A window was open? What the hell?
“No one’s here,” Jesse added.
Fuck.
Lock stepped inside, and sure enough, the cabin was quiet.
A shuffling sound behind him had Lock spinning, Glock once again lifting.
Eastern.
“I saw the open front door.” His brother lowered his gun. “The place is empty?”
Jesse nodded. “But a bedroom window was open.”
Lock’s gaze lifted to the hall, his mind working fast to piece it all together. “She got out and he chased after her. Which bedroom had an open window?”
Jesse pointed to the door farthest down the hall, and Lock raced into the room, gaze going straight to the open window. He sprinted toward it and jumped out.
Callie would have taken the shortest route to the trees to use them for cover, and Antwan would have known that.
Lock raced into the forest, praying he found her before Antwan.
Air soaredin and out of Callie’s chest as she ran. Her legs ached and felt so heavy, they threatened to cave. And her bare feet, God, they hurt with all the rocks and sticks on the forest floor. But she didn’t dare stop, because the second she did, he’d find her. And then he’d drag her back to that cabin.
She’d stabbed him, lied to him and run. What would he do if he caught her?
She pumped her arms faster.
When the distant crunch of leaves beneath feet sounded behind her, her foot caught on a rock and she fell hard to the ground. The air knocked out of her, and she rolled to her side, clutching at her chest.
Breathe, Callie. Get up, run, and breathe.
“Callie!”
Her heart crashed against her ribs at his voice. He was close. Too close.
She forced herself to her feet and took off again, the fear alive and roaring inside her.
Light was almost gone, making it hard to see what was in front of her. When her foot landed on something sharp, she grabbed on to a tree to stop herself from falling forward, barely swallowing the cry.
She started running again and was just nearing a decline when the thumping footsteps got louder. Faster. She turned her head and screamed when a body hit her at full force, tumblingthem both down the small hill. At the bottom, she tried to roll to her belly and crawl away, but he snatched her ankle and yanked her back under him.
“Stop…fighting me,” he growled, flipping her over.
“Never!”
He gripped a wrist, but before he could grab the other, she pushed her fingers into the bandage on his stomach and dug into his wound.
He howled as he released her wrist to reach for her other one, but she managed to get a foot between them and kick him off. Then she was on her feet and moving again. She had no idea where she was going, whether she was heading back toward the house or away from it. Her head was a hazy mess, the ability to think of anything beyond getting away, gone.
She slipped around trees and jumped over tree roots.
She heard Antwan closing in behind her at the exact moment she saw movement in the distance, in front of her. She squinted. What was that? A person? Oh God, please say it was a person!
She opened her mouth to scream when a band of steel wrapped around her waist, and she was tugged back against a hard chest.
The figure in front of them came into view. Her heart stopped.
