“Where are you?”
There’s a rustling, followed by a bang. Even thumps that must be his footsteps. He’s on the move.
My teeth clack loudly together. I release a shaky breath, and a beat passes over the line.
“I’m at the grocery store.”
“Tell me exactly where you are,” he demands again.
My breath catches. I squeeze my eyes shut as a wave of emotion rises in my throat. I fight to keep my voice even. “I’m in my car in the third row from the entrance.”
“Stay there. Do not move. I’m coming.” He issues the tightly controlled order.
“I don’t know what to do, Sutton. I don’t know where he went.” I chew the corner of my thumbnail. The woman finishes loading my groceries and slams the trunk, startling me.
“Are you alone?”
I shake my head even though he can’t see it. “No. There’s a woman here who scared him off.”
“Stay calm, Alice. I’m almost there.”
Within six minutes, a police cruiser screeches into the parking lot, its siren briefly piercing the quiet before cutting off.The car swerves to a stop at an angle, blocking the parking lane. Sutton stalks from the driver’s seat the moment the car is in park, his posture tense and determined. Silas emerges from the other side, scanning the area for any threats.
Sutton doesn’t waste a second. He strides directly toward me, his boots crunching over the gravel. He kneels in front of me without hesitation despite the rough pebbles pressing into his knees.
“What happened?” His steady hands grip my chin, tilting my face up in order to examine me closely. His mirrored sunglasses reflect my face. “You’re pale.”
The warmth of his skin against mine eases some of the tension holding my muscles hostage. Acting on instinct, I curl my fingers around his wrist, anchoring him there, finding reassurance in his presence.
I take a shaky breath, steadying myself. “Jake found me.”
The weight of those three words hits and seems to suck the air from the parking lot.
Sutton’s expression hardens. “Here?”
I nod. “He asked me to come to his hotel.” I relay the rest of what Jake said, including the unsettling detail that he had recorded our entire interaction.
He glances at Silas. “See if there’s a way to get a copy of that,” he instructs, his voice steady but tense. A silent conversation passes between the brothers, perfected over decades of their close relationship. “I’m going to drive Alice home.”
26
Sutton
The motel signbuzzes angrily outside the window of my parked truck. I sit with the window down, ball cap pulled low over my brow, watching the lights in the distant windows flicker on and off. My fingers tighten around the key card I shouldn’t have, but procured anyway.
I’m waiting.
I’m not entirely sure what for, but my gut will tell me when it’s time.
This isn’t how things are supposed to go. Not with my badge still sitting on the passenger seat. Despite knowing what it took me to get here and all the sacrifices I’ve made, I know what this might cost.
My job. My family. My reputation.
I think of Silas, and how I kept him in the dark by brushing off his questions at the end of the night. I tried to follow protocol, to do things by the book. Let the proper channels handle this, but how did that turn out?
The fear in Alice’s face resurfaces in my head.
My jaw clenches.
