“Please let her be safe,” Decker muttered. “Please let us get there in time.”
Carson turned his head to eye him, an expression of understanding on his face. Thankfully, the man didn’t speak to him about feelings or intentions. Right now, Decker couldn’t think about anything but Willow.
After hours passed, Cal finally emerged from the store.
Decker snatched up the binoculars, every muscle locking in on the man they believed took Willow.
He panned across Cal’s face. His trained eye caught details that made his jaw clench.
The man was whistling.
Actually whistling.
He looked relaxed and happy in a way that made Decker’s trigger finger itch. And he was barely limping—nothing like the pronounced struggle he’d shown while loading feed two days before.
It had all been an act. The pain, the difficulty. Designed to make Willow drop her guard.
“Two minutes,” Carson said as Cal’s truck pulled onto the main road. “We follow two minutes behind so he can’t spot us.”
Those two minutes felt like goddamn days. Decker’s fingers ached from being tightly fisted. He brought one fist to his lips and pressed until he tasted blood.
Nothing could keep his mind from conjuring every terrible scenario. What if they were too late? What if Cal had already hurt her? What if—
Finally, Carson pulled out with Theo on their tail. Within a half mile, Colt joined them, the trucks traveling in a tight convoyas they tracked that little blinking red light that was Cal’s truck on the winding road leading out of town, up into the mountains.
“Speed up,” Decker grated out.
“We stick to the plan, Dutch.”
After an interminable length of time, the red dot turned onto what was only a shadow of a jagged line on the map.
“You know that driveway, Colt?” Carson asked.
Colt’s voice came through the comms. “Yeah. It’s overgrown. Never explored it.”
They parked on the road and approached on foot.
The instant Decker spotted the abandoned hunting cabin, his gut clenched and adrenaline rocketed up like a geyser.
The place looked like it hadn’t been occupied in years—perfect for a squatter who didn’t want to be found.
“Two take the front, two take the back,” Carson said quietly, falling into tactical formation. “Decker—”
“You’re with me. We take the back.” Decker took one look at that dilapidated door and his instincts prickled with the knowledge that it was the fastest route to the woman he loved more than air.
Carson gave him a brisk nod.
They moved silently through the trees, weapons at the ready, circling around to the rear of the cabin. Decker spotted a carport near the edge of the clearing. He jerked his head toward it, and Carson took in the distinctive shape of Willow’s truck hidden under a tarp, the black fender peeking out.
His heart hammered against his ribs.
She was here. She had to be here.
If they weren’t too late.
They exchanged a look and rushed the house.
At Carson’s signal, they breached simultaneously. Theo and Colt crashed through the front door, and Decker kicked in the back hard enough to tear it off its hinges.
