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And he feared that was exactly who they were. And Hudson feared to guess whatever they had wanted with Frank, whatever they wanted now with Hannah.
But one thing was quite clear. He was going to tear these men into bloody ribbons.
The bear within him roared, and he let out a guttural cry. A cry of vengeance.
He turned to look back at Nora. She stared at him wide-eyed. There was a touch of fear in her gaze, but mostly, there was awe. And a bit of respect in there as well.
Good. If they were going to work together, he couldn’t have her fearing the beast.
TWENTY-ONE
NORA
Nora’s guilt and worry over losing Hannah were nearly suffocating. She felt like at any moment she could dissolve into tears again over what had happened. The only thing keeping her upright and moving was the fact that they needed to find Hannah.
Hudson had caught a scent, and they followed it to a dirt road that came to a dead end. From there, the tracks of a four-wheeler dented the snow, leaving a trail through the woods. Now they were both on foot roaming through the forest.
A little ways back, they had passed a No Trespassing sign nailed to a tree. They were no longer in Hudson clan territory. She worried they could be caught and arrested. Then they’d never get to Hannah in time.
“Is she close?” she dared to ask. Hudson just kept sniffing, and Nora clamped her mouth shut and let him focus.
He might have said he didn’t blame her for losing Hannah, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that he would soon. Right now, he seemed to be under the impression that, for some reason, it was his fault she was taken. But Nora couldn’t help but feel that blame landed on her.
After all, she’d been the one with Hannah when she’d been taken right from under her nose. She should have asked more questions. She should have stayed right by Hannah’s side so they wouldn’t try anything.
She usually monitored her sessions. She never left Hannah with staff whom Hannah hadn’t gotten to know and been comfortable with, and even then, it was rare. To just walk out of the room completely and leave her with three people she had never met before was negligent. And why had this time been different? Because she had been thinking about Hudson.
She’d been distracted by the stupid idea of a romance with her boss. What was wrong with her?
She was typically more practical than this. Nora had never been one to get swept away in the idea of romance and passion. It certainly never distracted her from a patient.
All that daydreaming and then being angry with him for just the idea that they might have more. All the while, there had been a very real girl in her care that she hadn’t been paying attention to.
That poor, sweet little girl was gone, and it was all her fault for not being more watchful. Hadn’t she already been through enough with losing her parents? Nora couldn’t imagine how much therapy it would take for her to overcome this experience.
And she would get that chance to get better.
They were getting her back and taking her home.
She would never rest again until Hannah was safe and sound. And then she’d never let her out of her sight again.
A chilling wind blew through the trees, and she shivered. She noticed then that she hadn’t bothered to grab her coat before they left. All she had was her cardigan. She pulled it around her tightly and tried not to think of the cold. After all, how much worse off was Hannah right about now?
The longer they trekked through the forest, the more nervous Nora became. Nothing good ever happened this deep in the woods, especially on property that didn’t belong to the ones sneaking around on it. In most movies, it was where psychopaths lived with sharp axes.
A shudder ran through her that had nothing to do with the cold.
She thought about what Hudson had said concerning who he thought might have taken her. That the plane crash that had killed Hannah’s parents might not have been so accidental after all.
But that begged the question, why?
Why cause a plane crash?
Who were they?
Were they just after Frank, or could they have been after little Hannah also?
Had they meant for Frank to die in that crash? If they had meant for him to die, then that could mean…
