone in Michael’s voice urges me awake, and the skin on my arm prickles where his hand rests as he jostles me. I blink once, twice, three times to bring the room into focus, but it’s no use.
It’s still dark outside.
“Michael, I—” A yawn consumes the rest of my thought, and it’s just as well. Michael’s presence here at this time of the morning is out of place, and I struggle to piece together what this means for Jessa as I reach out to grab his arm, squeezing a few times to make sure I’m not dreaming.
Over the last few days, getting to know Michael, or Grizz, as his teammates call him, has left me with a foreign feeling. On first impression, his height and defined muscles are intimidating. His ability to school his emotions behind a stony mask is staggering, yet, out of everyone here, I feel the least bit a prisoner when he’s around. Maybe that’s why I’ve sought him out with Jessa away from me these past few days.
Regardless of how oddly secure I feel around him, there is still that incessant thought deep inside my head, a nagging whisper, reminding me of how everything really is:
We are being held.
We are prisoners.
Echoes of last night’s laughter bring back memories of dinners at Jessa’s house when we were younger. Her family became my family, and I miss them. Listening to Jessa and Travis joke around with each other and Jessa’s mom going around the table asking everyone what is new at school. She would even ask me, and the family would listen intently, adding follow-up questions before Jessa’s father started in with his dad jokes. We would all groan, rolling our eyes, but now I wish I could remember just one of them.
We’re so far removed from those good old days that sometimes it feels like a punishment to remember how happy we were. How blissfully unaware we were of the real monsters lurking in the shadows, the ones we spent the last ten years running away from.
We aren’t innocent in all of this. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and it doesn’t matter why we did the things we’ve done; it only matters that we did them, and I’m in this with Jessa all the way down.
“Dana. You need to come with me. Now.” Michael’s words are firm, his tone detached.
I recoil instantly, pulling my hand to my chest as my stomach knots. I don’t want another interrogation. As much as I fortify myself, Logan still manages to get under my skin. Jessa was right when she said we have to assume that no one here will help us.
Her name in my mind, I jolt up in bed and glance around.
Jessa fell asleep here last night. The noise should have woken her up too.
My eyes adjust to the dark, and the furniture across the room becomes prominent. The moonlight stretches across her empty, unmade bed, and my arms go heavy, sinking into my lap in confusion.
I’m alone. Something is wrong.
“Where’s Jessa?” My cheeks heat as the sting of tears threatens to build. I hold my breath, biting my lips between my teeth, willing the tears to go away as my hands start to shake on their own.
Michael takes a deep breath at my question, and I catch him pinching his nose in frustration. “Dana—NOW!”
His lack of answer is absolute. He won’t be giving me any information.
As a lump forms in my throat, images of Jessa from the video fill my head. She’s in trouble, and this isn’t the Michael I thought I was getting to know. How could I have let my guard down and been so naive?
The fact is, we have something they want, and it is us versus them. We’ve been walking a fine line since we got here, and, judging by the look on Michael’s face, we’ve done something to cross it.
Reaching across my midsection, I grip the edge of the sheet and fling it off my legs before pushing him out of my space. I jump out of bed and move past him to grab my pants and sweater, then point silently at the door for him to lead the way.
If he won’t give me an answer, I’ll find someone who will. Jessa is all I have left, and I’ll tear apart every one of them until someone tells me where she is and what is going on.
Shades of azure fill the sky, announcing dawn’s imminent arrival as I step outside. The crisp morning air causes my breath to hitch. Michael pauses for only a moment until my breathing evens out, finally leaving my lips in little clouds. Without a word, he turns to jog across the yard toward a main building, and I fall into pace behind him with worry for Jessa swirling around in my head.
Jessa and I spent years under everyone’s radar before Jack and his team found us, and I know we aren’t just hanging out waiting to be picked off. Jessa wouldn’t admit it to me when I asked her, but I knew. She had a plan.
I know she keeps things from me, and I understand her reasons. Much like her and Zane don’t share their locations, there is a delicate balance between not knowing enough and knowing too much. After watching Maxwell’s video and seeing what he is capable of, I would welcome a quick death compared to what she lived through. Jessa carried that burden herself so I wouldn’t have to.
A flash of Maxwell’s video gnaws into my head and a wave of nausea hits me. This is one of the first things Jessa and I will talk about when we get out of here, although I have no idea how we’ll be making our exit any time soon.
Michael stops outside of the main building. Looking over his shoulder, his eyes meet mine. His brow furrows as he turns his attention forward and pulls the door open. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up at the unwelcoming environment before us. The lights I usually see are dark, the halls lit only by the occasional red light, as if to announ
ce danger. It looks like they are working off backup electricity; the normal hum of working systems is gone.
Michael moves quietly and quickly down the hall in front of me. He’s closed himself off, and the only thing I sense from him now is the name his coworkers call him by: Grizz.
I’m back to being their prisoner, the enemy.
I’m lost in my head, trying to catch up to my racing thoughts, as my face hits his hard back and I come to a stop behind him. He takes another glance back at me and I don’t know what the look on his face means. I don’t know him well enough to know what that look should mean. I’ve been so stupid.
My stomach twists on itself as anger and disappointment settle in. Whatever is happening now, it’s not good for me or Jessa.
The door creaks open and Grizz steps back to let me walk through. I can’t run away. I have nowhere to go, and I don’t know where Jessa is or if she’s even alive, but I won’t leave here without her.
She has to be alive. Jack would protect her, wouldn’t he?
My own end could be waiting on the other side of the door, and I have no choice but to walk through and accept whatever it is. My shoulders slump, and I look to the floor. I don’t have it in me to face what’s on the other side, but I will.
Taking a deep breath to settle my stomach, I enter the room, then look up to meet the backs of Jack and Logan as they stare through a window in front of them. Neither of them turns to look at me, and their bodies block my view.
As the door clicks shut, Grizz steps into the room behind me and confusion sets in, replacing my fear. No one is looking at me. Leaning to the side, I try to look between them into the space they are watching intently.
“What’s going on?” Both men startle and turn at my voice, revealing a small counter in front of them. My eyes instantly focus on something I haven’t seen for days. “That’s my phone.”
I walk into the room and turn the phone over but leave it on the counter, and neither of the men stop me. My stomach heaves into my throat as my eyes move further into the room in front of us. Maxwell is on a large monitor, and he has Jessa and Hunter in the room with him.
“Jessa?” I lift my hands to the glass to try to get her attention when Logan’s voice stops me.
“She can’t hear you. She’s turned off communication. If you know anything, now is the time, Dee.” My anger flares at my nickname. He’s treating me like the enemy, and it’s not necessary. I’m pretty sure I know less than they do right now.
The trepidation in Jack’s eyes sobers me. He’s silently pleading with me to give him something I don’t have. He looks like he’s about to unravel. I’ve never seen this side of him.
“I don’t know anything. What’s happening?” I plead with Logan to give me something to go on, and as he opens his mouth to answer me, Jessa’s voice cuts into our conversation.
“I’m bringing Zane online in one minute.”
The room around me tilts on its axis and my head spins.
Something is horribly wrong. Jessa is not supposed to be able to connect to Zane on her own. She set it up so I’m the one who contacts him, and she’s the one with the codes to initiate access. The only way she could keep me safe was to make me valuable. This, right here, was my value to all the people who hunted Zane.
“Hunter tells me I have your word, Maxwell.” Jessa speaks into the monitor while Hunter, off to the side, leans against a wall.
Hunter isn’t being held with Jessa. He’s holding her captive. He’s working with Maxwell. Heat fills my face as the pieces fall into place. How could Jack and Logan not know about Hunter? I trusted them, and they put Jessa in Maxwell’s grasp themselves. Hot tears sting the corners of my eyes.
“We do this and we’re out. All three of us.” Jessa finally looks directly at me, and the sadness in her eyes as she tries to smile breaks my heart.
“No, Jessa. Don’t do this,” I plead pathetically, my fists banging on the window, willing her to stop everything and cursing everyone around me for what they’ve done to us.
As Maxwell offers her all the lies in the world, I turn my attention to Jack and Logan.
“I don’t understand. It’s a safety thing. She shouldn’t be able to contact Zane without me.”
“Need to know, Dee.” Logan’s frustration cuts me deep.
For the first time, I’m alone. Jessa and I were always on the run. There was always someone who wanted a piece of Zane, and we were always on our own, but we were together.
A glass window separates me from the only friend I’ve ever known, the only person who was always there for me, and I have no choice but to watch everything play out, knowing I’m helpless to change anything that is about to happen.
Jessa punches a final key, then swivels in her seat as a second screen lights up. Everyone around me stills as a face I haven’t seen in a long time fills the screen.
Travis.
Jessa’s twin brother looks into the room at us. My chest feels heavy at the sight of him. He’s a little older, but he’s just as good-looking as he was in high school. I always crushed on him hard, but Jessa and I were BFFs and there was a code I would never break. Not after everything she did for me, but he was a little hottie.
Jessa always called him her little brother because she was born a few minutes before he was.
I can’t believe he’s alive, after all this time. He made it out.
Relief floods my bones at the sight of him, but as I drop my gaze to Jessa bells ring in the back of my head, warning me something is out of place. It’s small, almost unnoticeable, but the way she looks at Travis is different.
“Travis?” Maxwell’s sickening growl breaks through my thoughts.
Travis’s response lags, probably from the delay in satellite connection. Maxwell is tiptoeing around this new discovery until Jessa cuts back into the conversation.
“Zane, I’m in. System is open for your access.” My heartbeat hammers in my ears as she turns off the video that connects us to Travis. There is nothing those two can’t do together, and I’ve just become aware that I’m left standing with the lions as she breaks into their den.
I have no idea how we’re going to get out of this, but I trust her with everything. The only thing I can do right now is let her work.
Glancing over her shoulder at Maxwell on the screen, she announces she’s ready to link up to his servers as Jack and Logan mutter profanities under their breath.
I stay quiet and unnoticed by everyone around me as Jessa stares at her screen, executing a plan. A plan I had no part in. I know why I don’t have a part. Like she always has, she’s protecting me. If this plan she’s come up with works out, we’re free. If it doesn’t, she goes down with Travis, and I’ll most likely be cut loose, because I know nothing. This is how she protects me.
Before I allow my tears to flow, Jessa asks Hunter to get her something from the next room, and in an instant I know she’s up to something. She’s fisting her hands over her laptop as she takes a steady breath. In a fraction of a second, she glances at me before returning to her keyboard while nibbling on her lower lip.
I can read her like a book, and as I wait for her to make her move, I slowly suck in a deep breath of my own.
Before I fully exhale, Jessa jumps out of her chair and races across the room, grabbing the door handle of the room Hunter is in. Just before it closes shut, Hunter lunges at the door from the other side, but he’s too late to keep it open.
Jessa stands still with her arms raised above her head. Judging by the look of surprise on her face, I’m not sure she thought out this much of her plan. She looks a little unsure of herself.
She returns to her seat and picks up her typing. Logan turns to me.
“Link has just informed me Jessa opened communication. We can speak to her, but we don’t want to make a wrong move. Please, Dana, speak to your friend. I can’t help either of you if you don’t help me.”
His words settle over me. I don’t want to help him. He’s not on Jessa
’s side. He’s on his own side. But at the same time, I need to try to help Jessa, so I nod. As I open my mouth to speak, Maxwell’s vile voice cuts me off.
“Jessa, what’s going on? Get Zane—Travis back on the screen right now,” he yells into his monitor, but this time his words don’t seem to faze her.
I know that look. She’s in a space of her own, and she’s confident she is untouchable. I wish I shared her confidence right now.
Travis’s face fills the second screen once more, and Maxwell questions him about Jessa’s actions.
Without changing his expression, Travis answers, “I don’t think I’m the best person to answer that. You killed me, remember?”
“WHAT?” Logan flinches as Link’s voice screams through his earpiece, mirroring my own reaction.
Maxwell threatens both Jessa and Travis. At the sound of his name, Jessa loses all her composure. Spinning in her seat and standing tall in front of Maxwell, Jessa lets him have it. Confessions and secrets she’s had for almost a decade flow out of her, and the air around me grows thick with pain as she releases all of her anger.
Being the weasel Maxwell is, he tries to deny it all.
Then, as she confirms the death of her brother, the brother whose image is staring into the room at us, I can’t take any more, and my tears roll down my face as I watch my best friend fall apart and tell us everything I’ve wanted her to tell me over the last ten years. This is everything she held close to her heart because sharing it would put us in danger. So she suffered alone.