“I’m going to check the tracker app. I’m about fifteen minutes out from where you are.” Because he’d sped the entire way home. He frowned as he saw that she was now several miles away. How had she gotten there so quickly? She was off the road now, practically in the middle of the woods. The only thing out there were a couple of old hunting cabins.
“Jace, I’m sending you coordinates. Something’s wrong. Send for backup. I’ll be there soon.”
Hold on, baby. I’m coming.
43
No way she letting him drag her into the cabin.
She wasn’t that helpless sixteen-year-old girl anymore. And this kid wasn’t a grown man. He didn’t have the bulk his father had. Or the training that she did. Still squeezing her wrist, he tugged her towards the cabin. Idiot expected her to just go along with him?
Not. Happening.
“Trenton, please, you don’t have to do this.”
“Oh, yes, I do. You can’t go around spreading lies and not expect to pay for it.”
“They weren’t lies!”
As he started to turn back, she brought her arm up. Then she slammed her hand down on his wrist, breaking his hold on her. Quickly, she smashed her knee into his balls. He made a choked, wounded sort of noise, half crouching. She grabbed his head then drove her knee into his nose with a crunching noise.
Turning, she took off. She could have stuck around and tried to do more damage, but short of smashing a rock over his head, she didn’t have many options. The keys to the truck were in his pocket and she wasn’t digging around in there. For all she knew, he was faking how injured he was and would grab her if she got close. So she ran.
But she realized that sticking to the road wasn’t smart. This old driveway obviously only led to this cabin and the road beyond hadn’t been busy.
She looked around her. Nothing but trees. She was a city girl and this was intimidating as hell.
Shoot! She could easily get lost out here. She had no idea what direction she was even headed. She raced around a huge tree and caught her breath for a moment. She was exhausted from her long run then fighting off Trenton. Her legs didn’t have much more in them and she was starting to feel light-headed.
She looked around for a weapon. Then an idea occurred to her. If she couldn’t run, maybe she could hide.
“Rose? Where are you, Rose? You can’t go far from me.”
Shoot. He’d recovered quicker than she’d hoped. Searching for a tree that she thought she might manage to climb, she reached for the lower branch.
Darn it, she really needed to into the gym for some upper body strength training. She strained to lift herself, managing to get her leg up. Then she climbed to the next branch. Slowly, her limbs burning with effort, her breaths coming in shallow pants, she made it further up the tree where the leaves would hopefully hide her.
She placed her hand on her chest, feeling how fast her heart was racing. That’s when she found her necklace.
Shoot! How had she forgotten? The necklace. Ed could track her. Only . . . would he be able to do it while she was hidden in a forest?
God, she hoped so.
Ed pulled up behind Jace’s truck and jumped out. His deputy turned away from where he’d been talking into his radio.
“Any signs of her?”
Jace shook his head. “I’ve searched inside the cabin and around. Whoever drove this truck here is gone and so is she. Just had the plates run. It belongs to a Trenton Strange. Comes from Idaho. Eighteen years old. Six feet tall. Hundred and eighty pounds. You know him?”
He shook his head. Trenton Strange? No idea. No wait . . .
He grabbed his phone and placed a call to Georgie’s brother, Marcus.
“What?” Marcus snapped down the phone.
“What was the name of the asshole that stalked Georgie?” Ed asked immediately.
“What? Why? He’s dead.”