Chapter 23
If you come for my family, I’m the karma that comes for you.
“What the hell were you thinking?” a familiar female voice snapped. “You shouldn’t have knocked her out.”
It was Andrea, her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée. And also Scout’s former friend and lawyer.
Scout remained still, aware that her wrists were bound behind her back even as she tried to figure out where the hell she was. Someone had dropped her onto the ground and it had taken everything in her not to react to the pain sliding through her.
The back of her head throbbed, her wrists ached, and her shoulder felt like someone had taken a hammer to it. Tonight was turning out to be a real crapfest, but at least she was alive. For now.
And she really hoped Hudson was okay.
She had to get out of this alive. She was tempted to open her eyes, but didn’t want to give away that she was awake. They’d realize it soon enough, but she needed time to get out of this mess.
“How the hell else was I supposed to grab her?”
This from Oliver, her charming ex. Ugh. At least she knew who had taken her—just not why.
“She’d have fought me.”
“You should have just killed her at the farm,” Andrea snapped.
“Her stupid llamas were making too much noise. And I needed to get her away from that hulk she’s been living with. I couldn’t chance those cameras catching me. I had to do it this way.”
Andrea simply grunted in annoyance. “Fine, what’s done is done. I need to find out if she hired another lawyer anyway.”
Another lawyer? What the hell?
“Then we’ll take care of her. And that hulk.” Oliver added, annoyance in his voice.
Hulk? He had to be talking about Hudson. She bit back a deranged snort. Good luck taking him on. And now she knew for sure that Hudson was alive.
“Do you hear that?” Andrea whispered suddenly.
Oh wait, had she said that out loud? No, there was something else happening. In the distance. She could hear it too but wasn’t sure what it was.
Scout risked slightly opening her eyes into slits, then realized she couldn’t see anything but the backs of their shoes.
Andrea’s sneakers and Oliver’s boots. Both were wearing jeans.
And she didn’t dare raise her head to get a better view of them.
Not like she needed to see them anyway. She recognized their voices.
They’d kidnapped her to kill her apparently, and she needed to get away.
Even if she was curious about the why of it all, she had to escape. Then call for help. And find Hudson. Also…
She heard the sound they were talking about too. It was much louder.
Her girls!
Their bleating was frantic, carrying on the wind. It almost sounded like an army of them headed this way, but she knew it was just the three of them.
Oh no. These monsters would definitely hurt her girls if given the chance.
“Damn it,” Oliver muttered. “I should have just killed them.”
Andrea muttered something under her breath as they both started stomping away in the direction of the sound.
Now Scout risked it, opened her eyes and took in everything. They were still on her land, but close to the Willman property. She could see the property line, thanks to some glow-in-the-dark neon flags Hudson and Sarah had put up earlier.
Oliver and Andrea had dumped her right off the trail and secured two horses to one of the trees. It was too dark to see anything else other than the forest, but that was fine with her. She simply needed to get the hell away from here.
Keeping as quiet as possible, she rolled over and pushed up to her knees, then struggled to her feet, glad they hadn’t bound her ankles. She couldn’t break the zip ties on her wrists, but she could run.
One of the horses neighed softly but was otherwise quiet.
She wanted to run back to her house out of instinct, but couldn’t head in that direction. Not directly anyway. That was the way her two abductors had gone. And while she wanted to protect her girls, they were damn capable and mean—and she couldn’t do anything while she was bound.
If anything, she hoped they would trail after her scent instead of taking on Oliver and Andrea. They’d clearly followed her so hopefully they’d keep tracking her scent.
As she started awkwardly running down the trail, she realized that Oliver hadn’t taken her cell phone out of her jacket pocket.
What a moron.
Which…yeah, that lined up.
Too bad she couldn’t grab it with the way her hands were bound. There had to be a way to get the zip ties off.
Instead of staying on the trail, she veered to her left, plunging into the thick of trees. She tried to keep her footing through the underbrush, but it was difficult to see anything.
Among the trees it was even darker and a lot more terrifying even if it was her land. There were bears, snakes, cougars and other things she didn’t want to think about as she moved as fast as possible.
Blood rushed in her ears, the sound drowning out everything else—until a gunshot rang through the air.
Oh god, her girls.