Chapter 20
Torin
Icast one last look toward the spot among the trees where I almost claimed my mate.
Christ.
She wanted me to take her right there beneath the pines.
But Hannah is already striding down the trail, and I have to lengthen my pace to catch up. Whatever she was feeling a minute ago has vanished.
Bennett matters to her. That makes him matter to me.
She glances back.
“Right behind you,” I call.
By the time we reach the lodge, Hannah’s breathing hard. We hurry inside and head straight for Orson’s room.
The television is already on. Gunnar, Orson and Alexandria are gathered around it, but they move aside as soon as we enter. Hannah drops to her knees in front of the screen.
And there he is: Carson Bennett.
Gray-haired. Late fifties. Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, wrists shackled, being bundled into the back of a prison transport van.
MAN ACCUSED OF KIDNAPPING SHERIFF’S DAUGHTER brOUGHT TO JUSTICE, reads the banner across the bottom of the screen.
Hannah gasps.
“What the hell…”
The news anchor continues.
“Police today arrested fifty-eight-year-old Carson Bennett, who investigators allege spent months stalking and grooming one of his vulnerable young students before orchestrating her abduction.”
The footage changes.
Hayes.
My stomach drops.
He stands surrounded by reporters, camera flashes going off around him. His face is drawn, exhausted. The picture of a father who hasn’t slept in days.
“Hannah,” he says softly, looking straight into the camera. “Hannah, sweetheart… if you can hear me… if you’re watching this while you’re tied up in some dank basement somewhere… please don’t be afraid.”
Hannah makes a sound of disgust.
“We’ve got your attacker. He’s never going to hurt you again.”
He pauses.
“We’ve reviewed surveillance footage from your school. We’ve confiscated his laptop. We know what he’s been doing.”
His jaw tightens.
“He’s been secretly filming you for months.”
He lowers his eyes.
“Maybe… maybe you already knew that.”
Another pause.
“But, sweetheart… he can’t hurt you anymore.”
His voice breaks.
“So please… if there’s any way you can escape… if there’s any way you can make your presence known to a neighbor… then do it.”
He presses a trembling hand to his chest.
“In the meantime, every waking second… every scrap of our energy… is going into finding you.”
His eyes glisten.
“And we won’t stop until we bring you home.”
Another long pause.
“Don’t you worry, sweetheart.”
The tears finally spill over.
“You’re going to be back with Daddy very soon.”
“What an evil, black-hearted bastard,” Hannah spits.
My hands curl into fists. I want to put one of them straight through the television.
“Damn,” Orson says. He’s staring at the screen, his forehead creased. “He’s lying, ain’t he?”
“Of course he’s fucking lying.”
“I mean about the kidnapping.”
I stare at him.
Orson looks at Hannah, then back at me. “Yeah. Okay. Stupid question.”
Hannah springs to her feet and throws herself into my arms.
God help me, I melt a little inside.
I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight.
“How can he do this?” she whispers against my chest. “He’s gone too far this time.”
Alexandria gets to her feet. “How much of that was true?”
“None of it,” Hannah says.
“And Bennett?”
“He hasn’t done anything. All he did was support me. Encourage me. He told me about the cabin in case I ever needed somewhere to go.”
She gives a short, bitter laugh.
“Which is exactly where I was heading when Orson ran me off the road.”
Alexandria’s attention sharpens.
“Alexandria’s a lawyer,” I tell Hannah. I don’t think she knows.
Hannah turns to her. “So, what does this mean for Bennett?”
“The first thing he needs is a good criminal defense lawyer. If they’re claiming they found evidence on his laptop, his lawyer needs to know exactly what they say they have.”
“It’s bullshit,” Hannah says. “There’s no way he’s been secretly recording me. That’s just… fucking weird.”
“Then they’re going to have to substantiate it.”
“My father doesn’t need to substantiate anything. He controls the sheriff’s department.”
Alexandria considers that. “Why is he so desperate to get you back?”
“Because I know too much.”
“I found evidence of things he’d been doing. Corruption. People he’d paid off. Things he thought I’d never find out about. I was writing an exposé.”
“And he found out?”
“Yeah. That’s when everything changed. He realized I wasn’t just his difficult daughter anymore. I was a threat.”
My bear surges inside me.
It doesn’t give a shit about evidence or sheriffs or the law.
Hayes threatened my mate.
Every instinct I possess is screaming at me to get in my truck, drive straight to his house and deal with him myself.
Gunnar switches off the TV.
Hannah stares at the blank screen.
“You think you can help Bennett?” Gunnar asks Alexandria.
“I know a couple of good criminal defense attorneys in town. I can make some calls.”
“They’ve framed him,” Hannah says. “They’ll have fake evidence. Fake witnesses. My dad controls everyone.”
“I don’t know about everyone. But Bennett has rights. If they’re claiming they have evidence, his lawyer gets to see it. Every photograph. Every recording. Every forensic report.”
“And if it doesn’t exist?”
“Then they have a problem.”
“You don’t know my father.”
“No,” Alexandria says. “But I know the law.”
“We’ll help Bennett,” Gunnar says.
Hannah looks at him. “Really?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you.”
Gunnar glances at me. I know that look.
“Don’t.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“I need to do something.”
“And then what?”
I don’t have an answer. I just want to get in my truck and go.
“You think I don’t know exactly how you’re feeling?” Gunnar gives me a hard look. “But we deal with this with our heads, not our tempers.”
He’s right. And I hate that he’s right.
“Hayes has just told the whole country Bennett kidnapped you,” he says to Hannah. “What’s the first thing the deputies are going to do?”
“Investigate Bennett?”
“Everything he owns.”
Hannah goes still.
“The cabin.”
“They’ll search it, if they haven’t already.”
“I didn’t leave anything behind.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to. But they’ll know someone’s been using it recently.”
“Which makes it a live lead,” Alexandria says.
“Exactly.”
Gunnar looks around the room.
“From there, the next step is obvious.”
My stomach tightens.
“They start searching the surrounding wilderness.”
I picture deputies spreading through the forest. Search dogs. ATVs. Helicopters.
Too damn close.
“They’re not looking for us,” Orson says.
“No,” Gunnar says. “But that doesn’t mean they won’t find us.”
Alexandria folds her arms. “If a search party stumbles across a lodge hidden in the middle of nowhere…”
“We’re in trouble,” Gunnar says.