Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Macie sat sideways in a chair at her dining room table and watched with wary eyes as the police and detectives wandered through her apartment.
Truck was standing off to her left with his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face.
After draping a blanket around her shoulders, Colt sat in front of her, holding her hand.
In fact, he hadn’t let go of it since he’d carried her away from her hiding spot.
“Why don’t you tell me everything that happened tonight,” the detective sitting across from her said in a no-nonsense tone.
“She needs to take her medicine first,” Colt insisted, then turned to Macie. “Are your pills in your bathroom?”
She nodded. “I can go and get them,” she told him quietly.
“I got it. What am I looking for?” Truck asked.
Macie looked down at her lap. This wasn’t the way she’d wanted Truck to find out how messed-up she was. He was strong and brave and amazing, and the last thing he’d want to deal with was a sister who was crazy. He’d—
“Macie,” Colt said firmly, making her raise her head to look at him. “Where are your pills?”
“In the cabinet to the left of the sinks. I need one of the Vistaril tablets,” she told him.
“Be right back,” Truck said.
“I know this is hard, but you’re doing great,” Colt said. “Just hang on a little longer and we’ll get you to a quiet place where you can relax, okay?”
Macie nodded. She had no idea where that would be, but she knew Colt wanted her to agree, so she did.
Her head was pounding and she felt shaky from her anxiety attack.
And the worst thing was that her nightmare wasn’t over.
She was going to have to talk about what happened and what she’d heard.
Then her brother, Colt, and the cops would leave, and she’d be alone again, and the men said that they’d be back and—
This time Colt simply threaded his fingers with hers and held on tightly. He always seemed to know when she was lost in her head, when she was over-worrying.
Truck was back within seconds, holding a small pill in his hand. He handed her a cup full of water and she swallowed the pill gratefully. If there ever was a time when she needed to be numb, it was now.
“Take your time,” Colt said gently. “When you’re ready, walk us through what happened tonight.”
Wanting to get it over with, Macie didn’t hesitate.
“I couldn’t sleep so I was reading. I heard a weird noise, and then heard two men talking.
They were being quiet, and if I had been asleep I wouldn’t have heard them, but because I was up, I did.
” She knew she wasn’t being very articulate, but no one interrupted her, which she was grateful for.
“What were they saying?” the detective asked.
Macie’s hand tightened on Colt’s involuntarily. She didn’t want to repeat what they’d said. What if Colt decided she was somehow to blame for what had happened tonight? What if Ford decided she was too much trouble and wouldn’t want to keep talking to her?
“Breathe,” Colt said softly. “You’re safe. Your brother and I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She looked up at him and saw the sincerity in his eyes. She had no idea what a man like Colt was doing here with her. She was fucked up. Seriously fucked up. But she was also weak enough to not give a damn right now. She needed him.
“At first, they were arguing about whether or not I could hear them. They knew about my safe room. They were going to see if I was in bed, and if not, the first place they were going to look was my room in my closet.”
“You have a safe room?” the detective asked, sitting up straighter in his chair.
“Sort of. It’s not really a safe room. It’s just a place I like to go when I need complete darkness.
I get migraines, and it helps to be somewhere with no light,” Macie explained.
She could’ve gone on and told the police officer about how sometimes it was the only place she felt safe, how she liked to hide there when her anxiety overwhelmed her, but, ever aware of how people perceived her, she kept her mouth shut.
“How big is it?” the detective asked.
“Not big at all. Maybe around six feet long by three feet wide. I just had a false wall put in the back of my closet,” she explained.
“Okay. Go on. What happened next?”
Macie took a breath and continued. “The men were there to pick something up. They said if they got it tonight, they’d get a bonus from whoever hired them.”
She glanced at her brother and saw him run a hand through his hair in agitation. Just seeing him so stressed out made her own anxiety level climb.
Macie used her free hand to pinch the skin at the top of thigh. Sometimes the slight pain helped keep her in the moment and not completely freak out. “Yeah. They said they were there to pick something up.”
“What were they looking for?” the detective broke in.
Macie knew this question was coming. She’d been trying to think of what in the world someone could want of hers, but had come up blank.
Knowing it was important the officer believed her, she raised her head and looked him in the eyes.
“I don’t know. I don’t know who the men were who broke in.
I don’t know what they were looking for.
I don’t know how they knew about my safe room.
I don’t know why they’d be interested in someone like me.
I’m nobody. I don’t meet a lot of people.
I work from home. Most days, the only people I talk to are online. I don’t understand any of this.”
She felt Colt squeeze her hand. Then she felt him nudge her other hand off her thigh and rub the spot she’d pinched. It was almost uncanny how much he saw her. It made her uncomfortable, but at the same time it felt good.
“How’d you get out?” Colt asked.
She turned her gaze on him. She liked looking at his warm, compassionate eyes more than looking at the hardened face of the detective.
She could tell the cop didn’t believe her.
That he thought she was hiding something.
If she knew what the men were after, she’d give it to them, no questions asked.
The last thing she wanted was someone hunting her.
“I jumped out my window,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Jesus Christ,” Truck swore.
Macie flinched at the harsh words from her brother.
“More, Macie. Give us more,” Colt said firmly.
She took a deep breath and kept her eyes on Colt. “You know I need to have an escape route. I did it at your house, too.”
He nodded. “The first thing you did was look out the windows, test to be sure you could open the one in my bedroom, and scope out how you could get out of the house.”
“Right. Because if there was a fire or an earthquake, I needed to know where to go. What to do.”
“Makes sense. Go on,” Colt urged.
“There’s a big tree right outside my window. I picked this apartment because of it. It’s close enough to my bedroom, and has branches big enough that if I needed to, I could jump out of my window and get down.”
“Is that how you got these?” Colt asked, running his fingers lightly over the scrapes on her legs and arms.
Macie shrugged. “Some. The ones on my knees I got from crawling in the parking lot.”
“Mace,” Truck said, then he was kneeling in front of her. “God, I’m so sorry. But…you also have to know, I’m so fucking proud of you.”
She blinked. Proud of her? He was proud of her?
“I was a coward,” she told him. “I was so scared. I didn’t even call the cops. Those guys would’ve gotten me if it wasn’t for you and Colt.”
Truck brought a hand up to her head and brushed her hair back from her face. “You are not a coward,” he scolded. “You did what had to be done. You got out of the situation. Believe me, that’s the most important thing you could’ve done.”
“Okay. So you jumped out your window and climbed down a tree. Then you hid, right? And the men came after you?” the detective asked, obviously wanting to move the interview along.
Truck gave her one last caress, then stood back up and leaned against the wall once more.
Macie cleared her throat. “Yeah. Colt told me to hide, so I got under a car in the far part of the parking lot. But the men figured out that’s where I’d most likely be and started looking for me there.
I crawled out from under the car I was hiding under and went into a bush.
I hunkered down there until the men were scared away by the sirens. ”
“Did they say anything else?” the detective asked. “Can you give us anything that will help us find these guys?”
She hated the sound of impatience in his voice and wished she could tell him exactly who the men were, and why they’d been in her apartment. “They said they’d be back to get what they were looking for.”
“There’s no way in hell you’re staying here tonight—or in the near future,” Truck said firmly. “You can come and stay with me and Mary.”
Macie was shaking her head before he’d finished his sentence. “I can’t stay with you guys. You just got married!”
“Well, you’re not staying here,” Truck repeated. “Mace, they said they’d be back. It’s not safe here.”
She knew that. She was the one who’d had to jump out her window. She was the one who’d had to listen to the one guy talk about wanting to hurt her. She was the one who’d had to crawl around the parking lot to try to stay hidden.
For the first time in a long time, she was furious. At the situation, at Ford saying something she knew. But as soon as the feeling swept through her, she pushed it away. Anger was what had pushed her brother away all those years ago.
“She can stay with me,” Colt said, successfully diverting Macie’s attention.
“What?” she asked.
“That’s a good idea,” the detective said.
Macie looked from one man to the other, not sure what to say.
“Macie, look at me,” Colt said quietly.
She turned to him.
“What do you want to do? What are you thinking?”