The Freelancer – Chapter 91

I was too late.  Jenna was gone when I got back.  Blackstone beat me to her.

“Think, dammit,” I shouted into space.

Blackstone was unstable and Jenna was with him.  I tried her cell phone only to hear it ringing from inside her condo.  Her door was locked when I tried it.  Why did she chose now, of all times, to start locking her door?  I dismissed the thought of picking the lock.  That would take away precious time I knew I didn’t have.

I kicked it in.

The condo was dark.  Her kitten glared at me with terrified eyes, obviously trying to be invisible by remaining motionless.  That was something I hadn’t planned for.  Jenna would be furious if I let her cats out. I picked up the door and put it back up as best I could.

“What the hell am I doing?”  I had to figure out where he would take her.  He had to know nowhere was safe for him.

I paced back and forth from my door to hers until I heard the sounds of her downstairs neighbor opening their door.  Retreating to my condo, I picked up where I left off and paced from room to room for several minutes.  The situation was becoming desperate and all I could do was think that Jenna was with a madman who I couldn’t stop.  My God, he murdered Collin, Maureen, the people in that office building.  He would have killed a plane full of people if we hadn’t stopped it.  Jenna was going to be his next victim if I didn’t hurry, but I couldn’t think through the wave of sheer panic washing over me.

God only knew what he would do to her.  He was obsessed with her – with the woman I loved.  Images, violent images, filled my brain and clouded my vision.  It didn’t take a genius to guess what he wanted from her and he wouldn’t be able to accept her rejection of him.  He’d try to take what he wanted anyway, then he’d take revenge on her…like Collin.  A wave of nausea washed over me at the very thought of Jenna broken and bleeding at his hands.  I couldn’t let this monster hurt her.  If he touched one hair on her head I would rip him from limb to limb with my bare hands.

I wasn’t an agent right now. I was a desperate man in love. A man on the edge.

No, I was a man wasting time.

I racked my brain for any next step that would seem rational to him, but I knew Blackstone was insane.  I forced myself to stop thinking like a man terrified for the woman he loved and to start thinking like an agent.  My training would have to take over or all was lost.  Although Blackstone’s actions appeared to have not rhyme or reason, I realized what I already knew.

Every single act of violence he committed was because of Jenna or his grandmother, because of his twisted love for them.  I knew he would take Jenna to his grandmother’s house.  He was crazy enough to think that could work.

I ripped into my files and found her address, ignoring the sea of paperwork left on the floor in my wake..  The Mapsco was a frustrating waste of time, but I didn’t know my way around the area without it.  Collin usually drove.

The quickest way to get there would be to take the Tollway to 190 and head west until I got to I-35…Damn these people had too many highways.  I hate Texas.  Jenna was going to have to move to D.C. where the people who designed roadways weren’t on meth.

I was too frustrated to remember all that, so I grabbed my map and raced out to my blazer.

“Hold on, Jenna.  I’m coming for you.”  I prayed I’d make it in time.  “I want my fucking picket fence.”

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