25. Allie
Allie
M y heart pounded as I sprinted along the back alley, keeping to the shadows, Tressa matching my pace. Will’s note burned in my pocket. Thirty minutes left. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. Each second ticking away felt like another drop of Hail’s blood on my hands.
The mental image of my mate, bound and in pain, sent a wave of nausea through me. I forced it down. Falling apart wouldn’t help him. The precious minutes were slipping away, and with them, Hail’s safety.
“Aunt Inla will know what to do,” I told Tressa, though I was trying to convince myself. “She can radio the others.” Why hadn’t I noted where I’d placed my radio? I was busy acting like I wasn’t too worried.
Come alone, Will had said, and everything inside me told me to obey. But that’s what they told people to do in the movies, and it never turned out good for the person taken or the sole individual who came after them.
No, I’d get help, though I’d be careful.
The general store partway down the block, and I had to climb in through a back window, landing hard on the wooden floor beneath. Tressa leaped in gracefully behind me. Rising to my feet, I crept across what looked like a storeroom, creaking open the door at the end.
“Aunt Inla,” I hissed.
The orc woman stood in front of a counter, but she turned, her eyes widening at the sight of my nose poking through the narrow opening.
With a tilt of her head, she left the counter and came to the door, blinking when she saw it was me.
“Allie? What’s happened?”
I latched onto her arm and tugged her into the storeroom, securing the door behind her. A glance over my shoulder told me no one was peeking through the sole window. Good. There was a solid chance I’d reached the general store without any of Will’s people seeing me.
“Will took Hail.” My voice came out a croak. “He left a note. He wants me to come alone or they’ll hurt Hail.”
My hands shook as I pulled the crumpled paper from my pocket and held it toward her. The crude map blurred as tears swam in my eyes. I blinked them away. Crying wouldn’t save Hail.
Aunt Inla’s expression hardened, her face appearing carved from stone. “My nephews need to know.”
Yes. She was taking charge. I was too frazzled to figure this out on my own.
She left me to shoo tourists out of the store and lock the front door, switching the Open sign to Closed. Then she returned to the storeroom and strode over to grab her radio off an upper shelf. Her fingers fumbled with the dials, twisting them this way and that.
“Odd thing,” she muttered. “Dungar set it up for me and showed me how to use it, but I can’t figure it out.”
She pressed various buttons, but only static emerged from the speaker. Precious seconds ticked away. My chest tightened with every unsuccessful attempt.
I took it from her and tried myself, with the same result.
“We don’t have time for this.” I grabbed her arm. “Holly’s bakery is closed. She or Sel can call the others from there.”
Aunt Inla nodded and opened the side door I’d missed on one wall. “Sel will know what to do.”
We hurried down a narrow hallway spanning the back of the row of buildings, Tressa leading the way.
The scent of fresh bread that normally brought comfort now turned my stomach. How could the world go on as normal when Hail was in danger? Every minute that passed might mean pain for him.
We tumbled out into the main room of the bakery where we’d met with Detective Fernandez that morning.
The bakery was only moderately busy, but it was late afternoon. Holly looked up from behind the counter, her smile fading when she saw our expressions. Sel wasn’t in sight.
“Max, watch the register,” she said to her son, a lanky teenager who nodded solemnly.
Holly ushered us into the back room. “What’s wrong?”
“Will’s people took Hail.” I pulled out the note, my hand shaking.
“They gave me forty-five minutes to reach them or they’ll start cutting pieces off him.
” The words caught in my throat. Saying them aloud made the threat more real.
I fought down a wave of panic. Hail needed clear thinking, not hysteria.
“It’s been maybe twenty minutes already, so I have about twenty or twenty-five minutes left to do something. ”
Holly’s face paled. “Sel just left, but he took our radio with him. There was an emergency with one of the trail rides, a tourist fell from their sorhox. He and Becken took supplies to help. Ruugar was leading the ride. Beth stayed behind this time.”
“Can we call the saloon?” I asked. “Jessi might know where the other brothers and Detective Fernandez and his team are.”
Holly grabbed the phone, punching in numbers, and I was grateful when someone answered. “Jessi? It’s Holly. Is Greel there?” She paused, listening before handing me the receiver. “Jessi wants to speak with you.”
“Allie?” Jessi’s voice came through a moment later. “What’s going on?”
“They took Hail.” I forced my voice to remain steady. “Will’s people. They left a note telling me to come alone and a map with a location marked with an X. It looks like it’s in the woods on the north side of the valley.”
I gripped the phone so hard my knuckles turned white. The fear I’d been holding back threatened to overwhelm me, but I pushed it down. Breaking now meant Hail would pay the price.
“Dammit.” Jessi’s voice hardened. “Greel spotted a suspicious vehicle earlier. He called Ostor, Dungar, and that detective. They went to investigate about twenty minutes ago but haven’t come back.”
My heart sank. The timing was too perfect to be coincidence. “Do you know where they went?”
“West side of the valley. A cabin where a tourist who went riding today told us they saw signs of someone breaking in. We think they could’ve been hiding there all along.”
They’d created a diversion. A tremor ran through me as I realized how carefully this had been planned. How long had Will been watching us, waiting for this moment?
“What about Tark?” I asked, hope fading with each passing second.
“Tark’s not answering his radio. I’d say Ruugar and Sel are at least an hour out.”
I checked my watch. Twenty minutes left. The room seemed to tilt around me, and I steadied myself against the counter. Only twenty minutes until they began cutting off Hail’s fingers, one by one.
“I’ll be right there,” Jessi said, reading my silence. “Don’t do anything until I arrive.”
“Be fast. We don’t have time!”
The line went dead. I set the receiver down.
“She’s coming here,” I told Holly and Aunt Inla, explaining what she’d told me. “But we don’t have time to wait for them to return.”
Aunt Inla paced the small kitchen, her expression furious. “We need a plan.”
“We have one.” I pointed to the note, my voice sharp. “I’m going to that location, and they’ll let Hail go.”
The thought of facing Will alone sent ice through my veins, but what choice did I have? Hail would do the same for me without hesitation.
“Not alone, you’re not.” Holly’s voice was firm. “We know they won’t let Hail or you go free. If you rush in, all you’ll do is give them a second hostage.”
“But if they see anyone with me?—”
“We won’t let them.” Aunt Inla’s eyes glinted with determination.
The bakery door chimed, and Jessi burst into the kitchen, still wearing her apron.
“I came as fast as I could,” she said, slightly out of breath. “What’s the situation?”
Rosey, Gracie, and Beth arrived within an instant of Jessi, also breathing hard.
“We followed her.” Beth nudged Jessi in the side with her elbow. “When we saw her face, we knew something horrible had happened.” She looked from me to Holly to Aunt Inla. “What’s up and what do we need to do?”
Rosey and Gracie nodded from beside her.
I stared at them, relief swirling through me. For so many years, I’d faced problems alone. The weight of their support nearly broke the dam holding back my emotions.
“Eighteen minutes before they hurt Hail,” I said, checking my phone again.
The words hung in the air between us. Twelve minutes to save the man I loved. The man whose gentle hands created beauty from clay. Whose quiet strength had become my sanctuary.
“We can’t wait for our mates,” Jessi said, confirming what we already knew. “It would take them at least thirty minutes to get back from the west side, even if we could reach them.”
Five females and a wolf stared at each other in the small kitchen, the reality of our situation hanging in the air.
Will’s people had orchestrated this perfectly.
They’d separated me from my protectors and created a diversion to draw away Hail’s brothers and the detective’s team, leaving me vulnerable and desperate.
But they hadn’t counted on orc mates.
“Where exactly is this place?” Jessi asked.
I spread the crude map on the counter, pointing. “Here, in the foothills. Maybe three miles northeast of town.”
My finger traced the route, and I tried not to think about what waited at the end. Hail bound and bleeding. Will with his cold smile and dead eyes. The men who threatened the future I’d only begun to imagine.
“I know that area,” Aunt Inla said. “From what I heard when we first arrived, there’s an old mining operation there. It’s been abandoned for a very long time.” She frowned, tapping her chin. “I think there’s only one road in, and the area is overgrown, surrounded by forest.”
“They’ll be watching that road,” Jessi said.
“We’ll go a different way.” Rosey traced a path on the map with her finger. “I think there’s a deer trail that cuts through here. It would bring us to the back side of the camp.”
“We’ll need sorhoxes. Weapons,” Gracie said matter-of-factly.
Jessi swept her hand to the island. “Kitchen knives will do for the latter.”
“My rolling pin’s heavy oak and good for more than just rolling out dough,” Holly said.
A smile flickered across my face despite everything. “You’re all out of your minds, you know that? These men are dangerous.”
“So are we,” Aunt Inla grunted. “Especially when someone threatens one of our own.”
The words warmed something deep inside me. These women, who I’d known only a few weeks, were willing to risk themselves for Hail and me. After years of running, of trusting no one, I’d somehow found these fierce, loyal people who considered me family.
“What about Max?” Jessi asked Holly, glancing toward the front of the bakery where her son was handling customers. “He shouldn’t be involved in this.”
“I’ll close the bakery, but he’ll stay here behind locked doors,” Holly said. “I’ll get him to call Dungar’s office and the detective every five minutes until someone answers.”
“They’ll be expecting me to come alone.” I thought through the logistics. “If they see all of us coming…”
“They won’t,” Jessi said. “We’ll leave the sorhoxes close and go the rest of the way on foot. We know how to move quietly.”
The other women nodded.
“I may be old,” Aunt Inla said, “but I’m still orc enough to break a human in half if needed.”
I studied my friends, human and orc, young and old, all with the same determined expression. Whatever happened, we would face it as one unit. The realization eased some of the terror that had been choking me since finding Will’s note. I wasn’t alone anymore.
I frowned. “We can’t just charge in there.”
“You’re the distraction,” Jessi said. “You go in the front and keep Will talking. We’ll come in from behind.”
“The problem is Will’s threat.” I tapped the note in my pocket. “If they see anyone but me approaching…”
I didn’t finish the sentence. We all knew what would happen. The image of Hail bleeding, in pain, flashed through my mind again. I pushed it away. Focused on the plan, not the fear.
“And Tressa?” I looked down at the wolf who hadn’t left my side.
Tressa’s amber eyes met mine. She’d follow Hail through fire and danger. No doubt about that.
And she’d do so for me.
“She knows the woods better than any of us, and her hearing is superior,” Holly said. “I think she should come with us. She’ll sound a warning if we slip up and one of Will’s men sees us. If they’re not holding him there, Tressa will be able to guide us to him.”
Tressa’s ears perked forward at the mention of her name, and I swore she understood every word. Her loyalty to Hail was absolute. If anyone could find him, it would be her.
“Time’s running out,” Jessi said, glancing toward the back door. “We need to move.”
Holly went to speak with Max while the rest of us gathered what we needed. Some of us took knives. Aunt Inla lifted a cast iron skillet from a lower cupboard.
“Really?” I asked her.
“You ever been hit with one of these?” she said. “You don’t get back up.”
I couldn’t argue with that. The knife I held felt unfamiliar, frightening. I’d never hurt anyone in my life. Now I was preparing to face men who kill without remorse.
For Hail, I’d do whatever was necessary. The certainty of that thought should’ve scared me, but instead, it brought a strange calm.
Holly returned, a solid wooden rolling pin tight in her grip. “Max will stay here, though it took some persuasion.” She shook her head. “I told him to keep calling Dungar’s office and Detective Fernandez.”
“Let’s go.” I checked the time again.
Fifteen minutes to reach the camp.
Fifteen minutes to find Hail.
Fifteen minutes before they started hurting him.