Page 66 of Unchained

“What did Leonetti say?” Nash asked after nearly forty minutes of riding at Dare’s breakneck speed.

Replaying Leonetti’s words might send him over the deep end. But sitting here doing nothing wasn’t helping him cope with the time slowly ticking by either. “That he’d trade her for me.” The statement hissed through gritted teeth.

The air in the cab changed. Cole leaned forward. “You’re not doing that.”

Some of the tension in Brooks’s arms softened. Cole had a stick up his ass, but it wasn’t as if he didn’t care. He just had a weird way of showing it.

“I’ll do whatever I have to. We can’t let Cam stay in his hands.” He rolled Cam’s words over in his head. “She said it’s a trap.”

“Cam did?” Dare turned his face toward him and then jerked it back to look at the road.

“Yeah.”

“What do you think that means?”

Brooks balled his hands into fists. The mountains loomed over them. Finally they were farther from civilization and closer to Cam. “That he wants to keep her for . . . experiments.”

“Jesus,” Dare whispered. “What kind of sick piece of shit—?”

“Any idea how many guards he has?” Cole’s terse question cut through the vehicle.

Brooks shook his head. “When I escaped, he sent about five or six guards after me. I killed or injured all of them. So I’m anticipating he’ll have double.”

“You killed them?” Cole asked, his tone high with disbelief.

Brooks kept his gaze trained on the winding road, letting the question fall into the emptiness between them. “How much farther?”

Dare glanced at the GPS on his phone. “Six minutes.”

A deep calm settled over Brooks. They were close. In a few minutes, he’d find Cam. And all that mattered was getting her out alive. Nash and his brothers would ensure that happened.

He still had the long-lasting physical advancements of the drug. It wasn’t just about revenge now. Now, he had to get Cam out alive. He had backup, but he couldn’t endanger his newfound family. No. Going in, putting his neck out—that was his responsibility alone.

And that might mean he’d never get out.

CHAPTER 21

Cam dropped her shoulders forward and hung her head until her chin touched her chest. Exhaustion pulled at her joints. She shivered despite the sheen of sweat on her skin. Judging by the size of the tent, Leonetti had found a remote area to set up. That meant she was likely in the mountains, where the air would be cooler. Turning her head to wipe the cold sweat off her cheek with her shoulder, she brought her attention back to the scalpel.

She could do this. She had to do this. Pinching the handle of the tool between her thumb and forefinger, she used her other fingers to examine the zip tie again. She found the gap where a small chunk of plastic held the tie together, an inch or so away from her wrist. Closing her eyes, she inched the knife to the spot. Nothing pierced her skin, but the blade sat on something hard. Moving the scalpel back and forth in tiny increments, she sawed.

Snap

The cinching sensation fell away from her wrists. Blood rushed to her fingers, making them tingle. She pulled her hands from around the back of the chair and her arms and neck screamed. Rolling her shoulders in rapid circles, she sucked in a deep breath. They’d be back any second, and this time she’d be ready.

She explored the tent with her gaze. The guard still stood outside the tent door, oblivious to her success. There had to be another way out. Keeping one eye on the door and her ears trained on outside sounds, she stood and slid the scapple into her back pocket. Her legs trembled beneath her weight. Inching away from the chair, she moved toward the back of the tent. The plastic beneath her feet crackled with every step. Wincing, she took wide strides, balancing her weight on the balls of her feet. Frick. She’d have to run through the woods without shoes. Oh, well. At least she was wearing sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt and not shorts and a tank top.

She glanced behind her as she got close to the back of the tent. The guard’s silhouette didn’t move. Hope flooded her muscles, screaming at her to run. But she couldn’t. One wrong move could alert him to her escape. She turned her attention back to her task. A door with a zipper holding it closed sat on the far back wall. She stopped in front of it—so close to freedom. If she could get out and make a run for it, she might be able to stick close to the road and stop Brooks before he reached their location.

Grabbing the end of the zipper, she lifted.

Zzzzip

She bit the insides of her cheeks. Please, God. Don’t let them hear me. When she’d pulled the zipper to the height of her chest, she crouched and eased through the door. Foliage from low-lying trees and bushes welcomed her. The loud hum of a generator reached her ears. She blinked in the darkness. She couldn’t see a thing, but she couldn’t stop to find a flashlight. The front door of the tent whipped open. She froze, a gasp catching in her throat. The guard looked to her vacated chair, then spotted her. His eyes widened. “Hey!”

She hurtled forward. Branches slapped her cheek. She ducked, but pine needles still tangled themselves in her hair. Not caring if her locks got ripped out, she ran into the woods, pumping her arms and smacking away branches. The sound of footsteps snapping twigs pounded behind her.

Her tongue swelled with the need to scream, but doing so would only alert more guards. The crackle of a radio called out into the night. Crap! He had help coming.

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