With their backgrounds, though, they were protectors at their core and if they could stand between someone else and danger—they’d do it every time. The guys were also thinking of her future. If Bailey wanted to stay in law enforcement, she needed to be removed from all of this. Not have this black mark on her record where anyone could question her motives.
The road wound down the mountain, and he drove as quickly as he could without throwing the car off the side when he took the corners. He just needed to get to her. She couldn’t have gotten far, right? She didn’t know the area well—unless she had done her planning before she left, and made sure she knew where she was going. And she had never been the kind of woman who would walk directly into something without knowing what she was facing.
He gripped the wheel tight, his whole body rigid with tension. He would find her. Hewouldfind her. And if Ziegler and his crew had put themselves in the middle of this, he would take them all out on the spot and bring them down for good, as long as it meant she was safe. He would not fail her this time.
He had blown up his life to make sure she was okay—and blown up hers in the process. Both of them had given up so much, lost so much time with each other and the thought of losing more just because these villains couldn’t just leave them alone… He didn’t know what to make of it all. He and Bailey were both out of the picture, no one else knew what they did, so why could Ziegler and the rest just not move on? Were they that far gone with their power and corruption that they thought they had to eliminate them permanently? He just couldn’t wrap his mind around that.
Whatever their reasoning, though, there wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to let anything happen to her.
And if she had left of her own volition? What then? If she was okay, he felt like he should be fine with it, but the two of them had something he didn’t want to give up quite so soon. He wasn’t entirely sure what their connection was, or if she would even want to pursue it after everything that had happened, but he knew he would do anything to make it work. He had waited so long before, and now she was finally back. How could he pass up that chance?
He rounded a bend in the road, and slammed on the brakes, taking in the scene before him. Down the embankment on the left side, near the tree line, was the lodge truck—it looks like it had flipped off the road, rolling and sliding nearly twenty feet before coming to a smoking stop on its side. His gut clenched at the sight. He quickly scanned the area but didn’t see any movement near the crashed vehicle. He hoped Bailey made it out in one piece, or there’d be hell to pay. On the right side of the road, sitting at an angle facing the embankment with the headlights still blazing, was a van with a dented front bumper.
He turned off the car’s headlights and quietly pulled behind the van, making sure his car was hidden behind the glow of the headlights. He didn’t know what was going on here, but he wanted to make sure he had as much time as he could to work it out before anyone else spotted him. He got the feeling he was going to have to take every advantage he could.
He silently got out and looked around. It was pitch black out here, the only light coming from the headlights. If he stayed low and moved quickly, he’d be able to cross the road without being seen. Keeping his steps as soft as possible while hurrying, he made his way to the opposite side of the road and down to the crashed truck, praying she would still be inside. Even if she was hurt, he could get her back to the sanctuary and patch her up. But if she was gone, what the hell could he do about it? Would heeven be able to get her back? He immediately shut that thought down.
If Ziegler and his crew were the ones to have caused this and had taken her to parts unknown, Aaron knew he’d move heaven and earth to find her and get her back to the safety of Warrior Peak with him, where she belonged. He wasn’t giving up, no matter what he had to do or where he had to go. No matter how long it took, he’d find her.
The truck was empty when he peered inside through the windshield, but he did see blood. He took a moment and looked around to see if there were any signs to indicate she had managed to get away, but there were no visible clues as to where she went in the immediate area.
Looking back at the truck, he noticed a lot of blood smeared across the seatbelt and door handle. Seeing both, he knew Bailey was at least badly injured and he needed to get to her soon. The passenger side window, which was facing upright, was smashed, so she could have crawled out or someone could have pulled her out. Either way, she wasn’t there, so she had to have at least survived the crash. He had to believe that. So where was she now?
He tried to think what he would do if this had been him, but his mind kept going back to all the blood inside the truck. Yes, the truck had tumbled down the embankment so he’d expect some, but not as much as he’d seen inside. If that was any indication of how she was doing, Bailey needed him now.
Or else…
No, he couldn’t even let himself think that. He wouldn’t let his mind go there. He had to trust she had been able to find a way out of this, no matter how bad it might look. He knew he didn’t give her enough credit for what a badass she was—none of them did. She could handle so much more than her small stature indicated.
Giving up on his search at the truck, Aaron quietly made his way back toward the road, keeping his steps light and his head down. That van had run her off the road, he was sure of it. There was no way she would have crashed without cause. She was a careful driver, even when she was under stress. And if someone had wanted to take her out like this, who was to say what else they would do to make sure she played by their rules?
He sank down by the edge of the road, looking back and forth, trying to figure out who was here and what they might have been doing. He didn’t want to make his presence known until he had a better idea of what was going on. Nobody would be coming up to Warrior Peak unless they had a good reason to. Someone might have tried to play hero with the fire, but he doubted it. It was impossible to see anything down this far, apart from the smoke in the sky.
Around him, he couldn’t make out anything but the usual sounds of the night. The van was still running, so whoever was out there was planning on using it for a fast retreat once they finished whatever they were doing. Since he couldn’t find her below at the wreck, he had to assume thewhateverhad something to do with Bailey and why he hadn’t seen her around. He wasn’t going to walk away from this until he knew for sure what was going on.
He was about to move to a different angle when he heard it. The sound of a struggle—of voices. Mostly men, but he could also hear a woman saying something, protesting. Much to his relief, it sounded like Bailey.
He kept a watchful eye pinned to the van opposite him. He felt his heart pounding in his chest, and he took long, deep breaths, trying to settle himself before he freaked out too badly. He couldn’t rush this. He had made decisions based on his emotions before, and that rarely ended well for him.
Suddenly, he saw a commotion near the van. Just for a split second, four familiar figures shoved Bailey toward the back. They were trying to kidnap her! God only knew what they would do if they managed to get her out of there, but he wasn’t going to let that happen. He had to stop it.
He rose to his feet and took a deep breath.Now or never. If they got her into that van, it was over, and he wasn’t going to let the woman he loved be lost to him a second time.
Without another thought, he went sprinting toward them, blazing with all the anger of a bat out of hell and ready to put these guys down. For good.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Let go of me!” Bailey yelled as she tried to yank herself away from Benning. He had her arm in a viselike grip, twisted up her back, and the pain was throbbing so badly from the gash in her shoulder she thought she might pass out. One of the men had ripped the tourniquet she had made with her jacket off her arm, probably wanting to cause her more pain. She felt the blood leaking down her arm again and dripping off her fingers onto the ground. If she didn’t think of something soon, she wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight at all. She’d already lost a lot of blood and was feeling dangerously woozy. She didn’t know how much longer she even had.
“You already tried that, remember? You’re only hurting yourself more,” Ziegler remarked to her, his voice laced with a mocking amusement. She tried to turn to him, her eyes dark with anger, but Benning had too strong a grip on her. She couldn’t fight them off.
“Really, Bailey, you should leave the hurting to us,” Moore added with a laugh, the others joining in.
Sheer terror took hold of her as she realized their intent.I can’t fight them off.
Ziegler and Benning were pushing and dragging her toward the van, where Moore and Lee stood by the sliding door, waiting to help force her inside. What were they going to do with her when they managed to get her out of here? Her mind spun with all the hideous possibilities, and she couldn’t stand the thought of letting them get to her like that.
She was shoved toward the van again, but the physical manhandling didn’t seem to be enough for these guys. No, they wanted to really hurt her—they wanted to make sure she suffered. She hadn’t even exposed them, she just hadn’t gone along with their twisted plans. She didn’t even want to think what might happen if they found out she had actually been scheming against them.
