Page 20 of Big Bodyguard
Because if I’ve learned anything in this life, it’s that peace like this never lasts.
And the thought of losing her before I’ve even figured out what she means to me…that might just kill me before any bullet can.
The second I step back inside, the air shifts. The cabin feels too quiet. Too empty.
“Charlie?” My voice carries through the cabin. Nothing. Not the rustle of her moving around. Not her soft laugh. Nothing but silence pressing in like a weight.
My chest tightens. A feeling I haven’t let myself feel in years seizes me by the throat—panic.
“Fuck.”
I rip through the cabin, checking the bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, but there’s no sight of her. She’s gone. Her shoes are missing from the door.
Forcing my breathing steady, I grab my phone and dial her number. One ring. Two. Voicemail. I call again. Still nothing.
“Goddamn it, Charlie!”
I shove the phone in my pocket and sprint outside, my boots pounding the dirt. The trees loom like sentinels, shadows too deep, too many places someone could hide.
“Charlie!” I roar, my voice echoing through the woods. “Charlotte!”
No answer.
The panic surges hotter, faster, clawing at me from the inside out. Then my eyes catch on something glinting faintly in the pine needles. I drop to one knee as I reach for the familiar object.
Her camera.
My stomach drops like a fucking stone.
I thumb my phone again, calling a number I swore I’d retired years ago. It rings once before a familiar gravelly voice picks up.
“Steele? Jesus Christ, thought you were done with this shit.”
“Not tonight. I need a trace.” My voice is steel, no room for hesitation. “Charlotte Freeman. Twenty, brunette, five-seven, last seen near mile marker forty-two, north woods. She’s gone.”
“Kid missing?”
“Not just a kid. My girl. And I don’t have time for questions, Mason.”
A pause, then a grunt. “Send me her cell number.”
I rattle it off. Seconds later, I hear Mason’s keys clattering through the line. “Got a ping. Half mile east of you. Through the woods, there’s a service road.”
“I’ll take it from here.”
“You want me to alert the local PD?”
“Do it. But I’m not waiting on them.” I hang up before he can argue.
I start to run. Every stride eats the ground beneath me, lungs burning, vision narrowed to a tunnel. The forest breaks into a dirt road just in time for me to see a black van with its rear doors open.
Charlie’s being dragged inside, kicking, thrashing, fighting like a goddamn hellcat.
For a split second, pride slices through the terror as I watch her.
That’s my girl. Never going down without a fight.
Then rage takes over. “Get your fucking hands off her!” I yell, already covering the distance between us.
