He imagined what it would be like for a child—for Toby!—to be in his car seat, strapped in, getting hotter and hotter, sweating, crying, screaming, helpless and trapped and dying alone.

A child being roasted alive.

Oh, God.

Jake tugged his keys out of his pocket.

He came to the street and punched the unlock button on the key fob.

A different car was parked where his had been.

And his sedan was gone.

++++

Blake heard from his contact: “It’s done.”

“The boy?”

“Yes. I think we have Mr. Reese’s attention.”

“And you’re confident he won’t contact the authorities?”

“Not if he wants his son back alive. And not if he wants to stay out of prison for his role in all this. We made that crystal clear in the voicemail we left for him.”

“Don’t trust a voicemail. Call him. Don’t leave anything to chance.”

“Yes, sir.”

++++

Jake’s phone rang.

Ibrahim’s number.

He stared at the screen, trying to decide if he should reach out to the federal agents he’d just met or contact the police . . . Or if he should answer this call from the man who’d gotten him involved in all this in the first place.

The earlier calls that’d come in for him were on his mind.

His gut knotted up with apprehension as he accepted the call.

“Hello, Mr. Reese.” It wasn’t Ibrahim but another man, a voice Jake didn’t recognize.

“What have you done?”

“I might ask you the same question. Leaving your kid alone like that in the car?”

“Where is he? Is he safe? I swear to God, if you hurt him, if you even—”

“Oh, he’s not hurt. Yet. We were going to pay Toby a visit at his day care center, but imagine our surprise when you didn’t even drop him off. You must have a lot on your mind, Mr. Reese, to be so distracted. What will your wife say when she finds out what you did? When she receives the video we took of that little boy in the car and—”

“Let me talk to him.”

“Unless you did it on purpose. Did you do it on—”

“Let me talk to him!”

Jake heard crying in the background. It became louder as the man brought the phone closer to his son. Jake spoke reassuringly to Toby, and then, when he heard him say, “Dada!” it was all he could do to keep from crying himself.

“Dada’s here. I’m coming to see you. I love you.”

“Love you, Dada!”

Under his breath, Jake cursed the man who’d taken his son, but he stilled his tongue so he wouldn’t upset Toby’s captors and put the boy in any more danger than he was already in.