Page 107 of Hart of Hope
I caught a glimpse of Harris walking into the barn as I darted off the path, careful not to make a sound. Harris and Lopez would meet their destiny soon enough, since the cops were converging on the property. I had to trust the girls would be rescued as well.
I navigated around the barn and spotted the horse pen. Stopping, I looked through my binoculars, scanning the area far and wide.Bingo.A light filtered through the cluster of trees about twenty yards away, directly in line with the barn
After five minutes of deep breathing, with my legs burning and adrenaline pumping, I was close to the shack, hoping beyond hope that Grace was alive.
More sirens blasted in the distance, and the wind was dying down.
As I approached, gun in hand and pulse racing, I was determined to end this madness once and for all.
Ted wanted Josh Kinley alive. Fuck that. The only way Grace could live freely was if I put a bullet in his head.
A psychotic laugh hit my ears as I found a knothole in a board big enough to see through yet small enough not to give myselfaway. If someone was really looking, though, they probably could spot my eyes, at least.
I peered through the knothole, and my world narrowed to Grace. The bare bulb overhead cast harsh shadows across her face, highlighting every cut, scrape, and bruise that peeked through the mud covering her body from head to toe.
But what had me falling in love with her all over again was that fierce intelligence in her eyes—the one that said,I will not go down without a fight. I am woman. Hear me roar.
A chill of victory blanketed me for a mere second until my gaze landed on the zip ties cutting into her wrists and the duct tape binding her ankles. A wave of desperation to kill Josh hit me like a fast-moving train. But something in the way Grace held herself—the slight tension in her shoulders, the calculated stillness—told me she wasn’t broken. She wasn’t waiting to be rescued.
In that moment, she reminded me so much of her brother Duke. He was the master of quiet control, biding his time, not showing his enemy that he had a plan.
Regardless, she might be calm, but the crazy fuck pacing in front of her made my muscles coil tighter. Josh swung a serrated blade around like it was a baton and he was a drum major in a college marching band.
My trigger finger ached. One clean shot was all it would take.
Grace glanced at the weapons on the table before her gaze flickered in my direction. She angled her head before a hint of a smile emerged on her face.
I couldn’t tell if she saw me or not.
Her chest rose. “Just fight me.” Her voice carried that edge I recognized from her sparring sessions with Duke.
She was goading him, but why?
“Your father would’ve,” she taunted.
Josh’s laugh came out twisted and unhinged. “He would’ve beaten you while he fucked you.”
“Then why not do that?” She sounded as though she would welcome that kind of torture.
I would become a madman if I had to witness that.
Josh paced toward the opposite side of the shack from me, not paying attention to Grace, which gave her a moment to look in my direction and shake her head, as if she knew I was about to burst in and shoot this motherfucker.
“Oh, I will,” he replied, pivoting on his heel, coming in my direction.
It was then I saw his eye, which was bloody and almost closed. The man was as badly battered and bruised as Grace. His neck appeared wounded. Blood was caked around his nose. I had no doubt they’d wrestled in the mud.
Way to go, baby girl.
He stepped up to the table. “But first I’m going to enjoy pulling out your fingernails.” He picked up a pair of pliers.
“Did you come up with that idea from a movie?” she asked mockingly.
He placed her hand on the arm of the chair.
Fuck this.It was time to end this freak show.
I love you, baby girl. But my heart can’t take much more of this, no matter what you have planned.
