The woman’s head yanked from her work, startled at his tone. “Sir?”
“You seen Brighton?”
“Yes, sir.” Olivia pointed toward the front. “She went out to get a better signal and saw her friend out there.”
“What friend?” Willow balked.
“The one outside.”
“She doesn’t have a phone!” Stone sprinted for the vestibule door. “Did she come back in?”
“I … I don’t know.” Olivia looked ready to cry.
Willow’s heart thundered. Who had Brighton left with? She pitched herself at the counter. “The girl you saw outside?—what’d she look like?”
“Fourteen, fifteen. Blunt cut. She was shorter than Brighton.”
“Oh no.” Willow darted to the front where Stone met her with a tight expression. His eyes were shadowed, warning of his anger. “She’s with Mari. And that means one thing.”
“Horvath.” Stone ran toward the back, up past the cabin.
“Horvath doesn’t get his hands dirty. Has to be one of his goons,” his sister’s shout chased him to the truck.
He yanked open the door. “Either way, they’re as good as dead.”
“Stone!” Willow slipped on the gravel drive as she tried to catch up with him. “Stone, please??—be careful. They play for keeps. They will not hesitate to do whatever it takes to stop you, including killing. These men don’t mess around.”
“Neither do I.”
Not when it came to Brighton.
As he tore down the gravel road, probing ahead for taillights, he couldn’t help but wonder??—had she really just walked out of the lodge? Walked away from him?
It didn’t make sense.
Didn’t have to. Haunted by the hollow screams when she’d thought her captor had found her again, Stone refused to let that life reclaim her. Wasn’t going to allow men to treat her like a slab of meat. Ever. Again. He punched the gas pedal. Rocks and dirt sprayed, peppering the truck as he spun toward the main gate.
Phone in the dash holder, he had to shout over the din of engine and road noise. “Call Cord.”
Beep beep beep.
He glanced at the screen as he nailed a sharp curve, nearly ate a ditch and had to correct his trajectory. Back on the road, he eyed the screen. Signal Lost.
Stone bit back a curse and again gunned it.
God, please …
Ahead, red blips winked in the darkness. His pulse ratcheted. He shoved his foot against the pedal, but he had already maxed out the acceleration. Hands curled tight around the steering wheel, he knew there was a series of switchbacks coming up, along with offshoot roads that would lead in different directions. He’d lose them if he couldn’t erase this distance. But even as he realized that, the taillights winked out of sight.
“No!” He banged the steering wheel.
“If that’s your lover,” Finch snipped, “you’d better hope he doesn’t catch up.”
Lover? Brighton glanced out the back window. High beams of a big vehicle stabbed into the inky darkness. It was barreling toward them.
He had come. He’d come after her. Relief seared across her betrayal. She’d left the lodge with Mari, gotten into the back seat of the car, all knowing if she didn’t, they’d kill Stone, Willow, and Mari. “He’s not afraid of you.”
“I’m so sorry,” Mari whimpered. “They made me.”
