“That’s my Gone name. You didn’t use your real name on Gone, did you?”
Callie’s cheeks flush even pinker, and not from the warm fire contrasting the cold outside.
“My name is Callie,” she says through gritted teeth. “Which you know.”
“Hm.” I raise a single eyebrow at her.
“Hm what?” She puts extra emphasis on theTinwhat.
God, the attitude on this one? Amazing. And while I’m almost positive she’s not flirting with me, maybe she is.
Nah. I need to get out more.
But while finding someone to flirt with is notsuper hard—the barista from Maine Coffee Co comes to mind—dating someone is impossible.
I haven’t been a normal human being since the murder of my family. Something broke in me that day, just like something broke in my brother.
Noah makes fun of me for never dating, but I’m not sure why he thinks his online-only dating is more respectable. The guy won’t date a woman who lives within five hundred miles of us. That way, he can keep his dating life separate from his normal life, which is very much not normal. Fivehundredmiles.
“Hello? Where’d you just go? I need you to focus, Wes-Hawk, because I’m literally fucking zip-tied to your chair.”
I blink out of my daydream and focus on the beautiful, angry woman in front of me.
“Just Wes. And we are—as you know because you followed me here—in my isolated cabin in the Maine woods.”
“Oh fuck off, we’re forty-five minutes from Portland.”
I let out a chuckle, and she looks surprised for a split second, then one side of her mouth twitches, and I almost think she’s going to smile. Then it’s gone.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say fuck off. I’m just a little unnerved by the situation. Can you pretty please un-zip-tie me?”
“No. You definitely did mean to say it, and I’m frankly pretty terrified as to what you’d do if I set you free.” I tilt my head at her.
She sighs like I’m an infuriating child on the thousandth round of the why game.
I hang my arms over the chair back and don’t miss how her eyes flit to my exposed forearms, tattoos partially visible due to my hoodie sleeves pushed up.
“Okay, so if you won’t cut me loose, can you please let me know what you plan on doing to me?”
Her words sink in, and my stomach twists. I wouldn’t do anything to her. To any woman. Men—bad men—sure. We fuck them all the way up. Noah and I might not like guns, but that’s not the only way to take care of business.
But a woman? Our whole purpose is to eliminate bad men who target women and girls. Because what haunts both of us is the fact that the asshole who came for my father didn’t blink an eye before he shot my defenseless mother and then turned on my innocent younger sister.
If only that man—the one who is already dead—had the same reservations we do about hurting women.
But he didn’t.
Chapter 6
Gorgeous Masked Kidnapper
CALLIE
The briefest pain flickers over Wes’s face, and then it’s gone. But I don’t have time to wonder about it because the plastic digging into my wrists is killing me. I won’t be able to slip out of it, so I should just stay still and wait for this admittedly very attractive but dangerous man to reveal his plans.
This is all my fault. Shane doesn’t want to be found. He’ll reveal himself when he damn well pleases. Involving someone like Hawk in this was an obvious mistake. Thanks, Jake.
I can hear my best friend in my head.But you actually followed him to his isolated Maine cabin, Callie. Shut up, Lola! Also, I should’ve listened to her, my best friend who did not grow up in a crime family.
