Previously, Jake and Pierce joined forces to save the hostages! Somehow we are still reading this book!
Chapter 37:
Matthias Foster regrets that he didn’t have Natalie kill Jake Rivers when she had the chance. Jake was in love with her! Already! He never would have seen it coming. Then again, he’s not so sure anymore that she can be trusted.
Foster contacts his henchmen via radio and recaps the situation. Tensions are running high.
“We’re here,” a voice came back. “No problems so far. We have seventeen prisoners, and I’m pretty sure they’re all accounted for.”
“We need better than pretty sure,” Foster snapped. “Sweep the floor until you’re certain.”
“We’ve done that. I’m certain now.” Chad’s voice showed the strain they were all under. “It was just a figure of speech, Matthias. You don’t need to worry about us. I heard shooting up on the third floor a little while ago, though. Something happened up there, and it didn’t sound good.”
Johnstone, William W.. Trigger Warning (p. 315). Pinnacle Books. Kindle Edition.
Jesus, Chad, get your shit together! DON’T YOU KNOW WHAT’S AT STAKE HERE?? BECAUSE I SURE DON’T REMEMBER!!
When Mathias can’t get ahold of some of his henchmen upstairs, he decides he needs to go check out the situation. Natalie offers to go in his place, and he decides that she’s both expendable and also has the best chance of survival since Jake would hesitate to shoot her. She’s so obviously untrustworthy at this point, but sure, Matthias, send her.
We cut over to Jake’s point of view and he runs into some more people hiding out in the library who are relieved to see him. Jake tells them all to “fort up” and instructs Pierce to stay with them too.
“You trust me? We don’t agree on much of anything, Jake.”
“You talking about politics?” Jake waved his free hand dismissively. “You’ve heard the old saying about how there are no atheists in foxholes?”
“What’s a foxhole?” Pierce asked with a puzzled frown. Kids these days, Jake thought, ignoring for the moment the fact that he was only three or four years older than Pierce. There was a world of difference in their souls and backgrounds.
Johnstone, William W.. Trigger Warning (p. 319). Pinnacle Books. Kindle Edition.
IN THEIR SOULS?
Jake declares that he’s going downstairs after Foster. This is a showdown I certainly don’t want to miss, she lied, hoping Matthew will be the one covering that shitshow.
But wait, there’s an even more important showdown coming up.
No matter what had happened in the past, Natalie was the enemy now. He had no doubt that she would kill him without hesitating if she got the chance.
The question was, could he do the same?
He honestly didn’t know the answer.
Johnstone, William W.. Trigger Warning (p. 320). Pinnacle Books. Kindle Edition.
If you enjoyed today’s post, please consider joining our Patreon, where for a mere $1 a month you can come hang out with us in our new Discord! Or if you want to make a one-time donation, you can buy us a cup of coffee on Ko-fi:
TIRED: conflict between jake and pierce about politics
WIRED: conflict between matthew and ariel about who gets stuck writing about it
“There was a world of difference in their souls and backgrounds.”
So did the author just admit there isn’t anything human about Jake at all?