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The build was too large. Too masculine to be her. The dread melted from his muscles, relief sinking in. Thank fucking god. He slowed as he approached and stared down at the man lying on the ground, his face turned slightly toward the wall. A bullet had entered cleanly just above the dude’s ear, the exit wound on the other side surely not as neat.

Her informant. Had to be.

Part of him wanted to search the guy for identification, but just being at a murder scene was bad enough. Last thing he needed was to leave DNA or prints behind.

Cole took out his phone and snapped several shots then scanned the ground around the body. The sun reflected off a glass screen in the grass. He bent and picked up the phone.

The screen came to life, revealing an image of Sophia and Bella snuggled together for a selfie. He forced down the thickness on the back of his tongue, stood, and made his way to the car.

Whoever had killed her informant had taken Sophia. Or worse—done the same as they’d done to the snitch and dumped her body somewhere else.

Pressure mounted in his chest.

Jesus Christ.

He was too late. Too motherfucking late.

His throat ached and his gut churned. He sent the images to Dare and then phoned him using Bluetooth as he revved out of the parking lot.

“Who’s the dead guy?” Dare said, by way of greeting.

“I’m going to bet it’s Sophia’s informant. Any luck identifying the dude in the video?”

Dare cleared his throat. “The boys are here. I’m working on the guy in the video and Dallas is trying to figure out who her informant was. Did you get an ID?”

“Nah. I didn’t want to touch his body.”

“Good thinking. We’ll figure it out from here. Nash thinks he can get a name.” Dare’s distracted tone told Cole he was hard at work. “Any word from Sophia?”

“I’m losing it, man,” Cole choked out as he bumped onto the road. “They’ve got her.”

“Her informant could have been killed after she left. Maybe something came up—”

“No.” Desperation rattled his nerves. “Someone has her. I can feel it. Besides, she was supposed to call when she was done and head right over. That was an hour and a half ago.”

“All right, all right. Come by my place and by then we might have made some headway.”

Cole disconnected and took the interstate toward his brother’s house. His body moved on autopilot, his foot heavy on the pedal and his brain working a mile a minute.

When he got his hands on whoever the fuck had touched Sophia, he’d break every bone in their body.

***

Sophia slithered to the floor, her muscles limp. She gasped several times and wiped the sweat from her cheek with her shoulder.

Swallowing, she checked the tape by yanking her wrists apart. The restriction had some give to it now. A lot, actually. She had to try again. Standing, she pulled apart her wrists as far as she could then leaned forward, this time using her body weight to stretch the plastic even more.

The tape pulled and pinched her skin. She grunted, heaved once more, then tested the binding.

The tape was loose.

Hope ballooned inside her chest as she peeled off the stickiness and brought her hands forward. Her muscles screamed in protest as she shook out her hands. She stuffed the tape into her pocket—so she could pretend she was still bound if Kenneth came back—and crouched to free her ankles.

A minute later that binding was off too.

Now what?

She had no weapon. No way of escape except through the locked door. Her focus drifted to the bathroom. It was the only place to search. Maybe she could find something better than one of the dangling wires overhead. Strangling Kenneth wasn’t high on her list of priorities, but she’d do whatever it took to get out of here.

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