Pain laced Chloe’s head as she became aware of her surroundings. Her shoulder and hip were pressed against a hard surface beneath her. Every breath she drew smelled muskier than the last. She groaned as her head throbbed, forcing her back into consciousness. She touched the side of her skull and felt warm dampness spread onto her fingers. She flinched as pain shot through her.
Her mind moved quickly, trying to piece together what had happened. She opened her eyes, blinking to focus. Only when her eyes adjusted to her dark surroundings did she realize that Travis had placed her in the trunk of a car. She was wide awake now, with fright blasting through her.
Panic rose, and sweat coated her body. The car was moving. She searched for a handle on the inside of the trunk, but the car appeared to be an older make and didn’t have the safety release. As her heart threatened to get away from her, she exhaled a long breath. Think, Chloe. How can I let someone know I’m in here?
Closing her eyes a moment, she listened for sounds outside, but aside from the sound of the car’s engine and wheels, she heard nothing. No sounds from busy Vegas came from outside, telling her even if she yelled no one would hear her. How can I get help?
The answer came a second later. My phone! She reached down between her thighs and thanked God that her phone hadn’t fallen out of her panties—and that Travis hadn’t seen it.
With shaky hands, she took out her phone and turned it on. Since she’d texted Sawyer earlier that night, his phone number remained right at the top. Comforted by the fact that the phone gave off some light, she hit the call button.
The phone rang. And rang. And rang. Finally Sawyer’s soft, comforting voice came on the line. “I’m sorry I left you—”
Her words came out in a super-speed rush. “Travis came to your house and I’m now in the trunk of his car.”
The bewilderment was evident in his voice. “Come again?”
“I am in Travis’s trunk. I need help.”
She heard his sharp intake of breath.
When he spoke again she noted the change in his voice. His tone became calmer, slower—that of a man in control, a solider understanding the job in front of him. “Did Travis say where he was taking you?”
“No.” She mirrored Sawyer’s composed nature, trying to remind herself that Travis was out of his fucking mind and she was sober. She could outsmart Travis. “He knocked me out.”
A low growl filled the phone line. “All right. Did—”
The engine slowed, the loud roar turning into a quiet hum. “Wait.” She held her breath, listening hard. “I think he’s slowing down.” How had this happened to her? What had she done to deserve this? She wanted to be in Sawyer’s arms. “I…I don’t hear anything. Wait…” She shut her eyes to help her focus on the sound. “I hear gravel. Yes.” Her eyes opened. “We’re driving on gravel, not on a paved road.” The car jerked, and fear slammed into her. “Oh, no. Oh, God. He’s stopping.”
“You’re okay, Chloe.” Sawyer’s voice cracked. “You’re going to be okay. I promise.”
“Wait…” Her breath hitched as a new noise sent coldness right down into her soul. “He’s opening his door.”
“Keep the phone on. Hide it somewhere so Travis can’t see it. I’m on my way to the station now. We’ll track it and find you.”
“Hurry.” Tears filled her eyes as logic fled her mind and sheer fright overcame her. “I need you, Sawyer. I need you so much.”
He gave a pained noise. “You have me. Hide the phone. Do it now.”
She hid her phone under a rag in the corner of the trunk and then listened tensely: the slight purr of the engine; the wind rustling around the car; the crunching of shoes against gravel; a harsh thump.
The trunk opened, and two big hands reached for her. She screamed, overwhelmed with terror. She was no longer the hunter seeking Travis.
She’d become the prey.
Chloe’s scream tore across Sawyer’s senses as he drove as fast as he could toward the police station. On automatic pilot, he jumped out of his truck and raced in through the back door, shouting, “I need a trace on a cell phone. Now.”
A dark head of hair rose from a cubicle. Immediate relief flooded Sawyer as he saw Kyler approaching. “Travis has abducted Chloe,” Sawyer told him tersely. He glanced around the room, seeing his fellow cops turn their attention to him. “My girlfriend has been abducted by the man who beat up my sister,” he said, his voice raised. Some of the officers stood up, going instantly to full alert. “Who can trace a phone?”
A tall, blond cop in the back corner cubicle raised his hand. “I can.”
Sawyer rattled off Chloe’s cell phone number. “Do it now.” Then he turned to a female cop who was close by. “Call in the SWAT team. Tell them to gather and be ready in ten.” He paused, wishing he had a description of Travis’s car. Knowing he didn’t, he ordered, “Put out an APB for a missing person—Chloe Nash, twenty-five years old, five foot four, brown hair, one hundred and thirty pounds.” All around him, Sawyer saw cops springing into action.
Eyes tight with concern, Kyler placed a hand on Sawyer’s shoulder. “Please explain to me what’s happened.”
Sawyer scraped his hands over his face, gutted. “I have no idea what happened. I went to Porter’s tonight to talk to him, leaving Chloe in my bed. As I was on my way home, she called me and told me that she was in the trunk of Travis’s car.” He dropped his hands and stared at his friend, knowing his expression wasn’t that of a controlled Dom but that of a desperate man. “I need to get to her. And I need to do it now.”
“We’ll find her.” Kyler gave a firm nod before moving across the office to the desk in the corner. “Have you locked onto the signal, Craig?”
“I’m doing my best.” Craig typed on his keyboard with fast fingers. “It’s pinging off a few towers and I’m having trouble triangulating the signal. It appears her GPS signal is weak. I can’t get an exact location.” He typed again, even more urgently now. “Give me a minute…”
Sawyer began to pace in front of Craig’s desk. He folded his arms to keep from hitting something. Each second felt like the worst fucking second of his life. Not only hadn’t he been able to protect his sister from this motherfucker, but now Chloe was in danger because Sawyer had left her tonight.
I should have stayed with her.
As guilt began to wreak havoc on his soul, he spun to pace in the opposite direction, and plowed straight into the chief of police. Andrew frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Sawyer gritted his teeth. “The asshole who beat up my sister has abducted my girlfriend.”
The chief’s eyes widened, shock reflecting in their depths. But just then Sawyer’s focus shifted to the nine men who stormed into the room: his SWAT team. Dressed in full gear, his captain approached Sawyer with purposeful strides. Dyson Henry, a retired Navy SEAL who’d led the Las Vegas SWAT team for the last ten years, handed Sawyer his gear. “We’ve heard. Have you found her location?”
“Negative.” Sawyer placed the gear on the desk next to him. Not caring who was in the room, he dropped his pants and quickly dressed in his black uniform.
As he zipped up his fly, he called over to Craig, “What’s the fucking problem?”
Craig’s fingers moved swiftly across the keyboard. “They must be out in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere. Her cell is turned on, that much I know.” He picked up his phone and dialed a number. “Las Vegas PD here. I need help tracking this number….”
Sawyer guessed that Craig had called the phone company to assist in homing in on the signal. He grabbed his helmet, put it on, and finished up with the thigh holster that held his Colt .45.
Now dressed, he turned to Craig, who was still talking on the phone, his fingers tapping against his desk. Sawyer ran his hand over his head and closed his eyes. Years of training as a sniper taught him to focus and to remain calm, even in the most stressful moments.
Yet no training had ever prepared him for this.
When he had managed to slow his heartbeat, he reopened his eyes to see Craig still on the phone, talking urgently and listening intently. Sawyer sighed. “We can’t wait any longer,” he muttered. With each second that passed, Chloe needed him more.
Kyler glanced at him, one eyebrow raised. “What do you suggest?”
Suddenly an idea presented itself to Sawyer, bringing hope with it. He reached down to his jeans on the floor, taking his cell phone from his pocket.
Kyler frowned. “Calling someone?”
“Believe me, you don’t want to know.” Sawyer dialed the number he’d seen on Chloe’s phone before, pleased that he paid attention to such things.
As the phone began to ring, Sawyer moved away from the group. On the third ring, Shane answered. “If you’re a telemarketer calling at this time of night, there is something wrong with you—”
“It’s Chloe’s friend Sawyer,” he interrupted, voice stern. “Chloe has been abducted. I need you to track her cell phone to find her location.”
A pause. “I actually wish you were selling me something now.”
“Can you track it?” Sawyer bit out.
He heard a tight smile in Shane’s voice. “You, my friend, have come to the right place.” Sawyer heard typing through the phone line. “I’ll do one better. I won’t just trace it, I’ll send you a satellite image of her exact location to your cell phone…now.”
Sawyer didn’t care what system Shane had hacked to get that information so fast—he had what he needed. His phone beeped once, and his heart pounded in his ears as he lifted his head and announced to his team, “I have her location.”
Wood plank walls surrounded Chloe as she sat on a straw-covered floor, eyeing the spiderwebs in every nook and cranny. From her place in the corner of the abandoned barn, Chloe kept a close eye on Travis. He paced the barn, rambling to himself, as the wood groaned under his heavy footsteps.
Her nose itched from the dust Travis stirred up as he paced. Every so often, he’d grab his head and speak in a language Chloe knew didn’t exist. The dark circles under his eyes made it obvious to her that he hadn’t slept in days. He was high as a kite.
Shivering in worry, she tucked her legs underneath her, covering her bare flesh with Sawyer’s T-shirt. Her heart thumped against the wall of her chest as Travis turned, spitting out obscenities. I need to get out of here.
Chloe scanned the barn for a way out. She couldn’t spot any doors except the one they had entered through, and Travis was between her and it. Bales of hay were stacked in the loft of the barn. Around her she could see shovels and other farm equipment leaning against the old walls. The only light came from a single bulb hanging in the center near an old tractor. In the far corner of the barn she noticed a crude setup suggesting that this was where Travis had been making meth.
Travis turned just then and caught sight of her. She held her breath. He took two steps toward her, stopping four feet away. “Fucking asshole.” He scratched at his face. “Couldn’t leave me alone. Had to keep pushing. Wouldn’t let me leave.”
Ice ran through Chloe’s veins. Travis was cornered, and he knew it. He was crazed and out of options, and that worried Chloe more than anything else.
Should I stay quiet? Or should I try to outsmart him?
She shut her eyes, desperately trying to make sense out of a situation in which there wasn’t any.
I need you, Sawyer.
He’d come for her. That she didn’t doubt. She just wondered if he would get there in time.
Her eyes flew open when she heard Travis shout. “You!” he snarled. “You will be my way out. I’ll trade you for a safe exit.”
Despite the warmth of the air, she felt suddenly chilled. “You don’t want to do this, Travis. You’re making a big mistake. Think about what you’re doing.”
“I know what I’m doing.” The snarl he gave sounded animalistic, not human. “I’m going to Mexico, where I can’t be touched.” He clenched his fists, drawing Chloe’s gaze. Veins bulged on his forehead. “You should have stayed the fuck away from the bar the other night. You did this to yourself.”
Think, Chloe told herself again.
Twenty minutes had gone by since they’d entered the barn, and Travis was growing even twitchier. “You don’t need to do this,” she repeated, softening her voice, attempting to come across as a sympathizer, not as an enemy. “Let me go and leave for Mexico.”
“I had plans.” Travis ignored her words. “A safe place for me to cross into Mexico. That fucker…it all went to shit.” His voice became higher-pitched, more strained. “Now what do I do? Where do I go?”
She could see that Travis was becoming more and more irrational.
I can’t wait for Sawyer.
With each passing second his rage increased. Chloe flashed back to what he’d done to Ashlyn. If he’d done that to someone he’d once cared about, what would he do to a stranger?
A hard lump formed in her throat as Travis turned to her. His eyes were so dark, scaring the living shit out of her. Her choices dwindled down to one: run. She waited, counting down the seconds until he turned to pace in the opposite direction, leaving space between her and the door.
Five…
Four…
Three…
Two…
One…