Free Negotiating Point by Adrienne Giordano Page B

the entry. The quiet surrounded him and the smell of fresh air cleared his mind. Go for it. He whipped back to Janet. “I need to get face-to-face with him. And I need his son with me.”
    She jumped from her chair. “What?”
    “If I can show him the kid, then get in a room with this guy, I can talk him out. He’ll keep thinking about his son and he’ll walk out. He’s nuts about this kid and won’t want him to see him this way.”
    “Gavin, you’re crazy if you think I’m letting you go in there. You have no idea what kind of weaponry they have. You could walk through the front door and get shot. You may not even make it to the front door! They might shoot you in the driveway.”
    “Not if I have his son next to me. I think I connected with him on the kid. We’ll get the team to line up like they did when you delivered the food. I’ll tell Joe I’m coming in to talk and I’ll have another go at him.”
    Both her hands went straight up. “Oh, no. No. No. No. Vic will go crazy. ”
    “He’s not here. When he gets back, he can call me on the radio and scream, but this is a good idea. If I get in a room with these people, I can talk them out. I can also get a look at the interior and maybe see Roxann. If we wind up breaching, we’ll need that intel.”
    Yes. This was a plan he could live with. Gavin picked up his cell phone to call the child’s mother.
    * * *
    Janet paced the barn while Gavin talked with Joe’s ex-girlfriend. He can’t do this. The raging panic pounded her and she dragged her palms up her forehead. There he was, sitting in that damned crappy folding chair, his feet propped on the makeshift desk while she had a grand mal seizure.
    He’s insane.
    She should step outside and call Vic. Shouldn’t she? Let him know about this half-baked plan? Maybe Vic was close and could talk him out of it.
    The sex really must have turned her stupid because after all the arguing she’d heard today, Gavin would never allow Vic, of all people, to talk him out of a turkey sandwich, much less meeting with a hostage taker. It would be a whole new ballistic missile thrown into an already tenuous working relationship.
    But, dammit, she wanted Gavin out of harm’s way. With this plan, he’d be locked in the jaws of it.
    No.
    Finally, Gavin hung up and she wasted no time. “You can’t go in there. You have no idea what this guy will do when he sees his son. What about the people with him? We don’t know anything about them.” She stepped to him, grabbed both his hands and squeezed. “I know you hate the idea of going tactical, but this is too extreme. Let Vic win this one. Please.”
    To his credit, he remained seated rather than taking a position of strength by standing over her. “It’s not about winning. It’s about making sure a pregnant woman goes home to her husband. If we go tactical, I have no confidence, no matter how good I know our team is, that Roxann won’t get hurt. I’m not worried about our side. It’s the people in the house that concern me. They’re unstable. I think if I put this guy’s son in front of him, the love for his child will trump this crazy-assed mission they’re on.”
    “You think?”
    Gavin nodded. “Never any guarantees, but my instincts are good. Better than good. This is the way to go.”
    All this, she knew. When Gavin left the FBI he’d been one of their top three negotiators. Six months ago, he’d joined Taylor Security and on his first day, after he’d been introduced to the team, she hacked into his employee file. Not something she was proud of but she’d convinced herself it was idle curiosity about the new guy. Now, months later, she didn’t bother denying she’d been attracted to him the second she’d seen him. He’d walked into that conference room, faced a team of hulking, deadly, spec ops guys and never flinched. From that moment, she’d locked on to his confidence.
    And now, the man who clearly had no issues being surrounded by other