Frustration, and fear threatened to overwhelm me. In the west, over the treetops, the sun began to set. I didn’t let myself worry about wild critters thinking I’d make a nice meal. Whatever roamed these woods would most likely shy away from the scent of a human.
Do I smell like a dragon, too?
Not caring if I ripped my freshly healed wrists open again, I struggled, fought to get free of the rope. Pain accompanied my efforts, but I continued, working to slide my hands free. Once I managed that, I could get this bomb off my body and fly away.
Full dark descended. The stars glowed overhead, making me crave to be up there, flying free, flying with my love. What was Brody doing at this very moment? Surely he knew by now that I’d been taken. Austin would inform him I was his hostage to get Brody’s cooperation.
“Brody,” I sobbed, giving in to tears. “You have to find me. I know you’re looking for me. How can you know where I am? I don’t even know where I am.”
The trees were too thick for me to see the glow from the city. So I had no idea where it was. I thought I heard the hum of traffic on the highway, making me wonder if I was in the area where Greg had taken me. Unfortunately, farms and homes were scarce in some places once out of the city.
“Brody.”
I shut my eyes, my wrists on fire, my body aching.There’s no way he can find me. Austin will kill him, then me. A bullet to the bomb and I’m gone.
“Brody. I love you.”
I let my mind fill with the memory of his face, his smile, his warm honey eyes. The sound of his laughter, his voice, how much he loved me. To have found my soul mate, my fated mate, only for us to be separated by death.
Aren’t you giving up rather easily?
I didn’t know where the voice or the thought came from, but I opened my eyes. Yes. Yes, I was giving up far too easily. There has to be a way Brody or the cops can find me. Search dogs? Not likely. Austin surely put me in a car to bring me here. A helicopter? Where’d they search?
My cell?
I jerked upright. “My cell? Shit, did I put it in my pocket? Fuck, why’d I shut it off in the first place? I can be tracked by my phone.”
Wriggling my ass on the hard forest floor determined that my cell was indeed in my hip pocket. Austin hadn’t searched me and taken it. Maybe he didn’t think finding my cell was important.
So just how do I get my phone from my pocket when my hands are tied behind the tree? That’s the question of the century.
Working slowly, concerned about setting off the bomb, I altered my position from sitting to kneeling.Okay. My butt and pockets are exposed. Now what?Stretching the rope as far as I could, I tried to reach around the trunk. There just wasn’t enough give. Frustration tried again to claim my mind, but I forced it back. I needed clarity of mind, the ability to focus.
I relaxed, flexing my hands. Blood rushed back into them, making them tingle. My phone was in my right hip pocket. I’m right handed. Instead of fighting the rope, I twisted my upper body around the slender trunk. I stretched my hand toward my jeans and my pocket. Rewarded by the seam under my fingers, I groped for the phone inside it.
My shoulders screaming, sweat dripping down my face, I stuck my index finger inside and touched my cell.
I couldn’t get two fingers inside when I needed two to grip it.
“Fuck!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Brody
“Did you pick it up?”
Skinner held Austin’s note between the ends of a tweezers, his crime scene guys going through my house for any clues as to what Rivers did with Lindsey. Where he took her. Evidence to use against him in court for kidnapping. Unfortunately, all he left behind was the note and hopefully his fingerprints on the paper.
I nodded. “The bottom right corner.”
Skinner slid the note into a plastic bag, then handed it to a tech. “Do you have any ideas where he might have taken her?”
“If I did I’d be there right now,” I snapped, pacing, restless, frantic, furious. “I’d be choking the life from him. And bringing Lindsey home.”
“I’ve already contacted the phone folks,” Skinner said. “Her cell last pinged off the tower in the area. We can try to track it if it’s turned on.”
Her phone!
