Page 52 of Outback Skies


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Nonetheless, she’d take it easy once she got close. No point in getting caught again.

There was the house. She’d imprinted the front façade into her memory banks. No front fence and no garden, just dead grass, letterbox leaning to the left, house set far back from the road, bright-red front door, sagging roofline hinting at the disrepair inside.

It’d probably taken her ten minutes, at least, to get back to the house. She slowed, then came to a stop outside the tall fenceof the house next door. Time to make a call and stop Finn’s team from dying.

Garrett’s phone was locked, but that didn’t matter, she could still access the SOS function. Holding the phone awkwardly to her ear because of her bound wrists, she waited until a recorded voice said, “You have dialed emergency triple 000. Your call is being connected.” And then finally a real person came on the line. “Police, ambulance, or fire?”

“Police,” she said, keeping her voice low, just in case Swampy was still lurking around.

A police dispatcher came on next, asking for her address and the nature of the emergency.

“I need you to get a message to Detective Sergeant Mike Rogers. This is important. His life and the life of his team members might be in danger,” she whispered over the top of the dispatcher as he tried to interrupt her. “They’ve been called out to a house,” she rattled off the address. “But it’s a trap. The house has been rigged with a bomb. You need to tell them not to enter the house, under any circumstances.” As she spoke, Indy studied the front yard, and she peered around the side of the fence, down the long driveway. Nothing moved. Was the coast clear?

The dispatcher was still requesting her name and more details. It struck her that she sounded crazy, that he might think she was a prank caller.

“My name is Indy Solomon. I’ve been working with…” she hesitated and then remembered to say his proper name, “… Detective Griffin Carmody on an undercover case. You need to get a message to Mike Rogers. Stop him storming this house.” She spoke succinctly and clearly, trying to make the man understand. “When you get in touch with him, he can call me back on this number.” With that, she ended the call. She’d wasted enough time, when all she really wanted was to make sure that Finn was still okay; to get him out of there in one piece.

It still shocked her when she thought about what she said to Finn right before Garrett had led her away. She said theLword. It’d felt right at the time. And it still felt right.

And he’d said it back to her.

It scared her. She hadn’t planned on falling in love. Not after what Patrick had done to her.

Could you even fall in love after only a week? Even though it was stupid and way too fast, Indy knew she’d fallen head over heels for Finn, probably from the very first day. He seemed to get her somehow. Somewhere down deep, they understood each other. Like she’d neverfeltfor anyone before.

She knew absolutely zero about loving a police detective. Just the thought of it made her heart flutter in her chest, like a trapped bird in a cage. Was that panic? Or was it something else? They had a good chemistry together. The sex had been great. Fantastic. Empowering. But she hadn’t really thought it would go any further than that. Until she’d said the word out loud. Love. It’d been like the slow, stealthy stalking of a predator hunting its prey. These feelings for Finn had grown day by day, without her realizing it. Now a giant swell of emotion threatened to bury her beneath an avalanche of feelings at the thought that Finn might die.

And she knew, in that instant, that she would do anything to save Finn—no matter the risk. Because he was worth it. The rush of blood was a dull roar in her head at the thought. But she knew he meant too much to her to just stand around and wait for the cavalry to arrive.

She was going in to save him.

To hell with the consequences.

Her need for Finn was an inexplicable thing, but it continued to grow, even now as she stood deciding her next move. The depth and power of their intimacy daunted her, but she knew her desire for him went way beyond the physical. Which was why thethought of standing idly by while Finn was trapped inside the house was completely unacceptable. She had to dosomething.

Sneaking down the driveway, she hugged the side fence, keeping to the unlit shadows. The backyard was dark, and Indy used her memory from when Garrett had placed her in the car. There was a window about halfway along the foundations of the house, down low near the ground, which Indy hoped was the window Finn had peered out of earlier, while they’d been trapped in the basement. She might be able to get him out that way. If the window wasn’t booby-trapped, as well. Maybe they’d missed that one. There was a small shed in the back corner. It might hold something she could use, either to break out of these zip ties, or to help her rescue Finn.

As carefully as she could, she snuck in the direction of the shed, keeping to the fence line, eyes wide, watching for anything. A movement, a figure. But there was nothing, and she finally made it to the small building. The door stood slightly ajar, and after checking it was empty, she slipped inside. Using the flashlight app on Garrett’s phone, she quickly searched the space. Cobwebs hung heavy in the corners, and dust and filth caked every surface. It hadn’t been used in years, probably much the same as the house.

There was a little bench hugging one wall, and there were items scattered on it, all covered in the same grime. Brushing aside the cobwebs, and suppressing a shudder when a black spider scuttled away, her fingers found something cold and metallic. Lifting a pile of dirty rags, she found a rusty, old hacksaw. Eureka. Clamping the handle between her knees, she sawed at the plastic zip tie, and within seconds, she was free.

Oh. Sweet. Jesus. The relief of having her hands free was like nothing else in the world. She rubbed at her wrists, which were chafed and raw from the bindings. Then she rolled her shouldersexperimentally back and forth, easing the cramped muscles from where she’d held her hands in front the whole time.

If she could somehow get the hacksaw into where Finn was being held, he might be able to free himself. And then they could work out a way for him to escape before the house blew up.

She searched quickly through the rest of the stuff on the bench. She grabbed a hammer and a screwdriver, not sure how they would help, but they might come in handy.

All of a sudden, Garrett’s phone, which she’d tucked into the back pocket of her jeans, began to ring, and she dropped everything in her hands in shock.

With a curse, she took out the phone and slid the button to answer.

“Miss Solomon?” A deep voice asked without preface.

“Yes,” she answered hesitantly. “Who is this?”

“It’s Detective Sergeant Mike Rogers.”

“Oh, thank God.” She let out a gust of relief.

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