Page 7 of Rescuing Macie

Macie used her free hand to pinch the skin at the top of thigh. Sometimes the slight pain helped keep her in the moment and not completely freak out. “Yeah. They said they were there to pick something up.”

“What were they looking for?” the detective broke in.

Macie knew this question was coming. She’d been trying to think of what in the world someone could want of hers, but had come up blank. Knowing it was important the officer believed her, she raised her head and looked him in the eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t know who the men were who broke in. I don’t know what they were looking for. I don’t know how they knew about my safe room. I don’t know why they’d be interested in someone like me. I’m nobody. I don’t meet a lot of people. I work from home. Most days, the only people I talk to are online. I don’t understand any of this.”

She felt Colt squeeze her hand. Then she felt him nudge her other hand off her thigh and rub the spot she’d pinched. It was almost uncanny how much he saw her. It made her uncomfortable, but at the same time it felt good.

“How’d you get out?” Colt asked.

She turned her gaze on him. She liked looking at his warm, compassionate eyes more than looking at the hardened face of the detective. She could tell the cop didn’t believe her. That he thought she was hiding something. If she knew what the men were after, she’d give it to them, no questions asked. The last thing she wanted was someone hunting her.

“I jumped out my window,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Jesus Christ,” Truck swore.

Macie flinched at the harsh words from her brother.

“More, Macie. Give us more,” Colt said firmly.

She took a deep breath and kept her eyes on Colt. “You know I need to have an escape route. I did it at your house, too.”

He nodded. “The first thing you did was look out the windows, test to be sure you could open the one in my bedroom, and scope out how you could get out of the house.”

“Right. Because if there was a fire or an earthquake, I needed to know where to go. What to do.”

“Makes sense. Go on,” Colt urged.

“There’s a big tree right outside my window. I picked this apartment because of it. It’s close enough to my bedroom, and has branches big enough that if I needed to, I could jump out of my window and get down.”

“Is that how you got these?” Colt asked, running his fingers lightly over the scrapes on her legs and arms.

Macie shrugged. “Some. The ones on my knees I got from crawling in the parking lot.”

“Mace,” Truck said, then he was kneeling in front of her. “God, I’m so sorry. But…you also have to know, I’m so fucking proud of you.”

She blinked. Proud of her? He was proud of her?

“I was a coward,” she told him. “I was so scared. I didn’t even call the cops. Those guys would’ve gotten me if it wasn’t for you and Colt.”

Truck brought a hand up to her head and brushed her hair back from her face. “You are not a coward,” he scolded. “You did what had to be done. You got out of the situation. Believe me, that’s the most important thing you could’ve done.”

“Okay. So you jumped out your window and climbed down a tree. Then you hid, right? And the men came after you?” the detective asked, obviously wanting to move the interview along.

Truck gave her one last caress, then stood back up and leaned against the wall once more.

Macie cleared her throat. “Yeah. Colt told me to hide, so I got under a car in the far part of the parking lot. But the men figured out that’s where I’d most likely be and started looking for me there. I crawled out from under the car I was hiding under and went into a bush. I hunkered down there until the men were scared away by the sirens.”

“Did they say anything else?” the detective asked. “Can you give us anything that will help us find these guys?”

She hated the sound of impatience in his voice and wished she could tell him exactly who the men were, and why they’d been in her apartment. “They said they’d be back to get what they were looking for.”

“There’s no way in hell you’re staying here tonight—or in the near future,” Truck said firmly. “You can come and stay with me and Mary.”

Macie was shaking her head before he’d finished his sentence. “I can’t stay with you guys. You just got married!”

“Well, you’re not staying here,” Truck repeated. “Mace, they said they’d be back. It’s not safe here.”

She knew that. She was the one who’d had to jump out her window. She was the one who’d had to listen to the one guy talk about wanting to hurt her. She was the one who’d had to crawl around the parking lot to try to stay hidden.