Page 103 of Marked

Not bad, but also not ideal. She’d need to find her way to an exit. Turning around, she scanned the room that looked as though it was being converted into an office space. A package of brushes, some rollers, and several paint cans sat on the floor. Nothing that would make a suitable weapon. Swinging a paint can would be too difficult.

She went to the pile of materials and lifted the various items. A slim yellow object caught her eye. She grabbed the smooth plastic and flicked up a black button—a box cutter.

Perfect.

Now all she had to do was find a freaking door out of here.

***

“Where’s Dallas?” Dare asked Cole, who settled himself in the passenger’s seat.

Cole rubbed the pad of his thumb over his index finger. “He’s helping me with something. He’ll meet us there.”

Dare pulled away from the curb and glanced in the rearview mirror then brought his attention to the road.

Cole’s body vibrated. He’d kill every sonofabitch in a two-mile radius of Sophia when he found her.

If he found her.

Bella’s little face flashed through his mind. He hadn’t put his life on the line to find Bella just so her mother could be ripped away from her the next day.

He’d do everything in his power to get her home.

“What about Nash?” Cole asked.

“He and Brooks are meeting us there.”

Cole nodded. Someone had already mentioned that, but he couldn’t wrap his head around more than the current moment.

He bounced his leg in the footwell as Dare got on the interstate and flew through traffic. Cold air blasted from the vents, the hum loud and disruptive, but no air hit him. Or if it did, his skin was too numb to feel it.

Cole’s heart pumped wildly, but not just with angst and determination...There was something else. His breath was haggard, his hands permanently locked into fists. He’d probably be oblivious to a bullet entering his chest right now. A reaction he’d never had regarding someone else’s welfare. Hell, he’d never even been this worried about his own.

“Can you go any fucking faster?” Cole ground out.

Dare sent him a quick glance, his expression annoyed. “Not if you don’t want the cops on our ass.”

He huffed out a curse. “I don’t care. I’ll annihilate anyone who gets in our way.”

Dare wrapped and unwrapped his hand around the bottom of the steering wheel. “That’s what I’m afraid of.” A beat passed. “Can’t help but point out I’ve never seen you like this before,” Dare said, as he took the next exit.

Cole swiveled his head to face his brother. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I dunno, man. Just stating the obvious. You tell me what it means.”

“It means you’re a fucking idiot and if you weren’t driving right now—”

“Easy,” Dare said, patting the air between them as though Cole were a damn spooked horse. “Look. It’s your life. I mean, it’s none of my business, but I don’t understand how you’ll make anything work with a detective, for fuck’s sake. But that’s for you to figure out.”

Cole rattled his already clenched fist, using all his restraint to prevent himself from punching his brother in the jaw, and exhaled. Dare made a few turns through an industrial area and some of the tension in Cole’s chest loosened. They were getting close. But his brain circled back to his younger brother’s words.

Dare always spoke a little too freely. But his opinion echoed what had been playing in Cole’s mind for more than a day.

He had no life with Sophia.

He also couldn’t let her burn for being involved with him. He’d cover her ass if it was the last thing he did.

And it would be.

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