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Vincent was on me before I reached the door. He shoved me against it when I tried to push past him. “Relax,” he said, his voice still irritatingly calm.
“Don’t tell me to relax,” I bit out. “He saved my fucking life, Vincent! In more ways than one! I’m not going to just sit here…” My voice cracked as I struggled to keep the tears in check. “I’m not going to just sit here and do nothing. I’m not…I’m not going to lose him now. Not after it took so long to find him.”
Vincent took the phone from me and then pointed to the bed. “Sit,” he said, his voice hard and cold.
“No!” I yelled.
“Sit the fuck down, Ethan!” the man demanded, finally letting some of his temper loose. “I can’t track the girl’s phone if I have to worry about you taking off.”
I fell silent at that. Was he really going to help me?
“Lucy’s phone?” I asked. “He took it with him?”
He nodded and pointed to the bed. I went and sat down and watched him return to his computer.
“What if I call him on it?” I asked. “Maybe he’ll listen to me and stop all this.”
“I saw the man’s expression when he left here. He was on a mission.”
I felt helpless as I watched Vincent work. Helpless and pissed. I knew why Cain had done it, but it still hurt to know he’d made that decision without talking to me. And just as soon as I knew he was safe, I’d let him know that that shit wouldn’t fly in the future.
We had a future.
I had to believe that.
“Here,” Vincent said as he turned the laptop towards me. I got up and went to look at it. I didn’t recognize the name of the town, but based on the fact that there weren’t many neighboring towns, it looked like it was in the middle of nowhere.
“Virginia?” I asked. “Eric lives in Maryland and works in D.C.”
“I’m thinking your man wanted to get him on more neutral turf.” Vincent clicked some keys on the screen. The view changed to an aerial of the location. “Looks like an old farmhouse,” he murmured. “Abandoned probably.”
“We have to go,” I said.
Vincent was silent for a moment, his jaw ticking. He finally got up and handed me the laptop. I watched him shrug on a long jacket and then he was grabbing a huge gun from the chair next to his.
“You do everything I tell you when we get there, you got it?” he said.
I nodded. I would have said or done anything at that point to get him moving.
I followed him out of the hotel to a vintage-looking muscle car. As soon as I was settled in the passenger seat, I grabbed Cain’s phone from the cup holder where Vincent had put it and used the maps feature to figure out how far away we were.
“An hour to get there,” I whispered. In an hour, everything could be over.
Vincent turned the engine on. The whole car vibrated from the powerful idle. “Half an hour,” was all Vincent said just before he put the car in gear and hit the gas.
* * *
It was pitch black when we reached the road that led up to the farmhouse a mere 28 minutes later. The phone’s position hadn’t changed which had me both worried and hopeful at the same time. If Eric had gotten ahold of the phone, he would have either destroyed it or at least taken it with him when he’d left the house. But the same could be said of Cain. He clearly was still at the house. Maybe Eric hadn’t even arrived.
Vincent pulled the car off the driveway and into a small grove of trees. “What are you doing?” I asked. I was shaking badly.
What if we were too late?
“We can’t risk anyone hearing the car,” Vincent murmured. I got out of the car and watched as he pulled several guns from the trunk of his car along with a knife. “Can you keep up?” the man asked as he quietly closed the trunk.
I nodded. The worst of my injuries had healed and while I knew it would be a challenge to keep up with the much fitter man, I’d kill myself trying. I suspected my spiking adrenaline would help.
“Here, take this,” he said as he handed me a gun.
I began to shake my head, but then thought better of it.
Vincent used a small flashlight to show me the safety on the gun and explained that I needed to leave it on until we were closer. I swallowed hard and nodded. I was programmed to heal, but I’d kill in a heartbeat to keep myself and Cain safe.
I hurried after Vincent as he began jogging up the driveway. The pace wasn’t as fast as I’d thought it would be, but I realized that was because the man was scanning our surroundings as we went so I didn’t argue. But all that changed when I heard gunshots ring out.
