At the sound of a scuffle up the street, Chase looked up, and his whole body jerked in shock. Jesus Christ, some other guy was hauling Becca into the cab of a truck up the street.
He shot to his feet, terror ripping through him like a blast wave. “Becca!”
She was trying to fight him off, but the asshole was shoving her into the front seat as Chase leaped over the dead copy’s body and raced at the pickup, his feet pounding over the grass. He could hear Ryder running behind him and pushed himself harder. Faster.
Before he’d made it halfway across the front lawn, the pickup’s engine started. A second later it peeled away from the curb. He skidded to a stop, cursing, and looked back at Ryder. Another figure was halfway up the block already, racing away in the opposite direction, hands bound behind him.
Rick.
Chase didn’t give a fuck about him right now. All he cared about was saving Becca. “I need a weapon and ammo!” Chase shouted at Ryder, frantic to stop that truck and get her out.
“In my rental!”
Chase ran for the SUV, hopped in the passenger side a second before Ryder jumped in with the keys and cranked the engine. The pickup was already partway up the street, and Rick had disappeared between the houses somewhere up ahead.
“Go, go,” he snapped, rummaging in the duffel on the floor and coming up with a Glock and a full magazine.
Ryder punched it, speeding after the truck as Chase chambered a round, ready to kill that driver to save the woman he loved.
****
Elation had Landon breathing fast as he shot away from the curb. The boyfriend was racing after him, but it didn’t matter. It was too late to stop this now.
He’d done it. Actually done it. He had Becca Sandoza, safe and sound, and all to himself.
He’d gotten lucky. He hadn’t had much time to prepare and get organized. But after meeting her the other night, he’d had to act fast.
Seeing her in the flesh the other night on the beach had been an unexpected gift, and a sign that she was meant to be his. How else could he explain why he would just randomly run into her on a beach with his friends?
Tracking her after that had been tricky. It had taken him almost a full day to get everything set up, then he’d almost lost her on the way from that cottage in Cape Hatteras down to Myrtle Beach.
Thankfully, they’d stopped partway, and he’d managed to plant a tracking device under their bumper when they’d finally gone inside some big house down there. He hadn’t slept in so long that after that, he’d needed to crash.
Sleeping in his truck hadn’t been bad, but knowing Becca was inside that house with her boyfriend, probably fucking him, was torture. Twice he’d talked himself out of breaking in and taking her then and there, and finally managed a fitful sleep for a while. He’d been so tired, he would have missed them leaving the next morning if not for the tracker app.
Following her back to Kill Devil Hills had been easy by comparison. He’d been able to keep a good distance between him and their vehicle, following the beacon on his GPS to this average house in a quiet neighborhood in Colington, then parked up the street so they wouldn’t know he was there.
After that it had just been a question of picking the right moment. So he’d waited. Watching.
The cop had been easy enough to sneak up on from behind. One quick, deep slice with his hunting knife. Messy, but quiet. He’d finished deer off that way before while hunting. Killing a person hadn’t been that different.
He’d do whatever it took to make Becca his.
But when he’d begun his move on her, all of a sudden, some guy dressed all in black had snuck around the back of the house, distracting him.
Landon had followed him, worried about Becca, and minutes later her boyfriend had chased the guy around the side of the house and started beating the shit out of him. Whoever the boyfriend was, he could handle himself. Landon was glad he didn’t have to get past him.
And that fight had given Landon exactly the break he’d needed to get Becca.
He stole a quick glance at her now, his heart turning over. Her eyes were wide and panicked, but already glazed. She was probably scared to death.
He wished it didn’t have to be this way, but she would never have come with him willingly. She didn’t understand yet. But she would soon.
She was drooping over the seat, her breathing shallow.
He frowned, worry grinding in his gut. He hoped he hadn’t given her too much of the fentanyl. Had tried to get the dosage just right to knock her out and make it easier to take her to the special place he’d prepared for them, but he’d had to guess what she weighed.
The squeal of tires behind them made his gaze jerk to the rearview mirror. He slammed his fist against the steering wheel. The boyfriend, trying to ride to her rescue. But he’d expected this.
Resigned, he took his foot off the gas and reached down for the pistol in the foot well. It already had a round loaded into the chamber. He hit the brakes, stopping short, and rolled down his window, picking his moment.
Closer, he urged the boyfriend as the seconds ticked past. That’s it, come closer.
The SUV was coming up fast behind him. He allowed it to close in enough to get within pistol range, then leaned out of the window and fired two quick shots. The bullets slammed into the windshield.
The SUV swerved, the windshield ruined. Landon faced forward and drove off, not needing to drive like a bat out of hell any longer, since the other driver wouldn’t be able to see shit now.
“No,” Becca cried, the word slurred, her breathing weird and choppy as she struggled to sit up.
Landon bit down hard on his back teeth and didn’t answer, telling himself not to be angry at her reaction. She would be upset about losing her boyfriend initially.
He understood that. But she’d get over that guy soon enough. Once she spent some time with him in the special place he was taking her to, she would see how good he was to her. That he would treat her like gold, better than any other man ever had or would.
Eventually, she would see they were meant to be together. Then she would finally love him back. He’d been waiting almost three years for the chance to make her love him back. He’d sent her letters and never once heard back. It hurt, to pour out his heart and soul to her and get nothing back.
He’d only driven about twenty more yards when a figure suddenly darted out onto the road ahead of them. The headlights illuminated the man dressed in black he’d seen fighting with the boyfriend.
Becca made a ragged sound. Landon glanced at her, saw the fear on her face, the way she recoiled at the sight of the man. The terror on her face hit him so hard he took his foot off the gas. “I’m not with him,” he said quickly, guessing that’s what she thought.
Becca’s fear was palpable. Protectiveness blasted through him. “Did that guy hurt you? Did he?” he demanded, a killing rage filling him.
She leaned against her door, trying to curl into a ball, and it damn near ripped his heart in half.
He swung his gaze back to the man dressed all in black, now aiming for a car parked on the other side of the street up ahead.
A red haze blurred his thoughts. That bastard had tried to attack Becca. Would have hurt her.
“Close your eyes,” he told her, trying to keep his voice calm and reassuring while the rage pulsed through him.
He pressed down on the accelerator. The truck shot forward with a throaty growl. The running man glanced back, seemed to freeze for a second there in the beams of the headlights.
Landon cranked the wheel, speeding right for him.
The man’s eyes widened and he darted right, toward the closest lawn.
Landon drove straight over the grass and reached out to put a hand over Becca’s eyes, just in case.
A loud thud filled the interior a moment later, the truck vibrating from the impact. Becca made a frightened, strangled sound even though she didn’t see the man bounce off the windshield and fly over the left side of the truck.
Landon steered back to the street, glancing in the side mirror at the body lying crumpled on the grass. That’s better.
He removed his hand from Becca’s eyes, stroked the back of her head, aching to take her fear away. “It’s okay now. He won’t hurt you ever again. No one will, I promise.”
He just needed to get them to the boat he had waiting, and get them across the water to the mainland before anyone caught up to them. Then everything would be okay.
****
Fuck, neither of them could see shit.
Chase gritted his teeth, planted the soles of his boots against the shattered windshield and heaved with all his might while Ryder stuck his head out the driver’s side window and tried to follow the truck.
The muscles in his thighs, ass and back strained, burning. Sweat popped out over his skin, his heart on the verge of exploding.
Come on, come on, he screamed silently.
Shit, this was his fault. He should have let Ryder subdue Rick, and gone to search the house and surrounding area immediately to make sure the threat was neutralized. Instead, Rick’s accomplice had managed to take Becca.
“God dammit, help me,” he snarled, the frame starting to give but the seconds sliding past too fast. There wasn’t time to go back and switch vehicles. They had to get this ruined windshield out of the way right fucking now so Ryder could see well enough to follow that truck.
Ryder brought the SUV to an abrupt stop and proceeded to help him kick the glass out. Finally, it gave way. Chase reached through the opening and shoved the whole works over the side of the hood as Ryder shot them forward once again. The truck was almost at the end of the street now, heading up the hill.
Chase grabbed the pistol again, fear tearing through him. “Don’t you lose her, Ry,” he warned, his voice like gravel, terror congealing his insides.
She was his beating heart trapped in the front of that truck. If he lost her…
He shoved the thought aside, gripped the weapon and never took his eyes off the fleeing truck. Did this asshole seriously think he was going to get away? Cops would be swarming the area within the next few minutes, and the Feds shortly after that. Where the hell was he taking her?
“I won’t,” his buddy vowed, tires squealing as they rounded a curve in the road.
The wind whipped into their faces as they sped along, making his eyes water. He blinked fast, squinted when a black-clad figure appeared in the middle of the road, hobbling.
“Shit, it’s Rick,” he muttered. They’d restrained his hands behind his back, but had been forced to let him go in order to rescue Becca.
The truck suddenly veered toward Rick.
“What the hell?” Chase breathed, then sucked in a sharp breath. “Holy—” He flinched at the resounding thud when the truck slammed into human flesh and bone.
“Jesus Christ,” Ryder muttered as Rick landed on the grass facedown, unmoving.
Okay, maybe Rick and the driver hadn’t been working together.
Stunned, Chase got back on his cell to the 911 operator to give an update on the situation as they whipped past Rick lying crumpled on someone’s front lawn. If he wasn’t dead already, he likely would be soon.
No loss, but it made Chase even more afraid for Becca. The guy who had taken her was totally unhinged. God knew what he would do next.
“Sir, can you repeat that?” the female operator said.
“The suspect just mowed down the guy my friend and I apprehended a few minutes ago, and he’s armed. He already shot out our windshield. We’re in pursuit now. Dark gray Dodge pickup, newer model.” He gave the plate number, his mind and heart both racing.
Stopping to remove the windshield had cost them precious time, and the truck’s engine was powerful. Ryder was doing everything he could to catch up, but they weren’t closing the gap, and the only bottleneck between here and the highway was the bridge coming up.
If the SUV didn’t catch up to the truck by then, there was a good chance he and Ryder might lose them, and Chase wasn’t willing to let that happen.