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“Whatever, just sit back and shut the fuck up, Rose,” Joe said. She could tell that arguing with her seemed to take a toll on him, but she wasn’t going to rest until Joe was out of her life for good. Maybe Thorne had the right idea—Joe needed to die.
As if on cue, Sadie woke up crying that she needed to use the potty and she knew that this might just give her the chance to escape. If Joe stopped at a rest stop, she’d be the one to take Sadie to the potty since Joe wanted nothing to do with that kind of thing.
“You can hold it,” Joe told her.
“She can’t,” Rose challenged. “She’s only been going potty for two months. If you make her hold it for long, she’ll pee in the car seat and then, you’ll have a real mess on your hands.”
“Fine,” he spat, “there is a rest stop about a mile up the road. Can she hold it that long?” he asked.
“She should be good,” Rose assured. “We’ll find a potty in a few minutes, honey,” Rose promised. “Just hold it for Mommy.” Sadie whimpered and nodded her little head. Rose spotted a mile marker and knew that this might be her only chance to give the guys her exact location. “There,” she pointed at the rest stop sign, “it’s right up there off of mile marker twelve.”
“I can see that for myself,” Joe grumbled.
“I was just trying to be helpful,” Rose insisted. She was trying to be helpful, but not to him. She wanted to help Thorne and Savage find her, and hopefully, they’d be able to do just that now with this new information. Her life depended on it.
Thorne
“She’s such a smart girl,”Savage praised, “always has been. Rose just told us exactly where she is.” Thorne put the mile marker in the GPS and when he saw that they were only two miles behind her, he told Savage to go faster. “We’ll get to her,” Savage promised.
“I know, but she can’t stall him forever. This might be our only chance to get both Rose and Sadie back from that asshole,” Thorne said. Once he got them back, he planned on never letting them go again.
“She won’t have to. All we need is for Rose to take Sadie to the bathroom and stay there with her. She’s smart enough to know to do that. Then, you and I can take care of Joe.” Thorne knew exactly how he wanted to take care of Joe, but he also made Rose a promise that he wouldn’t kill her ex.
“I’m going to call this into the detective who put out the Amber Alert for Sadie,” Thorne said.
“You think that’s a good idea?” Savage asked. “How will we explain him taking Rose too?”
“I’m not explaining anything to him,” Thorne said. “They should have put one of their guys on Rose and not just assumed that Joe was done with her.” Honestly, he was kicking himself for not doing that same thing. He hated that he had only left Yonkers with Rose. He should have stayed behind too, but he wanted to be the one to bring Sadie back to her. It was his promise to her, and he wanted to keep it. He just never thought that Joe would be bright enough to double back and take Rose.
He pulled out the detective’s business card and called the number on the bottom. As soon as he answered, Thorne didn’t give him much time to talk. “This is Victor Thorne. We’ve found Sadie and Rose. They are at the rest stop off of mile marker twelve.”
“Did you say Sadie and Rose?” the guy asked.
“I did,” Thorne admitted, “her ex doubled back and took Rose too, and shot one of our guys in the process. She somehow snuck a call to her cousin, and we’ve been able to listen in on their conversation. Her ex plans to kill her and dump her body in the woods. Her daughter had to go to the bathroom, and he agreed to pull over. We don’t have much time. We’re about a half a mile away now.”
“He’s armed,” the detective said.
“Yeah, he shot one of our guys who was guarding her back at another hotel. We moved her, but I’m guessing that asshole was watching us the whole time,” Savage shouted.
“Don’t engage,” the detective insisted. “I’ll have my guys there in five minutes.” There was no way that Thorne or Savage was going to sit in the damn truck and wait for Joe to load Rose and Sadie into his truck and take off again.
“Fuck that,” Savage growled. “When we get to the rest stop, we’re getting Rose and Sadie out of there. If that fucker tries to stop us, well, you can just clean up the mess once you get there. We’re not waiting.”
The detective protested and Thorne ended the call, not wanting to listen to the guy bark orders at them. Savage was right—Saving Rose and Sadie was the most important thing. The rest was just static.
They pulled around to the back of the small building, finding Joe standing guard in front of the ladies’ room door. He wasn’t going to let anyone in or out without his knowledge. “We’ll have to see if there is a window around back,” Savage said. He cut the lights and engine, parking behind the building. They walked to the back of the ladies’ room to find one small window. Thorne knew that he and Savage wouldn’t be able to fit through it, but Sadie and Rose could probably fit.
Savage gently tapped at the window and there was no movement on the other side. “What if they’ve gone back out the front?” Thorne asked.
“Or they’ve found a way to escape without you two meatheads getting involved,” Rose said, standing behind them. She was holding Sadie on her hip and Thorne was sure he had never seen a more beautiful sight.
“You got out,” Savage said. “I told you she was smart.”
“Yeah, you can play proud cousin later,” Rose said. “Right now, I need you two to get us out of here before Joe finds out that we’re not in that bathroom. I’d say that we have about two more minutes.” Shit—that didn’t leave them very much time.
Thorne grabbed Sadie from her and started for his truck. “Savage, you drive,” he ordered.
“No problem,” Savage agreed.
