He winks. “Good luck with that when you don’t have any teeth.”
He covers my mouth with the rag, and my vision swims as I try not to breathe. Pointless. My lungs burn as my eyes find Steph already slumped over in her chair. Our bodies always fight for life, and that’s what he’s counting on.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Hunter
You take my heart, you take my soul, I will take your life.
I’m trying to convince myself the squeezing in my chest is not a bad sign when I hear the rumble of an unfamiliar engine behind me. It’s too light to be my truck, which means… what? It could be a tourist looking to spend the unseasonably hot day at the lake—it’s not like we own it. I stand at the same time as William, who catches my eye with a frown. He feels it too, and the churning in my gut solidifies when I spot the familiar passenger in the back seat.
I stalk to the white sedan as it rolls to a stop and yank open the door. Carlson tumbles out clutching an open laptop, his hair sticking up at the sides like he’s been pulling on it.
“Hey man! You need to pay,” the young guy shouts. William stiffly digs in his jeans pocket as I glance in the back, my heart falling to the floor. No beautiful hacker in sight.
“Where is she?” I snap.
Carlson’s frightened eyes meet mine, and he steps back toward William without realizing it. Fuck. I am not going to like his answer.What have you done, Eleanor?
“T-there was a call f-from Green Hay,” Carlson starts as my heart skips a beat. There are a hundred things I expected, a thousand possibilities I planned for, and Steph being forced into this hellscape was not one of them. “Ghost answered, and there was this guy, Jonathan?—”
No.Fury descends over me, and Carlson takes another step back, his face going pale. William joins us as the car spins in a circle and leaves, placing a reassuring hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“Keep going,” William encourages.
“He has Steph,” Carlson confirms with a strangled gulp, avoiding my gaze. “He blackmailed Ghost. She left me at the store. I didn’t get the burgers.”
My hand runs through my hair as I urge Carlson to stay on topic and not take off on a random tangent.
“That’s okay,” William tells him. “Keep going.”
Carlson nods and turns to me, straightens his spine, and takes a deep breath.Fuck me.“She said to tell you to call Fox, that the tracker is on, and she gave some woman named Gail permission to discuss anything about Ghost’s history with you. I have her number.”
“Tracker?” William says, shooting me an incredulous look. “Won’t he know to dump her phone straight away?”
“It’s implanted.”
William’s eyes widen. He’s aware of what Jonathan is on paper, but the reality of someone taking the drastic step of placing a tracker inside their body makes shit real. The threat against her has never been clearer, it seems.
Welcome to Ellie’s reality.
Carlson waves his laptop in my face, a near manic gleam in his eye. “I solved it! The pattern. The roads all lead to the water.”
I shake my head at his nonsense. I don’t have the luxury of entertaining his ramblings right now. I’m sure they make sense to him, but a sociopath has my girls. All bets are off. I snatch my phone from his hand and stalk to William’s truck, with him and Carlson hot on my heels. I climb in the driver’s side and start the engine. The passenger door flies open, and Carlson is shoved inside, followed by William.
“Get out,” I snap, my fingers flexing on the steering wheel. “This is not your fight.”
William slams the door closed. “Put your seatbelt on, C.”
Cheryl runs in front of the truck with her arms raised. “Your wife needs you.”
William lowers the window and hangs his head out, making it clear he’s not leaving. I grumble under my breath, my thumbs rapidly beating against the soft leather. Fine, but every second spent here is one more Eleanor has to put distance between us. Glancing at C, I see him furiously typing on his computer, his fingers a blur against the keys. I need a signal to figure out where she is.Come on, Eleanor, help me out here.
“Eleanor and Steph are in danger. Carlson figured something out, so we’re taking him with us. Cancel camp, get everyone back to the compound, and go on lockdown until I call you.”
Cheryl’s eyes harden, and she nods her head, spinning on her heel and heading toward the bonfire pit. My breath catches in my lungs. I wish Eleanor was here to see this. The trust and responsibility William puts in his wife to protect the Reapers doesn’t exist in other MCs. Church is only one part of the whole picture.
I spin the truck in a circle, gravel spraying into the trees, and put my foot down hard as I head toward Green Hay. It’s about an hour’s drive from here. My stomach clenches, my knuckles whiteas my hands shake. If Eleanor dropped Carlson at the store, which is halfway, that means she is already at Green Hay and Jonathan is making his move. Speeding down the deserted road, the trees blur in an unidentifiable mass of green and brown. I need to get to a point where I have a signal, then I can see where she is and check in with Fox.
