Chapter 33

CHAPTER 33

L ock gripped the Glock firmly in his lap.

Too slow. They were driving too damn slow. But then, any speed would be too slow, even the thirty miles an hour over the speed limit Eastern was driving.

Jesse sat in the back, and deputies were heading to the same location. They had backup, but it didn’t stop the fear from crawling around his chest. Fear that they’d be too late. Fear that Antwan would do something to Callie that couldn’t be taken back.

“He’s not going to hurt her,” Eastern said as if reading his mind. “He took her because he’s infatuated with her.”

“He’s unstable,” Lock growled. “He’s killed two people and tried to kill a third, and that’s the people we know about. There could be more. What if Callie doesn’t comply? What if she pisses him off and he loses control?”

“He wants her too badly to lose control,” Jesse said from the back. “He won’t slip up.”

Fuck, he hoped Jesse was right.

He leaned his head back. He needed to calm the hell down. He’d done a hundred missions like this before. Successfully extracted hostages and taken down more bad guys than he could count.

But this bad guy was a man he’d trusted. Fought beside. Cared about.

The gun felt heavy in his hand. Would he even be able to shoot Antwan?

Yes . The answer was a shout in his head. To save Callie, yes.

Eastern turned right onto a dirt road. “I’m going to park in the mountains, a mile from the house. We move toward it from different directions, and when we find Callie and Antwan, we radio each other.”

“Got it,” Jesse confirmed.

When Lock didn’t answer, his brother glanced at him. “I need to hear you say you’re going to call for backup, Lock.”

“Getting her out safely is my priority.”

“And it should be.” Eastern looked at him again. “But if Antwan wants her as badly as we think he does, he won’t hesitate to shoot to kill those who threaten him—even you.”

Lock’s fingers tightened on the weapon. He wanted his brother to be wrong, wanted to believe Antwan would never shoot him, let alone shoot to kill…but Antwan wasn’t the man Lock had thought he was.

Eastern pulled off the road and parked the car, nestled it between trees. Once they were all out, Eastern pulled up a map on his phone. “We’re here, and the cabin’s there. I’ll approach from the east. Jesse, you go from south, and Lock, you’re west.”

Jesse nodded, and Lock was about to move when Eastern grabbed his arm. “Remember, you see them, you call us.”

His jaw clicked but he nodded. The second Eastern let go, Lock was running. Sprinting into the forest, feet sinking into the dirt. Callie was all he could think about. Her smile. The way she touched him. Suddenly, the air in his lungs moved with a bit more ease.

He couldn’t lose her. He’d been without her for two long years, and they were the hardest of his life.

He sped up, feeling the sting of the air on his face. The snap of branches beneath his feet. When the cabin came into view, he slowed, even though every part of him wanted to speed up. He needed to enter the small house as covertly as possible. Antwan was well trained and could shoot with accuracy from anywhere.

He scanned the windows, not seeing any movement. He kept low as he jogged toward the door, Glock raised and ready to shoot.

He tried the door, not surprised to find it locked.

He was about to pull a pin from his wallet to pick it when the door opened.

He aimed his Glock—only to frown when he saw Jesse. “You got in quickly.”

“A back bedroom window was open.”

A window was open? What the hell?

“No one’s here,” Jesse added.

Fuck.

Lock stepped inside, and sure enough, the cabin was quiet.

A shuffling sound behind him had Lock spinning, Glock once again lifting.

Eastern.

“I saw the open front door.” His brother lowered his gun. “The place is empty?”

Jesse nodded. “But a bedroom window was open.”

Lock’s gaze lifted to the hall, his mind working fast to piece it all together. “She got out and he chased after her. Which bedroom had an open window?”

Jesse pointed to the door farthest down the hall, and Lock raced into the room, gaze going straight to the open window. He sprinted toward it and jumped out.

Callie would have taken the shortest route to the trees to use them for cover, and Antwan would have known that.

Lock raced into the forest, praying he found her before Antwan.

Air soared in and out of Callie’s chest as she ran. Her legs ached and felt so heavy, they threatened to cave. And her bare feet, God, they hurt with all the rocks and sticks on the forest floor. But she didn’t dare stop, because the second she did, he’d find her. And then he’d drag her back to that cabin.

She’d stabbed him, lied to him and run. What would he do if he caught her?

She pumped her arms faster.

When the distant crunch of leaves beneath feet sounded behind her, her foot caught on a rock and she fell hard to the ground. The air knocked out of her, and she rolled to her side, clutching at her chest.

Breathe, Callie. Get up, run, and breathe.

“Callie!”

Her heart crashed against her ribs at his voice. He was close. Too close.

She forced herself to her feet and took off again, the fear alive and roaring inside her.

Light was almost gone, making it hard to see what was in front of her. When her foot landed on something sharp, she grabbed on to a tree to stop herself from falling forward, barely swallowing the cry.

She started running again and was just nearing a decline when the thumping footsteps got louder. Faster. She turned her head and screamed when a body hit her at full force, tumbling them both down the small hill. At the bottom, she tried to roll to her belly and crawl away, but he snatched her ankle and yanked her back under him.

“Stop…fighting me,” he growled, flipping her over.

“Never!”

He gripped a wrist, but before he could grab the other, she pushed her fingers into the bandage on his stomach and dug into his wound.

He howled as he released her wrist to reach for her other one, but she managed to get a foot between them and kick him off. Then she was on her feet and moving again. She had no idea where she was going, whether she was heading back toward the house or away from it. Her head was a hazy mess, the ability to think of anything beyond getting away, gone.

She slipped around trees and jumped over tree roots.

She heard Antwan closing in behind her at the exact moment she saw movement in the distance, in front of her. She squinted. What was that? A person? Oh God, please say it was a person!

She opened her mouth to scream when a band of steel wrapped around her waist, and she was tugged back against a hard chest.

The figure in front of them came into view. Her heart stopped.

Lock.

He was running toward her, a gun in his hand.

He’d found her. Oh God, he’d found her!

Hope slipped through her veins, only to be replaced with cold, hard terror when Antwan lifted his own gun—and pointed it right at Lock.