“I just need a day, maybe two, just to figure out where to go from here.”
“However long you need,” I repeat, “a day, a week, or a month. Where’s your truck?”
“It ran out of gas maybe three miles from here. I’m not sure.”
“I’m going to go get it and tow it back here.”
Her eyes widen, and she snatches out with her hand, grasping my arm tightly. “Wait, you’re leaving me?”
“You’re safe here.” I promise, “I’m going to get it and bring it back so I can hide it. If Cal comes looking, he won’t find you here.”
“Oh,” she relaxes.
“Take your drink,” I gently lift her from the counter. “And go take a seat in there,” I point to the small living room, “Breathe for me, okay?”
She nods, hesitating for a minute before she does as I ask and curls her legs under her body as she makes herself as small as she can, tucking herself into the corner of the couch.
There’s a heaviness to my steps as I grab the keys for both my truck and hers, slipping around the side of the house to the shed so I can look for the towing arm while also dialing Roman. It’s fucking late, but I know he’ll be awake since Niamh has only just got home from the bar.
“Niamh said you’d be calling,” he answers.
“Need your help with something,” is all I respond.
“On my way.” He hangs up, and I put the flashlight on, on my cell so I can search in the shed for the arm. By the time I’ve found it, Roman is pulling up on his ATV, the engine cutting off.
“What is it?”
“Remember I told you I had a bad feeling about that ranch?” I glance at the house, keeping my voice low.
He frowns and looks behind me, “Yeah?”
“His wife is inside.”
His eyes bug out. “What?”
“He fucking hit her, Roman,” I growl, molars grinding, “There’s no fucking way I’m letting her go back to him.”
“Do you—do you have feelings for her?”
I roll my eyes, “No.”
His eyes narrow, “So what? You’re just going to keep her?”
“Until she’s ready,” I shrug, “But right now we need to go get her truck off the road and store it here. I don’t want that fucker finding her.”
He follows me to the truck and climbs into the passenger seat. It’s easy and quick to locate her truck, somewhat abandoned on the side of the road, and I get my truck positioned and the towing arm applied. Roman gets in her car to guide it while I tug it back to the ranch, following the long drive all the way up and past Roman’s house and to one of the empty storage barns. It had been used to store Niamh’s truck for a couple of weeks, but now it’s empty and the perfect place to hide this.
Before I leave, though, I do a quick search over, looking in every nook and empty space until I find exactly what I expected to. I yank the tracker from beneath the passenger seat, curling my fingersaround it. I need to get into this before morning light and hope he hasn’t already realized she’s gone.
Roman wants to press more, but I don’t have time for him right now.
Leaving him to lock up, I head back to my cabin. Rosie and Caleb are with Beth for the night; I’m getting them back in the morning. They’d already planned it ahead since there was some fireworks show they wanted to see, and I didn’t want to disrupt their plans with my sudden return.
When I get back inside, I immediately find Juni curled up, now asleep. It doesn’t look like it was on purpose. She’s still in that curled-up position, protecting herself from the entire world.
I sigh but give her that minute of peace to get this tracker dealt with. Opening my laptop, I settle at the table and get it connected, pulling up the location information on it. Instead of removing the data, I replace it, forcing a new location to show, making it look like she’s still moving. It’ll keep going like that for at least two weeks, sending him on a wild goose chase and far, far away from here.
I double-check it’s all set and then close my laptop, leaning forward to rest my elbows on the table and pinch the bridge of my nose between my fingers.
