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“Where?”
My steps faltered as Finley lifted his gaze from the table that was our command center. Maps were spread across the table, markers of islands and the picture of the boat and details.
“A shoe?” Logan added. My heart leaped with the word. I spun, searching the brother's gaze as he just nodded. “Hold tight. Don’t…don’t giveanyonethis information. Not until we get there.”
He hung up the phone and lifted his gaze to mine.
And I knew…I. Just. Knew…
We found her.
“Go,” Fin whispered as Logan’s phone rang once more.
“It’s Hale.” Logan scowled at the screen. “How the fuck does that bastard know?”
“I don’t like him.” Fin strode toward me. “Don’t ask me what it is, but he makes my skin crawl.” He took one look at the ringing phone in Logan’s hand and met my gaze. “Go, find her. I’ll hold him off for as long as I can. But Laz…don’t come back here. Run and keep on running. A man like that…he won’t let her go.”
I swallowed hard, my thoughts frantic, colliding with my need. A nod and I turned, finding Logan’s hard stare.
“Let’s go find her,” he growled.
It was all the words I needed.
* * *
I grippedthe side of the boat as we rose with the wave, then crashed back down. My teeth gnashed together with the impact. The salty spray stung my eyes. Still, I stared into those dark murky waters as the sun rose in the distance, casting vibrant red and yellow across my world.
“How much longer?” I jerked my gaze to Logan’s as he sat behind the wheel.
He looked at the compass and the map, navigating with the boat's system, before he nodded toward the lightening horizon. “Should be coming up any minute.”
We’d been driving for an hour, hitting every fucking wave at speed. And as Logan slowed, turning the boat hard, I realized how long I’d been almost holding my breath, how that humming tension inside me was actually a scream. And with one harsh exhale, I heard that shrill sound, the one that coiled and unleashed, striking harder and harder with wicked fangs.
Out of the shadows came a man striding toward an old dock, holding a semi-automatic across his chest, looking like the badass Logan was. It was his man, it had to be.
“Ice,” Logan called to the mercenary as he throttled the engine down, then killed it with a twist of the key.
The speedboat coasted sideways before hitting the pylons with athud. Logan tossed him the rope, but I was already climbing out, with Freddy at my back.
“Where is it?” I growled.
The guy glanced at me, then Logan as he bent and secured the boat with a yank. “This way.” He motioned with his head.
I glanced at the land and all I saw was a curtain. A blanket of mammoth willows, obscuring anything else. But it was those willows he strode toward. Leaves brushed my shoulders and my head like the soft caress of a lover. But it just made me shiver, and sent goosebumps along my skin.
A small cabin appeared out of nowhere, decrepit and dark. The smell of wet wood assaulted me as I came closer, climbing rickety old steps.
“We tracked movement of two men as they came to the island about a month ago,” Ice disclosed, hanging back.
“A month ago?” Logan repeated, and glanced my way.
Memories were scattered in my mind. One of them important, slipping through my fingers as I tried to grasp it. Then it was gone as I stepped into that old, dank cabin and looked down.
There it was…
One small, black slip-on shoe.
The same shoe she'd worn that morning, the one that matched the dress still crumpled in the corner of my bathroom on the island. I took a step closer, my heart punching like a fist against my ribs. I hurt there, hurt like I’d been beaten by a hundred different men, hurt more than I thought I could ever hurt as I crouched and picked it up.
