Chapter 46
Everett
Usually a long drive clears my head, but this one does the exact opposite. The miles seem to crawl by, and every time I check the GPS, it feels like we haven’t made any progress at all.
My hands grip the steering wheel too tight the whole way to the mountains, and I take turns too fast, checking each fork in the road with my jaw clenched.
Cash and Lincoln are just as on edge as I am, and neither of them comment on my driving as we make our way to where that fucker might be keeping Harper.
Emphasis on might. It’s the only lead we have, and I’m keenly aware that chasing this one might mean we can’t find her in time if he’s gone somewhere else with her.
But there’s nowhere else to check if we don’t have any leads.
No one else has called with information about seeing him or Harper, so all I can do is keep driving and try not to let my head fill up with worst case scenarios.
I’ve seen enough shit in my time as sheriff to know how bad this kind of thing can go. Women kidnapped by people they knew and people they didn’t, returned broken and beaten, if they were returned at all.
Harper’s strong, and there’s every evidence that she didn’t go down without a fight, but that might make this worse. Men like Geoffrey don’t like women who don’t give in to what they want. Who stand their ground and mouth off and show backbone.
I keep thinking about my shitty dad and the way he acted whenever someone stood up to him.
Whenever my mother didn’t hop to in the way he wanted.
How his face would go cold with rage and the air in the room disappeared.
It always felt like holding my breath until the moment passed, and it always seemed to take longer and longer for that to happen.
Harper would do anything to keep Geoffrey away from Cora, I know that. Even if it meant provoking him to hurt her instead. Anything to keep him from coming back and finding her niece.
“Everett,” Cash says softly. He reaches over and puts a hand on my arm. “Breathe.”
“I’m breathing,” I mutter back. “This is just… a fucking nightmare.”
“I know.”
The two of them have been looking as hard as I have, peering through the trees as the sun came up, trying to find any sign of Geoffrey.
But it’s a big area, and there’s too many places to hide up here.
We don’t have time to check every fucking nook and cranny, every hidden path to see if that’s where this asshole is keeping her.
“You can’t let your head go where it’s going, though,” Lincoln pipes up. “I know what you’re probably thinking about.”
He’s seen horrors in his job too, so that makes sense.
“Can’t help it,” I grunt. “It’s… the longer this takes, the longer there’s no sign of her, my head starts fucking with me more. All the what ifs and maybes just start flooding the fuck in. I don’t know how to stop it.”
And neither of them know what to tell me to help either. They’re just as worried, just as preoccupied with the thoughts of what will happen if we’re too late to save her.
“Think about how we’re going to get her home instead,” Cash offers. “How we’ll wrap her in a blanket and tuck her into bed and never let her out of our sight again.”
“She’ll hate that,” Lincoln says. He laughs a little, but it’s strained. “I give it a few days before she’s trying to sneak out on her own.”
“She’ll stick close for Cora,” Cash says. “There’s that, at least.”
“Yeah.”
They fall silent, and I force myself to take a breath.
If it comes to that, if we get her back and can get her home where she’s safe and no one can come after her again, then nothing else matters.
She can rail against it all she wants, but it’s going to be a long time before I feel safe with her out on her own after this.
If there is an after this.
I know we’re all thinking along the same lines still, worrying and hoping and trying not to go insane the longer this takes.
So we keep going, and the tension just grows.
By the time we’re arriving at the logging camp, my nerves are shot and my jaw and head ache with the force of me grinding my teeth for the whole drive.
There hasn’t been any sign of Geoffrey’s car or any clear trail, just a mess of run-down buildings and too much ground to cover.
It’s quiet, clearly abandoned, and it makes everything feel wrong.
Obviously no one has been here in years. The logging operation shut down when the county decided they could get lumber cheaper from elsewhere, and no one has been back to turn it into anything else.
It’s the perfect fucking place for someone to hide out if they don’t want to get caught.
I slow down, rolling the truck at a creep through the gravel clearing between cabins, trying to figure out where to start. We could split up, cover more ground that way, but the thought of any one of us being alone in an unfamiliar place turns my stomach.
“I didn’t know this place was so big,” Cash says, making a face. “If they are here, where the fuck do we start?”
“We should stick together,” Lincoln says, echoing my thoughts. “I don’t want anyone getting caught off guard, or him having the upper hand.”
“Agreed,” I say. “We can cover more ground on foot. Maybe spot something we might miss in the truck. If we—”
I’m cut off by a sudden sound in the distance. It’s a scream, sharp and scared, and it cuts straight through me.
It’s Harper.
I know it is.
I don’t know how I know, but every instinct I have reacts to the sound, and I just move.
I don’t even remember throwing the truck into park or opening the door. One second I hear the scream, and the next I’m hitting the gravel at a run. Cash and Lincoln flank me, heading in the direction we heard the scream before the echo fades.
We bypass the smaller cabins off to the sides, and I set my sights on one of the larger ones, dead ahead. That feels like the right way to go, and I run faster, zeroing in on it, no thoughts in my head but bursting through that dilapidated wood door and getting to Harper.
Seconds later, I do just that. The door crumples against the force of me shouldering it open, the remaining parts slamming into the wooden wall on the other side.
I have a split second to get my bearings, and my eyes land on the sight of Harper in the grip of another man. He has her hair in his fingers and a knife at her neck, a wild look in his eyes.
A growl builds in the back of my throat to see her like that, dirty and tied up and clearly terrified. Her eyes flare with relief to see us, hope and urgency clear to see, and I want to rip this man away from her and take her into my arms.
“Back the fuck up!” Geoffrey, because it has to be him, the scent is the same from the house, shouts. “If you don’t want me to gut her right here, back off.”
Harper’s face is pale, but there’s no blood yet. The knife is close enough that I can see where the sharp blade rests against her throat. It wouldn’t take much pressure for him to hurt her like this, and this far out from civilization, there’s no guarantee we could get her helped in time.
So the three of us stop instantly, and I grit my teeth as I raise my hands slightly, letting him see I don’t have a weapon in my hands. I can feel Lincoln and Cash doing the same at either side of me, breathing hard.
I can feel the tension coiled in my body, but one wrong move here could fuck everything up.
We stare Geoffrey down, but don’t make any sudden moves.
“Just let her go,” Cash says, keeping his voice calm. “We’re not moving, we’re not here to fight you. We just want her back.”
“That’s too bad,” Geoffrey spits. “Because she’s coming with me.”
He keeps backing toward the door, inch by inch. It’s slow going because he doesn’t dare turn his back on us. There’s three of us and one of him, and the only leverage he has is the knife at Harper’s throat. It’s good leverage, horribly good, but he knows better than to put us at his back.
The three of us share a look, speaking without ever saying a word. Having been friends, been a pack, for so long, we understand each other better than anyone else.
Lincoln’s brain is working overtime, I can tell, and mine is doing the same. I raise an eyebrow at him, flicking my eyes to one side, and he gives a tiny nod. We both look to Cash, and he nods as well, understanding immediately what we plan to do.
Cash takes a step forward, and Geoffrey’s eyes snap to him immediately. “I said don’t fucking move,” he shouts. “You must think I won’t hurt her. Believe me, I will. I’ll make all of you wish you never came here.”
“It doesn’t have to come to that,” Cash says. He’s good at gentling his tone, not being aggressive as he speaks.
“The fuck it doesn’t. Do you know who the fuck I am?”
“No,” Lincoln says simply, taking a careful step forward himself. “And that’s better for you, if you think about it.”
I stay still as they keep moving forward, and Geoffrey’s eyes dart between them. I let them overtake me, moving to stand in front of me, half blocking me from view.
“We don’t know you or anything about you,” Cash continues. “We just want Harper back. You can go about your business, if you give her back to us.”
While Geoffrey is focused on the two of them, I slip away, creeping out a side door on silent feet. There are no screams, no one chasing me, so I keep moving, hugging the tree line as I circle around the cabin.
I hear it when Geoffrey gets Harper outside, listening to his voice as he argues with Lincoln and Cash. I can’t hear Harper’s panicked breathing, but I can hear her stumbling footsteps and the sounds of struggle as she tries to keep him from taking her.
I catch sight of them again just past one of the maintenance sheds. Geoffrey is still dragging her, heading for where he must have stashed his car. From the aerial map of the area that we were able to find, I know there’s a sharp drop off that used to be part of the logging site.
I crouch down low behind some barrels, watching as Harper’s eyes flick toward me. They go wide when she sees me there, and I put a finger to my lips carefully. I give her a subtle gesture, willing her to understand what I’m warning her to do.
Harper nods a tiny bit, and her eyes fall closed.
As soon as they do, I move, letting instinct take over again.
I grab a handful of dirt and gravel and throw it straight at Geoffrey’s face as I charge at him. He cries out in shock, getting all of it to the face. It blinds him, catching him off guard as he closes his eyes and lets go of Harper enough to try to wipe at his face.
I keep rushing in, and from the sounds of it, Cash and Lincoln are right there too.
Geoffrey lashes out wildly. He screams, cursing up a storm as he swings around and grabs for Harper. He tries to shove her in front of him again, but she tries to kick away, moving closer to the three of us.
“Fuck!” Geoffrey shouts, and it echoes all around us. “Fuck this!”
He shoves his free hand into his pants and comes up with a gun.
Everything freezes for a second when I see that. Geoffrey can barely see, and we’re all too close. Harper’s the closest, and my heart slams into my chest with the knowledge that she could easily get shot here.
But then Lincoln shouts and crashes right into Geoffrey, just as the gun goes off.
The sound is deafening in this space, and Lincoln goes down hard.
Something snaps in me then, rage rising and taking over. I charge Geoffrey, not caring about anything but taking him down. I grab him hard, jerking him out of reach of Harper and Cash, taking him down to the hard packed ground near the edge of the pit.
I raise a fist, driving it into his face hard, and the pain of it must snap him out of the unhinged daze he was in a bit. He fights back, grappling against me, wild and brutal.
He’s strong, an Alpha in his own right, but my rage makes me stronger.
I keep seeing Harper’s terrified face, that knife at her throat.
I see Lincoln going down in the dirt. I think about this man breaking into our house—our fucking home, where Harper and Cora were supposed to be safe—and there’s nothing to hold back the tidal wave of fury about it all.
I slam his head into the ground, breathing hard as I loom over him. He lashes out, trying to claw for my face, but I smack his hand away, forcing it down. He kicks me hard, and I grunt in pain, pulling back enough for Geoffrey to be able to get to his feet.
He’s panting hard, clothes dirty and torn, and there’s nothing in his eyes but adrenaline.
I get up as well, watching him, everything in me screaming to rip him apart. Geoffrey aims the gun at me, right for my chest, his finger hovering over the trigger.
I don’t think. I don’t breathe. I just move.
I feint to one side and then rush him, shoving him backward as hard as I can. We’re right on the edge of the pit now, and it’s a long way to the bottom.
The moment stretches as he realizes there’s nowhere else to go, his eyes going wide, and then he’s toppling backward with a shout, slamming to the ground below with a hard thump.
I scramble to the edge and see him lying there, motionless but still breathing, battered and bloodied far below.
“Oh my god,” Harper breathes. “Oh my god.”
Cash pulls her into his arms immediately, running his hands over her. “Are you hurt?” he asks. “Did he do anything to you?”
“I’m okay,” she pants, leaning into him while he pulls his pocket knife and cuts the ropes binding her wrists. “I’m okay. I didn’t know if—” Her eyes dart to the side where Lincoln is still on the ground, and a low, miserable sound spills from her lips. “Is he okay?”
That snaps me out of my red haze and I run over to Lincoln. He groans, sitting up slowly, the side of his face covered in dirt and muck. He clutches his shoulder, face screwed up in pain. There’s blood seeping through his fingers from the wound, and his breathing is shallow, but he forces a smile.
“Just a scratch. I’m okay,” he says.
Harper makes a noise that’s half hysterical, clinging to Cash like she might faint if she lets go.
I pull out my phone and call it in, fast and efficient. “It’s not life threatening,” I tell them. “Backup and medics are en route.”
“Can’t wait to be poked and prodded here of all places,” Lincoln mutters.
I help him to his feet and then go to Harper, pulling her from Cash’s arms into my own. I bury my nose in her hair, not caring that she smells like dust and sweat and another man. Right now, all that matters is that she’s here, safe with us.
Slowly, the adrenaline of the fight starts to drain out of me, and for the first time since we got home to find out Harper had been taken, I can feel myself start to relax.