Page 134 of Out on a Limb

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I thought that was the worst that could happen.

Turned out I was real fucking wrong.

“We will find her. I promise.” Her breathing was loud and choppy. “But we can’t do what we have to do if the cops show up, understand?”

I stared down the road, my foot easing off the gas as I started to think about all she was saying.

And what she wasn’t.

“How long will it be before you get here?”

“Someone can be there in ten minutes, but I need to make a call.”

“Make the call.” I hung up the phone but didn’t put it down.

Almost every part of me wanted to call the cops.

Almost.

But I wasn’t the only one who cared about Collette.

And I’d seen the kind of pull Julia’s connections had firsthand.

I slowly set my phone on the console and pulled the Jeep to the side of the road, stopping but not putting it into park.

If I saw that van again, it wouldn’t matter what Julia said.

I was going to stop it.

Take back what belonged to me.

Then go with plan A.

And burn some shit down.

* * *

COLLETTE

“IT’S NOT IN here.”

I didn’t recognize that voice.

“She was just at the bank.” The man behind me pulled the rope around my wrists so tight it cut into my skin. “It’s got to be in there.”

I wiggled my hands, trying to work some blood down to the tips of my fingers.

“If you keep moving I’ll pull them tighter, Princess.” He was so close I could feel the heat of his breath through the black fabric covering my head.

Close enough I could head-butt him if I wanted to.

But considering I was strapped to a chair and essentially blindfolded, that didn’t seem like the best way to expend my energy.

So I did what I’d been doing for the past half hour.

I kept my fucking mouth shut.

“Dump it out.” The man behind me moved, the sound of his voice going to what seemed to be a few feet in front of where I sat. “We need to find it.”

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