Then she threw open the door and bolted into the trees, heading back up toward the lodge.
“After her!” Granger roared, and Sarah heard doors being thrown open, heavy footfalls behind her. Her heart slammed against her ribs and her breath tore from her lungs, the humid summer air already starting to make her sweat.
She didn’t exactly know where she was going, she just knew she was pointed in the general direction of the lodge and shehad to get as far from these men as she could. She ran with everything she had, even though her legs were like rubber beneath her. She forced herself to keep moving.
She heard men’s voices calling after her, and the squeal of tires on the pavement. She prayed her friends would get away. Get to town and get help and rescue her before anything horrible happened. She was sure a man like Victor Granger wouldn’t think twice about using the other women as leverage, too, and the thought of something happening to them… It made her sick to think about it.
Twigs snapped beneath her feet as she ran, as she darted away from the trees and back toward the road, knowing she would only get lost in these dark woods. She felt the same fear she had on that fateful day back in her office with Jed, when everything had fallen apart as she watched his vicious destruction. All the safety she’d felt up to that point was suddenly ripped away. She was now faced with the brutal reality of how much danger she was in.
She just needed to make it to the lodge, to Lawson.
She curled her hands into fists, arms pumping through the air, pushing her legs as fast as they would go as she heard cars on the road behind her. She glanced around to see Bailey’s car closing the distance between them. Damn it, she’d hoped Bailey would take her advice and get help, but at the same time, there was a part of her that was beyond relieved that her friends hadn’t left her after all.
“Sarah! Get in!” Bailey yelled to her as she drove alongside Sarah. Sarah reached out for the car door, but missed. Sarah cried out in frustration. She was too slow and they were too fast; they couldn’t make another pass or slow down for fear of being caught. There was another car closing the distance behind them.
And then, she felt a pressure at her back. Someone grabbed her shirt and pulled her back toward them. She screamed outin surprise and tried to break free, but the grip was too strong. There was no way she could escape.
Sarah was yanked to a halt and fell back to the ground. All of the adrenaline she had coursing through her veins suddenly fled, and her body felt like a sinking weight in quicksand. This was the end for her. She was well and truly caught, and she had no clue what would happen next. Tears suddenly blurred her vision and she let out a terror-filled scream that cut through the night air.
Dark, shiny shoes suddenly stopped in front of her, and she shrank back, bumping into the legs of the man behind her.
“Stand her up.” A low, menacing voice practically growled the words. Two sets of rough hands grabbed her and pulled her to her feet.
She stood there, surrounded by several men, her panicked gaze darting around until it landed on their leader.
Victor Granger.
She waited for what he would say. Would he order her killed? Or keep her to use against Lawson?
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Bailey’s car race by with Hannah’s and River’s faces plastered against the windows, eyes wide in fear for her. At least her friends got away. Sarah had no clue what would happen next, but she knew she had to be strong. For the same reasons she had to run—for Lawson, for her friends—she had to survive.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Flash-bangs and men’s startled yells sounded around the lodge from Granger’s men trying to breach the perimeter of the property. From the sounds and multiple bright lights, Lawson knew they were surrounded and the first wave of men were closing in. He glanced at Xavier to see him peer out the window, seeking his first target. Lawson repositioned himself, lifted his weapon and looked out to find his own.
Just as Lawson locked on the first man breaching the trees, a terrified scream rent the air, causing the hairs on his neck to stand on end. Every muscle in Lawson’s body tensed.
He looked over at Xavier, checking to see if he’d heard it, too. Xavier’s eyes were wide. And he looked just as worried as Lawson about what that sound meant.
Whose voice that had been. But Lawson knew.
He was on his feet before he could argue with himself. He knew better than to do what he was about to do. He should stick to the plan, no matter what. But there was no way he could ignore that agonizing, terror-filled scream.
He knew beyond a doubt that that scream was Sarah. He couldn’t leave her to face whatever Granger had planned for her alone.
Xavier grabbed his arm and pulled him back down, and Lawson tried to shake himself free. He couldn’t think about the plans they’d put in place or how much danger he’d be putting himself in by going out there. He had to make sure Sarah was safe. It was the only thing he cared about.
“You can’t go out there,” Xavier warned him. “The plan’s in motion. None of it is going to work if you blow this for us now, you know that.”
Lawson gritted his teeth. He knew Xavier was right, but he had to make sure Sarah was okay. He knew he shouldn’t have let her leave without him. He should have escorted her to town, then come back to face off with Granger. Now, with more worry for her on his mind, he didn’t know if he’d be able to clear his head enough to focus on what he had to do.
“It could have been anything,” Xavier told him, his face grim, and Lawson knew what he was not saying. He was reminding Lawson that it was as likely to be Hannah as it was Sarah, that all of the men had loved ones out there tonight. But Victor was relying on them losing their cool, and they had too much riding on this to let that happen.
Lawson crouched down beside the window again, that scream ringing in his ears. Granger must have ambushed them leaving and grabbed Sarah. So what did that mean for his sister and the other two women? He knew Granger would have singled out Sarah because of him. He even implied as much when he’d called Lawson to boast about Lainey.
But before he could linger on that thought any longer, a sharp explosion of light filled the sky. Another flash-bag, at the front of the lodge.
Aaron spoke through his comm a moment later.
