“Neal, please, you’re hurting me—”
“We’re just getting started, Rox. You’ve been extraordinarily bad, and it’s going to take a lot for you to make up for everything you’ve done.” Dragging her up to her feet by her hair, she screamed again, wrapping her fingers around his wrists to try and alleviate some of the sharp pain in her scalp. She wasshaking, trembling so violently she could barely stand. “Fucking move. Out the door.Now.”
“No, please—”
Snapping her neck so hard it cracked, he whipped her face toward him, banding his free hand around her throat like a vice. “If you fight me, Rox, I will walk over to that house and shoot those two women I know are inside.” A sob choked her.
“I won’t fight,” she whispered, pleading. “Just don’t hurt them. Please. Neal.”
“Let’s go,” he snarled, pushing her toward the door. The wind whipped around them, the sky dark, and rain began to pelt them. They had just made it to the bottom of the stairs when a car broke through the trees that lined the long gravel driveway, blue and red lights flashing.
Roxy sagged in relief. Oh, thank God—
The sheriff squad car came to a stop, and when the door opened, a tall, blonde deputy stepped out, hand already on his holster. Neal swore, moving them closer to her 4Runner, attempting to use it as a shield between them and the officer.
“Put your hands in the air!” the deputy shouted, and a heartbeat later his gun was drawn, aiming at them—no, aimed at Neal—but terror squeezed her chest tight enough to seize her breaths. The deputy remained standing behind the opened door of his squad car, gun drawn and aimed at them over the top of the window. “Let her go!”
Neal reached behind him, and when he pulled his hand back, her gun was gripped in his fingers, pointing back at the deputy. The man was incredibly tall, most of his torso rising above the ledge of the window frame.
“Drop the weapon!” the deputy shouted, but Roxy knew he wouldn’t. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Neal’s finger depressed on the trigger, the noise of the blast screaming in her ear. Or maybe that was her own scream that echoed inside herhead as the bullet connected with the deputy’s chest, just to the left of his Kevlar vest. He went down, his head bouncing off the car as he fell backward, his body disappearing as he fell into the dirt.
Bucking wildly against the hold Neal still had on her, she managed to free herself, scrambling away a dozen feet before another shot rang out, a bullet ricocheting in the dirt to her right. She screamed, coming to a halt, her body folding in on itself as she stared at how close that bullet had come to hitting her. She was trembling violently as she turned slowly to face him.
His chest was heaving like a bellows, his arm outstretched, gun pointed directly at her. His face was a vicious mask of rage, dark eyes blazing with fury, mouth twisted in hate. “Look at what you made me do, Rox!Are you happy now?” he raged, his arm shaking with his wrath. She shook like a leaf where she stood. “I don’t want to shoot you, Rox, but so fucking help me, I will.”
Forty-Six
“Ican see them, they just came out of the loft. Oh my god, he’s got her by the hair, dragging her, Free, please let me—”
“No, Jodi! Don’t leave that house!” Free snarled, careening around a corner.
Rain lashed at the windshield, the wipers wicking it away as quickly as it was coming down. They were almost there. Almost there. So fucking close.Roxy. Roxy. Roxy, Travis’s mind and heart chanted. White hot fury raced through him at Jodi’s words, at the fear Roxy must be feeling right now, at the hands of this fucking monster. And he’d let her push him away. Let her push him away, when she’d known all along that he’d found her. Neal had threatened his life, and Roxy had done what she thought was right, to save him, to protect him.
He was going to have one helluva talking to this woman, when this was all said and done. Because there was no other option for how this was going to end.
“I see the lights flashing, the deputy is in the driveway,” Seren called, but relief was far from coming. He’d had Seren relay that Neal would most likely have Roxy’s gun on him, he was armed, and he was incredibly dangerous.
A gasp from the other end of the line brought his head around and then the worst sound he’d ever heard made his gut clench tightly. The muffled sound of a shot ringing out. “Oh my god, the deputy, he’s been shot! Run, Roxy!”
Pure, unadulterated panic choked him when the sound of a second shot rang out, muffled by distance and walls, and Jodi was sobbing. Seren was still on the line with the dispatch, now relaying that their officer had been shot. This couldn’t be happening.He couldn’t fucking lose her!
The driveway came into sight, the headlights lighting on it in the distance and Free took the corner far faster than was safe, the truck sliding sideways before he straightened it out. Gravel flew behind the tires as they sped down the long drive, and then he saw the flashes of blue and red painting the main house garishly. A sheriff’s cruiser was parked in the drive, the lights flashing, but he didn’t see an officer as they sped closer. Free reached between Travis’s knees, popping open the glove box as they careened closer, skidding to a halt, gravel spraying. A handgun sat in the glovebox. “Take it. Go!”
Travis grabbed it, jumping out of the truck before it came to a complete stop. Rounding the hood of the truck, he saw Neal dragging Roxy, one arm wrapped around her neck in a chokehold, toward the other side of the barn. He had just slipped between the truck and sheriff’s cruiser when he skidded to a stop.
“Holy shit,” he breathed, dropping to his knees in the gravel next to the prone figure. Blood covered the officer’s chest and left arm, pooling beneath him, a bullet wound cleaving open his shoulder. The rain mixed with the blood, sending it seeping in all directions in garish rivers through the gravel.
He was soaked in rain, his short, dirty blonde hair shorn close to his head and dripping wet. Gasping, choked breaths made Travis’s own breath stall.
Free caught up to him then, skidding to a halt in the rain slick gravel. He shoved him. “Go! I’ve got him. Go, God dammit!”
“No,” the deputy wheezed, lashing a hand out to catch Travis’s wrist as he made to stand. “I c-can’t le-let you g-g-go after th-them—” he coughed out. Blood seeped from the side of his mouth. Fucking hell. “B-backup. W-wait f-for backup.”
“Graham, you listen to me,” Free snarled, closing one hand over the bloody wound on his shoulder. The deputy hissed in pain. Free’s other hand grasped the back of the deputy’s neck. “Your only fucking job right now is to stay alive; do you hear me?”
The deputy nodded weakly, releasing Travis’s wrist. Travis jumped to his feet, catapulting over the hood of the cruiser and taking off in the direction that he’d seen Neal take Roxy. Barreling through the rain, he ran as fast as he could, pumping his arms and legs as hard as he could manage, his legs eating up the distance. He was a hundred yards away from the corner of the big barn when the blast of a gun echoed, followed almost simultaneously by an agonized scream, and then the terror of pure silence.
“Roxy!” he bellowed, putting on a burst of speed. He only prayed he wasn’t too late.
