Cassie’s feet sank deep into the wet earth. It was cold. Really cold. The second Aidan left, she’d forced herself to move. To forget her devastation. To remember what she needed to do and the people who relied on her.
She’d dug around and found clothes. Her clothes. A lot of them. It confirmed her suspicion that he’d planned to keep her for a while.
There was no part of her that could allow him to do that.
She’d thrown on some pants and a top and layered it with a jacket and boots, but Jesus, they were doing little to keep her warm.
She wrapped her arms tighter around her waist and moved her feet faster. The outline of a knife pressed against her side from inside her jacket pocket. It was the same knife she’d used to pick the lock on the front door, something Aidan obviously had no idea she could do or he never would have left her alone.
Well, there was a lot he didn’t know about her.
There had to be someone else nearby. Someone with a phone who could call a car. Someone who could help her get home. What she’d do or say once she got there, she had no idea.
One problem at a time, Cassie.
Her muscles tensed at the thought of Damien. He was supposed to be on her side. But he’d had her kidnapped when they were so close? And kidnapped by, of all people, Aidan? What the heck had he been thinking?
Maybe he hadn’t been. Maybe Paragons of Hope was finally affecting him, leaching into his head, like it did to so many others. God knew it was a challenge not to let the place affect her some days.
On the next step, her boot sank deep into a muddy hole, and it took three pulls to tug her foot out. It must have stormed here recently. Maybe even last night. Every inch of ground was saturated.
As soon as the thought entered her mind, a speck of rain hit her nose. Oh, jeez. Now it was going to rain? Even the sky was against her.
A shiver rocked her, and she paused. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea. But what was her alternative? Stay? Let him keep her for an unknown length of time, miss her meeting with Olive and the detective, and allow everything she’d sacrificed over the last two years be for nothing?
Including Aidan. She’d sacrificed him. And he was everything. When memories of that kiss tried to return to her, she pushed them away. She couldn’t think about that right now. It would have her turning around. Running back to him. Begging for forgiveness.
No. She needed to focus on getting back. On shutting down Elijah’s organization and saving Mia.
At the thought of her sister, her heart clenched. She wished her sister could see the truth on her own. But she was in too deep.
She’d rejoined the organization for Sampson. They had met in town and begun a tentative acquaintance. Sampson claimed he was far too busy at the compound for much else. Until a few years ago. He’d reached out to Mia not long after Aidan had gone missing and started spending more time with her. Telling her about the “community” at Paragons of Hope, and just a few months later, Mia admitted she felt something. For both Sampson and the group.
Cassie had tried so hard to convince her sister not to move into the compound. There was a reason their mother had taken them away from that place. A reason she hadn’t had a chance to tell them before she’d died.
As Mia got more and more involved with the cult, Cassie knew that if she didn’t do something, she might lose her sister forever. It had been an all-consuming gut feeling inside her. In Cassie’s head, Mia had become her responsibility the second their mother was gone.
She’d felt so broken. In a period of just a few months, she’d lost the two most important people in her life—Aidan and Mia.
She’d had a choice. Accept that both of them were gone for good or channel her energy into getting back the one person she had a shot at saving.
A gust of wind made her shiver, and she tugged her jacket tighter. The cold was better than heat. Heat and standing for too long were two of the biggest causes of her fainting. She allowed the cold to seep into her limbs and drive her forward. When thoughts of Aidan began to weave their way back into her mind, she gritted her teeth.
Do not look back, Cassie. You can return to him soon—if he’ll have you. But not now.
The meeting with the detective was hopefully the beginning of the end. That’s what kept her going.
A few steps later, she heard it. Voices. They were faint but there. Hope danced in her chest. There were people nearby. Hopefully, people with a phone and a way for her to get out of here.
The farther she walked, the louder the voices grew.
Finally, people came into view. She hesitated. Three men, sitting on logs around a fire. The men looked bulky even beneath the thick jackets, and they all had dark hair and short beards. One of them had a tattoo running onto the right side of his face.
Her gaze caught on the empty beer bottles scattered around the fire. Then the rifles stacked against the tent. Were they hunters?
She took a step back. A twig snapped. Shit. Her eyes shot up to see the closest man looking directly at her.
Double shit.
He rose to his feet. “Why, hello. Where’d you come from?”
The other two men glanced up, noticing her for the first time. Her skin tingled under the weight of their gazes, and not in a good way.
She tried for a smile. “Hi. My name’s Cassie. I was hiking with my boyfriend and got a bit lost. I was wondering if you had a phone I could use?”
She threw the boyfriend comment in at the last second. Having these guys think she had someone in these woods looking for her made her feel a bit safer.
The men looked at one another, and the smiles that grew on their faces had unease slithering down her spine.
Okay, this was definitely a mistake.
“Chugs, why don’t you go see if that phone in the tent is working,” the guy on his feet said to the man closest to the tent. Then he looked back at her. “I’m Slim, by the way. That’s Meathead and Chugs.”
Interesting nicknames. “Hi.”
Chugs rose from the log. She wrapped her arms around her waist, running her thumb over the outline of the knife inside her jacket.
“Come here. Sit by the fire, you look cold.” Slim motioned to the log beside him. “I can get you a beer. It’ll warm you right up.”
Yeah right. Like she’d be accepting a drink from these guys. “No, that’s okay. I don’t need a beer. Just a phone to make a call.”
Her gaze flicked to the tent Chugs had disappeared into, then to the guns. “You guys hunters?”
“We sure are.”
“What do you hunt in Utah in winter?” She paused. Wait…was she even in Utah anymore? She had no idea where Aidan had brought her.
“There’s plenty to hunt around here,” Slim confirmed. “Mostly upland game birds. Also some of the best blue and ruffed grouse you can find.”
She nodded. She glanced at the man still sitting on the log to see his gaze scanning her body from head to toe. He was the guy with all the tattoos. The fine hairs rose on her arms.
“You think your boyfriend’s close by?” Slim was probably trying to come off as soothing, but God, his voice gave her the creeps. Suddenly, she was regretting all her decisions.
“I’m sure he’s really close. Has your friend found a phone?”
One corner of his mouth lifted. Then, without taking his eyes off her, he called out to his friend. “Chugs…anything?”
His friend stepped out of the tent. He had a hand behind his back. “Sorry. No signal.”
Okay. Time to go. “Thanks anyway.”
She’d only taken a few steps when Slim was suddenly close enough to grab her arm. “Hey. Where you goin’? Let us warm you up.”
She tried to tug her arm away, but his fingers dug into her flesh. “Let go.”
“Come on, baby, stay.” His voice deepened. “I insist.”
Anger coursed through her veins at the way the man touched her. “No. Now take your hand off me before I hurt you.”
All three men laughed. They actually laughed. And damn if that didn’t make her angrier. The man who’d disappeared into the tent, Chugs, brought the hand behind his back forward.
Her heart thumped. Rope. The guy was holding freaking rope.
Slim pulled her harder, toward the group.
Nope. She was not going to stay and become some plaything for these assholes.
Before he realized what she was doing, she’d whipped the knife out of her jacket and slashed at his arm.
Slim cried out, releasing her to grab the cut on his forearm. The knife was so sharp it had sliced clean through his jacket and into his skin.
The smiles slipped from the men’s faces.
Meathead rose and Chugs stepped forward.
Shit, shit, shit. Not good. The guys might be drunken assholes, but they were also big. And a knife wouldn’t save her for long.
She turned and ran, pumping her legs as fast as they’d take her, forcing them out of the wet ground with each step.
“Come back here, you fucking bitch!”
Their words had her chest seizing and fear spiraling through her limbs. She rounded a tree and ran several more yards before a heavy weight landed on her shoulders, sending her to the ground. A piercing scream tore from her throat.
Strong, punishing fingers latched onto her hair and yanked her onto her back.
The man who’d remained on the log, Meathead, hovered over her. And he looked ready to kill.
Cold air whipped across Aidan’s face as he ran through the woods. Cassie’s footprints made an easy trail, which was a good thing. He needed to get to her fast. It was too damn cold for her to be outside. But even if it wasn’t, she didn’t know these woods. There were wild animals. Predators. Hell, even damn hunters camping out here—which was the exact direction her prints were leading him.
He’d expected to find intruders at the cabin. A broken door, signs of a struggle. He didn’t know if what he’d actually found was better or worse. The lock had been broken from the inside. Cassie had escaped him.
A loud scream pierced the air. Aidan’s blood ran cold.
Cassie.
Fuck. He moved faster, whipping through the woods. Suddenly, he saw them. A man hovered over Cassie, his fingers tangled in her hair and a fist raised.
Fiery rage clouded his vision. He flew forward and grabbed the man by the shirt, tearing him off her moments before his fist landed. Then he threw a punch of his own, right into the guy’s face. It was powerful enough to send him flying back into a tree.
Another man ran at him. He pivoted, grabbing the asshole by the neck and squeezing. The guy coughed and choked, but Aidan didn’t let up. He squeezed hard enough to cut off the man’s air.
When a third attacker ran toward him, knife in hand, Aidan finally released the second guy and let him drop to the ground. He spun and grabbed the third man by the wrist, holding the knife. He clenched so hard that there was an audible snapping of bone. The knife fell. The man cried out.
Aidan kneed him hard in the ribs, snapping another bone before tossing him to the ground.
The man he’d thrown into the tree finally rose, charging him. So he was an idiot, as well as an asshole.
Aidan grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against another tree. He squeezed, cutting off the guy’s breath before leaning forward. “You and your friends are going to leave these woods today. If I return here and find a single fucking trace of you”—his voice lowered—“I’ll cut out your throats.”
Real fear widened the man’s eyes. Aidan gave one final squeeze, then released him. The jerk tumbled to the ground, coughing and spluttering.
Anger had his chest rising and falling in quick succession. He turned slowly. Cassie was on her feet and looking at him with wide eyes. Her clothes were wet from the rain and the soaked ground.
He moved toward her. She took a quick step back, but that was as far as she got before he reached her. In one swift move, he lifted her off her feet and cradled her against him. He moved quickly through the rain, not sparing the hunters a backward glance.
When he felt the trembles racking her body, a new wave of fury washed through his limbs. Whether she was trembling from cold or fear, he didn’t know. It didn’t matter. She shouldn’t be trembling at all.
“Did they hurt you?” he asked through gritted teeth.
If they had, he’d go back there and murder them.
“No,” she said quietly. “You got there b-before they could d-do anything.”
A small sliver of relief helped him breathe again. Then a gust of fierce wind lashed them, and she snuggled closer.
“How did you get out?” he asked.
“I p-picked the lock with a knife.”
Yeah, he knew that part. “How do you know how to do that?”
More trembles raced throughout her body. “I t-taught myself. In case I ever needed to do it.”
A frown marred his brows. “In case you were locked in a house?”
“In case I was l-locked anywhere and needed to get out.”
Why the hell would this woman go through the effort of teaching herself how to escape a locked room? It made his blood fucking boil.
“You will tell me everything, Cassie,” he said quietly. “Including every part of your life that you omitted when we were together.” He was sick of this guessing game. “And if you ever try a stunt like this again, I’ll cuff you to the damn bed.”
