Page 3 of Rescuing Macie

“A big open parking area. Trees at the edge.”

“Are there lights? Cars parked close together?”

“Lights near the buildings, not as many farther out. There’s lots of cars. Oh shit…” she said.

“What? Macie, talk to me,” Colt barked.

“I hear the men,” Macie whispered. “They’re looking for me.”

The terror in her voice made panic rise within Colt and he held the phone against his chest for a second to try to regain his composure. He turned to Truck. “Hurry. Drive as fast as you fucking can. They’re hunting her.”

The second the words left his mouth, Colt felt the Jeep lurch forward. It was a good thing it was the middle of the night and no one was on the streets. Truck was driving like a bat out of hell.

It was thirty miles to Lampasas. There was no way they could get there in time to help if the assholes got their hands on her. Truck had called the cops, but Colt knew what he told Macie in the next couple minutes could be a matter of life and death.

“Head away from the lights. If it’s dark, they can’t see where you are exactly,” he told her urgently. “Do you understand?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Have they seen you?”

“I-I don’t think so.”

She was breathing hard and still wheezing. Colt’s chest hurt for her. “Good. Head for a row of cars as far away from the lights as possible. Get under one. Not behind it, but under it. Then if you need to, you can crawl under the one next to it. Then the next. Keep moving if you have to. If it’s possible, work your way around the cars until you get to a section of vehicles they’ve already checked. As a last resort, head into the trees, but only if they don’t see you. The last thing you want is to go farther away from civilization where the men could do whatever they want to you without someone hearing or seeing. Understand?”

She didn’t answer him, but he heard her breaths coming quick and shallow through the phone.

“I’m here,” he said, forcing his voice to lower and calm. She needed him to be her rock right now. He couldn’t let her hear one ounce of panic in his tone. “I’ve got you, Macie. You’re doing great. Just listen to me. You’re amazing. I’m sure they didn’t expect you to outsmart them. Just keep doing what you’re doing. You’ve got this.” Colt kept up the litany of praise even as he gripped the phone so tightly his fingers were cramping.

He glanced at the speedometer and saw that Truck was doing ninety-five. The Wrangler shook slightly from the speed, but the only thing Colt could think was, Go faster. God, just go faster.

“They’re coming this way,” Macie said—and Colt lowered his chin to his chest, closed his eyes and prayed harder than he’d ever prayed before.

* * * *

Macie had no idea what Colt was doing with her brother at two-thirty in the morning, but she couldn’t deny that she was extremely grateful. She didn’t even flinch when Colt called her brother Truck. He’d apparently been given the nickname when he’d joined the Army. She was trying to remember to call him that, but because he’d been Ford to her as long as she could remember, it was tough.

And as much as she knew her brother would’ve helped her, hearing Colt’s steady voice kept her grounded. She remembered after Truck’s wedding, when she’d been having an anxiety attack, he’d held her against him and talked to her in his low, rumbly voice. How much it had helped. He’d calmed her and helped pull her out of the dark place her mind had gone.

The same was happening tonight. She’d been panicking and running headlong through the parking lot, with no idea what to do or where to go, when he’d forced her to pay attention to her surroundings. He gave her something to concentrate on, and it felt good to let him take over and tell her what to do.

She had no idea why he hadn’t called her after her brother’s wedding. He’d asked her out and she’d badly wanted to spend more time with him, but he hadn’t called. Hadn’t gotten in touch with her. His rejection had hurt, but she really wasn’t surprised. She was a pain in the ass and no one as amazing as Colt would want to be with her.

At the moment, however, she had more pressing issues to think about. Looking back toward the building, Macie didn’t see any sign of the men who’d broken into her apartment, but she could hear their footsteps. Macie ducked behind a car and dropped to her knees.

She winced but ignored the pain and crawled between a row of cars, making sure to stay out of sight. Then she lay down on her belly and crawled under one of the cars in the lot. She was wearing a tight tank top and her sleep shorts, because she hated to feel constricted by clothing when she slept.

“Macie?” Colt asked.

She opened her mouth to respond when she heard one of the men saying to his friend, “She has to be this way. We’ve checked all the other cars.”

It felt like she was having a heart attack. Her chest was tight and she couldn’t get enough air into her lungs. But she couldn’t gasp for oxygen because they’d hear her.

Macie mentally berated herself for calling her brother and not the police. If she’d called 9-1-1, they’d probably be here by now.

“Easy, Mace,” Colt said in her ear. She ground her teeth together and forced herself to listen to him rather than the two men who were still looking for her. “You can do this. You told me that you used to play Army with Truck when you were younger. This is the same thing. Remember when you hid in that bush one afternoon and he couldn’t find you anywhere? See if you can do that again. It’s dark where you are, right? If you’re quiet, they’ll never see you. They’ll walk right on by.”

Macie nodded, even though Colt couldn’t see her. She’d told him about hiding from her big brother when she was at Colt’s house, the night of Ford’s wedding. She’d crawled under a bush next to a neighbor’s house and her brother hadn’t been able to find her. Eventually she’d fallen asleep, and Ford had been beside himself with worry, thinking that she’d been snatched off the street. He’d walked by her hiding place dozens of times without knowing she was there.