She fought the person’s hold, but they continued to drag her along, the trees offering enough coverage that if anyone was nearby, they didn’t notice a woman being abducted in broad daylight. Then she was shoved hard against a wall. It had to be the back of a public restroom. It was the only building in the area.
Every other thought left her head when she looked up, her heart pounding in her chest…
Dad.
Her breath stalled, and she was instantly thrust back to the last time he’d stood this close to her. When he’d been high on whatever drug he was taking, vicious and angry, and she’d been a defenseless fifteen-year-old, so scared she’d barely fought back.
“I see you’re avoiding me, Harper.”
His deep, familiar voice slid into her veins like ice, causing the fine hairs on her arms to stand on end. “What do you want?”
“I spent eight years in prison because of you, and you dare ask me what I want?”
Because ofher? Suddenly, the familiar fear shifted into something else. Something that hardened her voice and steeled her spine. “You mean becauseyoupushed me down the stairs while you were high and the neighbors heard me scream?”
She didn’t even see him move before his fingers wrapped around her throat, choking her. “You ungrateful bitch! I’m yourfather. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be alive.”
Panic seized her chest as the air cut off in her throat.
“You think you can take all those years from my life and not pay for it?” he growled.
She tried to scream. To claw at his wrists. His arms. But every second that ticked by had more black dots hedging her vision—until a new voice sounded.
“Hey! Let her go!”
Harper barely heard the shout over the buzzing between her ears. She was sure she was going to pass out when suddenly her father grunted loudly, his fingers loosening around her throat.
When he grunted a second time, his fingers finally released her and she slipped to the ground, gasping for air and grabbing her neck.
“Get away from her or I’ll hit you again!”
She forced her eyes up to see Tilly standing there, a long, thick metal pole in her hands.
“I’ve already called the police,” Tilly said. “They won’t—”
Before she finished speaking, Rodney ran.
“What about Lock and Jace?”Cody asked, his gaze on Harper as he asked the guys if Kayden or Eastern had spoken to their other brothers recently.
Eastern nodded. “I spoke to Jace last week. He’s doing well. Upbeat as ever. Lock’s a bit harder to get in contact with.”
While Jace was an Air Force Combat Controller, Lock was part of an Army Ghost Ops team. You never knew where he was or when he’d be reachable. “As long as they’re both safe.”
As his brothers continued to talk, a large crowd passed the stall.
One second. That’s how long she was out of his sight. One damn second—and when the crowd cleared, she was gone.
Fuck!Where was she?
He looked at the vendor beside it, and the one beside that. She wasn’t at either.
“Everything okay?” Eastern asked.
“Can either of you see Harper?”
As his brothers searched their surroundings, Cody pulled his phone from his pocket and called her number. She didn’t answer.
He rushed over to the canopy while his brothers searched the area.
