Chapter 1 #3
Remembering what Colt had said, she resisted the urge to get up and run into the trees.
Instead, she stayed on her hands and knees and hurriedly crawled to the thick hedge.
She pushed her way between the leaves, thankful it wasn’t winter and there were actually leaves to hide behind.
The branches scratched at her arms, but again, she didn’t feel the slight sting.
At five-seven, she wasn’t exactly small, but she brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped an arm around them.
She brought the phone to her ear and ducked her head into her knees, trying to make herself as small as possible.
“I crawled into a bunch of bushes,” she said in a toneless whisper. “Colt?”
“Yeah, Mace? I’m here. Are you hidden? Are you safe? Are the men still looking for you?”
“I can’t breathe.”
“Yes you can. You’re doing amazing. In and out.
Remember how you breathed with me that night?
Close your eyes. Imagine we’re back in my bed.
I’m behind you, and my hand is on your chest. In…
and out. Slow down your breaths, Mace. That’s it.
They’re gonna walk right by you. They can’t see you.
In…and out. That’s good. You’re doing great. ”
Amazingly, his voice in her ear, along with the way she was pinching her thigh to try to force her attention away from her situation, was working. She breathed with him, not making a sound. Macie could feel her lungs loosening up a bit.
“You start on that side, I’ll start over here. If she’s not under the cars, I’m guessing she ran into the trees. We can catch up with her and make sure she hasn’t found the shit and blabbed about it to the pigs.”
“Then I can have my fun?” the other man asked.
“Jesus, you have a one-track mind. Yes, once she spills her guts, you can do whatever the fuck you want with her.”
Their voices were loud enough that Colt heard them.
“Don’t listen to them, Mace. Concentrate only on me. You’re good. We’re almost there. You just have to hang on for another couple minutes. You can do that. Piece of cake.”
Colt’s voice was almost as good as the drugs she used to control her anxiety and panic attacks. Almost.
Macie heard the men getting closer and closer to her hiding spot, and she felt her breathing speed up once more.
She couldn’t help it. They were going to find her and torture her until she gave them information.
She had no idea what they were looking for when they’d broken in, but she’d tell them whatever they wanted as long as they didn’t hurt her.
“Eaaaaasy, honey. You’ve got this.”
That was the thing. She didn’t have this. But by some miracle, Colt thought she did. His voice was still even and controlled.
“Shit. She’s not here!” one of the men complained after they’d passed by her hiding spot.
“Come on, she’s got to be here somewhere. She’s barefoot and in her fucking pajamas. No cars have left, so she hasn’t driven off. Stupid bitch is just hiding from us. You go that way and I’ll—”
His voice abruptly cut off when the sound of sirens wailed in the distance.
“Fuck. She called the fucking cops!” the man who wanted to “have his way with her” said. “We gotta get out of here.”
“Dammit. There goes that extra thousand,” the other man complained. “We’ll come back after the cops leave. She won’t get away again.”
Macie didn’t move a muscle after she heard the men run off. She stayed where she was, refusing to do something stupid, like come out of her hiding place too soon and have the men catch her after everything she’d done to keep away from them.
“Are those sirens?” Colt asked in her ear.
Macie nodded, knowing he couldn’t see her, but not able to speak. Her vocal cords had closed up and refused to work. Her lips were dry and she didn’t have enough spit in her mouth to even lick them.
“Don’t come out, hon. Just stay where you are.
We’ll be there in”–there was a pause and Macie could imagine him looking over at her brother—“less than ten minutes. Even if you hear the cops, just stay put. Truck’ll tell the 9-1-1 operator that you’re too scared to come out. You won’t get in trouble. Hear me?”
Macie nodded again, but didn’t speak.
“I’m proud of you, Mace. You’re doing great. You did the right thing. You got out of your apartment, called for help, and stayed hidden. That’s exactly what you should’ve done.”
His praise was like a balm to her soul. She wasn’t sure she believed him—she felt like the biggest coward ever—but for now, right this second, she chose to take his words to heart.
She could hear the sirens getting louder and louder, but she kept her concentration on Colt. If she didn’t, she knew she’d completely fall apart.
Colt ignored the looks Truck was shooting him from the driver’s seat.
He knew the other man was going to have a lot to say to him later…
not that he could blame him. He was just getting to know his sister again, and obviously hadn’t known about the fact she suffered from anxiety—or that his commander had spent the night with her after Truck’s wedding.
They hadn’t done anything, but Colt didn’t think that was going to matter to Truck.
His entire focus right now was on Macie. He could hear her breathing on the other end of the line and could hear the sirens wailing in the background, but most importantly, he no longer heard the men who were searching for her.
He continued his litany of soothing words, not wanting her to move until he could get to her, holding on to the handle over his head as Truck continued to drive like a man possessed.
Truck wasn’t fucking around. He’d pushed the Wrangler as far as it could be pushed.
It was a miracle they hadn’t been stopped by a cop.
Even with his credentials and the fact that Truck was on the phone with an emergency operator, he didn’t think a police officer would be amused at how recklessly Truck was driving.
Truck clicked off the phone and Colt looked over at him.
The other man’s lips were pressed tightly together, and he looked like he was about two seconds from losing his shit.
Colt wanted to tell Truck to pull himself together, that the last thing his sister needed to see was him freaking out, but he couldn’t, because he was still talking to Macie.
“Macie? We’re almost there. I can see your apartment complex ahead. It’s lit up like a Christmas tree with all the blue and red lights from the police who are there. You’re safe. We’re here. Stay put until I come and get you though, okay?”
She hadn’t been answering him, but for that question, he got a slight murmur. Even that made him feel better.
He didn’t know exactly where she was, but once Truck pulled into the lot, he looked around and tried to see it from Macie’s perspective. “Where’s her apartment?” he asked Truck. The other man pointed toward a building to the left.
Nodding, Colt climbed out of the Jeep and headed in that direction. He was stopped by Truck’s hand on his arm. “You get my sister and I’ll speak to the cops. But we need to talk. Sir.”
The rank was tacked on at the end of his sentence in such a way that it more than communicated Truck’s irritation with his commanding officer.
Nodding at him, Colt turned to head toward a row of cars on the back side of the parking lot. There weren’t lights covering the entire blacktop and he could see dark shapes in the distance that he imagined were the trees Macie had described to him.
He remembered her talking about how beautiful they were and how she liked to look at them when she was working at her desk in her apartment.
She’d recovered from her anxiety attack after the wedding reception and had been relaxed and warm in his arms. Right afterward, Colt had told her that he wanted to take her to dinner, and she hadn’t agreed or disagreed.
He’d taken that as a good sign, but of course he’d been wrong, as she’d left the next morning without a word and without waking him up.
Shaking off his memories, Colt concentrated on finding Macie.
“I’m here,” he told her quietly through the phone.
“You’re going to need to come out so I can get to you.
If those other men couldn’t find you, there’s not a chance in hell that I will.
” He was lying, but he wanted to reassure her that her hiding place was secure. That she’d done a good job.
“Mace? You can come out now. Your brother is here. You’re safe.”
He waited a heartbeat…then he heard rustling coming from his left. He turned toward the row of hedges that looked way too skimpy to have concealed a full-grown woman, but sure enough, Macie was crawling out of the bushes.
Clicking off Truck’s phone, he shoved it into his back pocket even as he jogged toward Macie. She was on her hands and knees, and she looked up at him with wide eyes.
Without thought, he dropped to his knees and took her into his arms. Instead of recoiling, she latched on to him so tightly, he couldn’t tell where she ended and he began.
He could feel her heart beating way too damn fast against his chest, and she buried her face into the space between his neck and shoulder.
Her arms wrapped around him and she clutched at his back.
It felt as if she were literally trying to crawl inside him.
“Shhhh,” he murmured. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
Macie didn’t cry. She simply held on to him as if he was the only thing between her and certain death. And in a way, he supposed he maybe had been.
How long they stayed like that, he couldn’t say.
All he knew was how good she felt in his arms and how fucking relieved he was that she was okay.
Finally, Colt forced himself to loosen his hold and draw back from her.
She resisted, but he reached up and took her wrists in his hands.
Her pulse was still hammering as if she’d run a mile.
“Hi, Mace,” he said with a smile.
She did her best to return his smile, but it quickly faded from her face.
“Are you hurt?”
“No. At least I don’t think so,” she said softly.
Colt looked her over as best he could, but as it was dark in this corner of the parking area, he couldn’t see much.
She was wearing a dark-colored tank top and shorts that matched.
He absently had the thought that he was glad she hadn’t been wearing white before he eased to his feet, pulling her with him.
“Oh!” she exclaimed when she was standing and her knees suddenly buckled.
Colt didn’t waste time asking what was wrong. He simply put an arm behind her back and one under her knees and picked her up.
She grabbed at him. “Don’t drop me!”
“Of course not. You don’t weigh any more than the packs I used to carry on missions,” Colt reassured her.
“I’ve got you.” He saw that she still clutched her cell phone in her hand and didn’t bother telling her to put it away.
First, he had no idea where she’d put it, but second, it had been her lifeline, and he’d let her hold on to it for as long as she needed if it made her feel more secure.
He started walking toward the spinning lights of the cop cars, where they’d no doubt find Truck.
She rested her head on his shoulder, and Colt felt as if he were ten feet tall. He loved the way Macie fit in his arms, how she felt. He didn’t care about her anxiety. Nobody was perfect. And if he could make her feel better about herself and about things going on in her life, he’d be satisfied.