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She shut her eyes, desperately trying to make sense out of a situation in which there wasn’t any.
I need you, Sawyer.
He’d come for her. That she didn’t doubt. She just wondered if he would get there in time.
Her eyes flew open when she heard Travis shout. “You!” he snarled. “You will be my way out. I’ll trade you for a safe exit.”
Despite the warmth of the air, she felt suddenly chilled. “You don’t want to do this, Travis. You’re making a big mistake. Think about what you’re doing.”
“I know what I’m doing.” The snarl he gave sounded animalistic, not human. “I’m going to Mexico, where I can’t be touched.” He clenched his fists, drawing Chloe’s gaze. Veins bulged on his forehead. “You should have stayed the fuck away from the bar the other night. You did this to yourself.”
Think, Chloe told herself again.
Twenty minutes had gone by since they’d entered the barn, and Travis was growing even twitchier. “You don’t need to do this,” she repeated, softening her voice, attempting to come across as a sympathizer, not as an enemy. “Let me go and leave for Mexico.”
“I had plans.” Travis ignored her words. “A safe place for me to cross into Mexico. That fucker…it all went to shit.” His voice became higher-pitched, more strained. “Now what do I do? Where do I go?”
She could see that Travis was becoming more and more irrational.
I can’t wait for Sawyer.
With each passing second his rage increased. Chloe flashed back to what he’d done to Ashlyn. If he’d done that to someone he’d once cared about, what would he do to a stranger?
A hard lump formed in her throat as Travis turned to her. His eyes were so dark, scaring the living shit out of her. Her choices dwindled down to one: run. She waited, counting down the seconds until he turned to pace in the opposite direction, leaving space between her and the door.
Five…
Four…
Three…
Two…
One…
Chapter 14
The SWAT truck sped over the gravel road. Adrenaline bounced within Sawyer as the minutes dragged on. Both as a soldier and as a SWAT officer, he’d been on more missions than he could count, but none had ever caused such worry to pump through his veins. None of the other men in the bulletproof SWAT truck acknowledged him; all eyes were focused either on the ground or on the ceiling. No one spoke. The silence was eerie, that of men preparing to go into a dangerous situation.
Only after the truck took a hard right turn, leaving Sawyer grasping the handle above him to stay upright, did the silence break. “We’ll find her.”
Sawyer glanced right to see the spotter on his sniper team, Garrett Bailey, staring at him. “Finding her isn’t my concern,” he told Garrett grimly. “It’s the condition she’ll be in when we get there.”
If Travis had hurt Chloe, he’d kill him.
Garrett’s chin-length sandy hair peeked out from beneath his helmet. “This
is a first for us, isn’t it?”
“A first?”
Garrett’s brown eyes were pained. “A first where the primary is someone we know.”
Sawyer’s chest tightened, squeezing the breath out of him. He hated that Chloe had gotten involved. So sweet, so pure…his woman. Overwhelmed by the need to protect her, he shut his eyes, forcing himself to close off his emotions. Chloe needed him at his best, but worrying about her would leave him at his worst.
Garrett cleared his throat. “This fucker needs to rot behind bars.” Anger thickened his voice.
Sawyer appreciated it. “Agreed.”
