Page 108 of Untamed Sinner

“They'll jam it eventually,” Harper says. “Or destroy it. I need you moving now, not later.”

I'm already walking. Fast. The pin is in my pocket, and it feels heavier than six inches of steel has any right to feel.

“Direction,” I say.

“East, then south. Vehicle speed. She's on a road, not on foot.”

“Ashford's with her?”

A beat. “His signal—the one we were tracking on his phone—went dark eight minutes ago. Right when the diversion started.”

That lands hard.

Ashford didn’t run because of us. He was already moving. “He’d already planned to take her somewhere.”

Jake’s expression hardens. “And our diversion gave him cover.”

Fuck. We didn’t flush Ashford out. We opened the goddamn door for him.

Luke catches up to us, blood across his knuckles and none of it his. “Tell me I’m misunderstanding the part where we just helped the asshole kidnap her.”

Harper’s voice cuts through the comms. “The signal’s coming from a vehicle that just crossed onto the county road. If you move now, you can close the gap before they hit the highway.”

“We move now,” I say, already in motion.

Mason's already sliding down from the ridge, rifle collapsed and slung, footsteps sure on the gravel. “I'm bringing the truck around.”

Luke falls in stride beside me, some of the humor gone from his voice, replaced by something harder. “We're getting her back, Hendricks.”

I nod. “I know.”

“I mean it.”

“I know.” There's no version of tonight that ends with me standing in this house, holding a piece of her hair pin, and calling it done.

Jake meets my eyes as we hit the door. “Let's go.”

The truck's engine roars to life behind us.

I climb into the passenger seat, the pin still in my fist, and stare down the road ahead like I can see her at the end of it.

Forty minutes of battery.

I intend to use every second of it.

76

MANDY

They search me twice. The guy’s lucky Hendricks wasn’t here. Apparently, he’s the only person allowed to manhandle me now.

They find the pin, but they don’t find the comm. That’s because it’s currently tucked inside the jacket of the asshole sitting across from me.

I watch him carefully. Stay put, buddy, because right now Hendricks thinks you’re me. And if you decide to wander off in the wrong direction, Adrian Hendricks is going to follow you.

Thinking of what Hendricks would do to this asshole, I smile.

Maybe getting caught has its perks. I do love watching that man work.