Chapter 47
SLOANE
Eight o’clock had come and gone. The ribbon was still there. It fluttered once in the wind and then went still. Right now, it felt like a noose.
I stood right inside the tree line with my pulse trying to break free. The road sat a few yards away, empty and dark, the strip of asphalt barely visible beyond the brush.
I wasn’t supposed to bring anyone. I hadn’t. I’d told myself that was true the moment I stepped out of my car. The moment I walked toward this marker, alone. The woods didn’t feel empty. A pressure in the air made my skin prickle, the sense of someone watching.
The last message still glowed in my mind.
Don’t bring anyone.
I swallowed and tried calling Ryker again from my iWatch.
Dammit, it went straight to voicemail. I ended the call before the beep and stared at his name on my screen until it blurred. My hands were shaking, the violent kind that came from barely holding myself together.
I pressed my fingers to my forehead and forced myself to breathe.
Think. What would I tell a victim to do right now? Stay in the light. Keep distance. Stay aware. Don’t let them get behind you. There wasn’t light out here. Just shadows and trees and whatever waited beyond them.
A sound came from the road. The crunch of gravel and then the sound stopped.
I froze. I eased my weight back, slowly, making sure my feet stayed quiet in the leaves. I slide my fingers through the ring of my keys, the metal teeth biting into my skin. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was better than nothing.
Another crunch, but this one was closer.
My mouth went dry.
I shifted so the tree was at my back. Nobody could come from behind without me feeling it. Then I heard the thing I didn’t want to hear. Footsteps. Controlled. Deliberate. People who knew where to put their weight so the woods stayed quiet.
A shape detached from the darkness near the road. A man. Then another. A third, staying farther back as if he didn’t need to be close to do his job.
My lungs seized. One of them lifted a hand and pointed, the universal command to move in.
The closest man moved faster immediately.
He was dressed in dark clothes. Gloves. No flashlight. His face wasn’t visible, but the angle of his shoulders told me everything. He wasn’t here to talk. He was here to cause problems.
“Don’t,” I warned.
He didn’t slow.
The second man moved to my left without breaking stride, cutting off my angle toward the deeper woods. The third stayed near the road, watching.
My stomach dropped into pure, cold rage. So, this was the real order tonight. Not to meet and return my brother.
The first man lunged at me, and I swung my keys at his face.
The metal scraped his skin, he jerked back, and a thin line of blood opened across his cheek.
He swore under his breath, more annoyed than hurt. Then he brought something up in his hand.
A cloth. He shoved it over my mouth and nose with brutal force, and the smell hit like a punch. Clean. Sweet. Chemical.
My vision pinched at the edges instantly.
No.
I jerked my head and pulled away. My hands clawed at his wrist as panic surged through me.
The second man grabbed my arm from behind and yanked it tight, pinning me against his chest.
I twisted and kicked back, my heel catching shin. He grunted but didn’t let go.
The cloth pressed in again, and I bit down. The fabric tasted bitter, and my teeth sank in enough to make the man hiss. He pulled it away for a fraction of a second, but the chemical smell stayed in my nose.
My knees went weak. The cloth had been on and off fast. Not enough to knock me out, but enough to fuck with me.
No. No, no.
I dug my nails into his wrist and fought to stay upright.
A whisper slid through the trees.
The first man didn’t hear it, but I did.
Ella came out of the woods so fast my brain couldn’t track her movement until it was already done. One second, she was nowhere. The next she was there, arm swinging, blade catching the faintest glint of light.
The knife went in low and hard, right into the soft spot under his ribs.
He made a strangled, shocked grunt.
Ella yanked the blade free and drove it in again, higher this time, angling up.
His blood came fast, spraying across his shirt and her forearm. It splattered my cheek, warm enough to make me flinch.
He stumbled back, hands flying to his torso.
The cloth fell from his grip and hit the ground, and I sucked in the fresh air.
The second man jerked, startled, loosening his hold enough for me to twist out of his grasp.
Holland was behind him with her arm locked around his throat. The move was calculating. She didn’t fight him the way women were taught to fight. She fought him the way someone did when they understood only one person would walk away.
He thrashed, trying to break her hold.
Holland adjusted without hesitation and slammed him down to the ground with a sharp knee to the back of his leg. His head snapped back as he tried to gasp.
Holland’s voice was low in his ear. “Don’t.”
He tried anyway, and she tightened her hold.
He made a wet, choking sound.
Then his hands went weak, and his body sagged.
Holland eased him to the ground, and he hit the leaves with a dull thump.
The third man on the road took a few steps forward.
Cami appeared between the trees like she’d been waiting for him to move.
She didn’t give him any warning. She charged low and fast, slamming into him hard enough to drive him off balance.
He stumbled, and in that half second, she got her hands on his jacket and shoved him down hard.
He hit the edge of the ditch with a harsh sound.
He tried to scramble up, but Cami kicked him in the ribs, hard and deliberate.
Not the move of someone who’d always been comfortable with violence, but of someone who’d decided what she was willing to do for the people she loved.
Ella moved in without hesitation. She didn’t need to do much. Cami had already set it up.
Ella stood over the man, her chest rising and falling while her knife dripped blood. He looked up at her, but I couldn’t see his expression.
She slashed across his throat with a clean, vicious line. Blood arced out and hit the ground in a thick spray. His mouth opened, but no words came. Only a wet, broken sound that died fast before he collapsed forward and went still.
I gulped in fresh air and forced myself not to make a sound. If I let myself react, I was going to lose it.
Holland stood and wiped her hands against her pants like she was erasing fingerprints. “Are you hurt?”
I shook my head, too fast. “No.”
Ella’s gaze snapped to my face. She was splattered with blood, and her eyes were hard and bright with adrenaline. “Are you sure that you’re okay?”
I tried to speak. My lungs still felt wrong.
“I’m fine.” My whole body trembled, the delayed reaction hitting hard.
I stared at the dead man at Ella’s feet. Blood pooled beneath him, spreading into the leaves and soaking the earth. The smell was metallic, thick enough to make my stomach twist.
My fingers unclenched slowly from my keys. My palm was slick with sweat. “Thank you.” My voice cracked.
Ella looked at me. “One thing you’ll learn about us is we stick together.”
Holland’s attention stayed on me. “That was never going to end with a conversation. I’m glad we’re here.”
Cami finally turned, scanning the trees. “They weren’t here to scare you.”
“No, they were here to take me.” Which meant Nate was real, or bait. I still wasn’t sure.
My watch buzzed, loud in the quiet. All three of the girls went still.
Ella’s attention landed on my screen. Not a call. A photo from Ryker.
My breath caught. For a second my thumb wouldn’t move, my whole body bracing for what it already knew. Almost three years of loss had trained me to expect the worst. I forced myself to tap it.
A face filled the screen.
Swollen. Bloodied. Unconscious.
But it was him. Nate.