Page 76 of Her Delta Force Protector

They crossed the road and entered the woods on the other side. She guessed it was five minutes later when they came to a shallow creek. The sound of the water almost made her say the hell with it and pee in her pants. “I have to pee.” It killed her to even say that to him, but she couldn’t wait much longer.

“Don’t care. Think your boyfriend will use that dog to try to find you?” Without waiting for an answer, he pushed her. “Walk down the middle of the creek.”

She turned to face him for the first time since he’d taken her hostage, this man who’d become a recurring nightmare in her life. She intended to explain to him that she really had to pee, but the change in him since she’d last seen him was so shocking that she forgot what she was going to say.

The man who’d shown up at her home in Fayetteville and then at her father’s house had been scary enough with his threats and cold eyes. The man standing in front of her now was still scary, but in a whole other way. His eyes were dead pools. There was nothing human left in them.

She was officially frightened out of her mind. Because she couldn’t look into those zombie eyes another second without losing all hope that she’d survive this monster, she turned away from him and walked down the middle of the creek.

Chapter Forty

“No! Stay in place until I come for you.” Kade expected an immediate response from Harper. It didn’t come. “Foxy lady?” Nothing. “Harper, report in.” Nothing again. Her comms must have stopped working. “You got this asshole?” he asked Viper.

“Yup. Go get your lady.”

The minute he let go of Rawls, the man made a run for it. Both he and Viper tackled him before he got two feet away. Kade rolled away, stood, put his foot on Rawls’s back, and pressed down hard. “Don’t try that again.” He nodded at Viper, then headed around the cabin to get Harper.

“Ace, you need to get to Harper’s tree.”

There was urgency in Cupcake’s voice, and Kade ran to the tree. The first thing he saw were her smashed comms. “Where is she?” She wouldn’t have destroyed the comms, which meant either Watson or Sorenson had her. Unless an unknown had left in the Hummer, leaving Watson and Sorenson behind, which would mean both men had her.

Cupcake scowled at the destroyed comms. “I don’t know. After I saw the Hummer leave, I walked down the road to come back. I didn’t pass anyone.”

“You couldn’t tell how many people were in the car?” It was startling how calm his voice sounded considering he was a raging volcano inside.

“No, it was too far away, but she had to still be here because she talked to us after I told you the Hummer was gone.”

Okay, that was good. She was nearby. He prayed that was true. “Tell Viper to tie Rawls to a tree or something, then both of you start searching.” He took out his phone and called his brother.

“Was about to call you,” Tristan said on answering. “Your three bad actors just passed through town. Miss Mabel ran into the back of Earl’s truck again, and—”

“Harper’s missing. Send someone to pick up Stockton Rawls. I need you and anyone else you can pull off duty to come here so we can form search teams. We’re as sure as we can be that she’s still in the area.”

“Stand by.” Tristan barked orders to someone, then came back on the line. “My people are on the way. Skye’s at the jail booking your prisoners in. Chase is with me, and we’re both coming to you. Do you know what happened?”

“All I know is that one or both of those walking dead men have her. Call me when you get here.” He disconnected.

“Dude’s trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey,” Viper said, joining them. “What’s the plan?”

“The fucking plan is to find her.” He blew out a breath. “Sorry, but I’m a volcano about to blow.”

Cupcake put his hand on Kade’s shoulder. “We’re gonna get our girl back. That’s the only option.”

“Damn straight. Tristan’s sending help to search. When his people get here, pick one of them to take Rawls to the jail. If I put eyes on him again, I might kill him.” He glanced at his watch. “Whoever took her has a ten-minute head start on us, but we’re counting on them still being in the area since the Hummer must have left without one of them... Watson or Sorenson.” From what they’d learned of the men, he’d prefer it to be Sorenson, but he had a bad feeling it was Watson.

“We gonna split up to look for her?” Viper asked.

“Affirmative, at least until we get a clue of their direction. You take the north side of the cabin, Cupcake, take the south. I’m going to walk along the road in case they crossed over it somewhere. Let me know if you find anything.”

His two teammates took off in opposite directions, and Kade headed for the cabin to get Duke and something of Harper’s. She kept her dirty clothes in a white cloth bag in the bathroom. He dumped the contents on the floor, grabbed a sock, then raced back outside, taking Duke to Harper’s tree.

He held the sock in front of Duke’s nose. “Find Harper.” This had to work. “Duke, find Harper. Don’t let me down, boy.”

Duke snatched the sock away, then put his nose to the ground. For a few minutes, he made circles around the tree as if the scents confused him, and Kade thought he might be having a heart attack. What if Duke couldn’t track her? After running around the tree many times, Duke veered toward the road, and with his nose and Harper’s sock dragging on the ground, he took off.

“Viper, on me. Duke’s picked up her scent.” He hoped to hell that was what Duke was tracking. “Cupcake, when my brother gets here tell him to have one of his men take Rawls to the jail and then you and the rest of his people start searching in case Duke’s wrong.”

“Headed to you,” Viper said.

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