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No.
She swung back to the gate, but Marla grabbed her arm, stopping her.
“You can’t go back in there alone. You won’t be able to help them. You’ll only get caught, too.”
She wanted to deny it. She wanted to run into the commune like a badass action heroine, swinging that tire iron and rescuing her boys. But she knew Marla was right. She was out of her depth here.
Promise me you’ll get yourself to safety and take these bastards down…
She slid into the SUV’s driver’s seat.
“Get in,” she ordered, her voice surprisingly steady. “We’re getting the hell out of here and bringing back the cavalry.”
chapter
twenty-one
Sawyer Murphy knew that bark.
He paused mid-throw, much to Zelda’s annoyance. She huffed her displeasure at having her game of fetch disrupted.
“Hang on,” he told her and tilted his head, waiting for the bark to sound again.
There.
Yeah, that was definitely Raszta. There was no mistaking that weirdly raspy bark. Razzy always sounded like he indulged in three packs a day.
“Hey, Pierce. Where have you been?”
No answer.
That was weird. Pierce often whistled in two short bursts when he was in the vicinity, so he didn’t startle Sawyer.
“Pierce?”
Nothing.
A cold nose bumped against his hand. Not Zelda. The nose was much smaller. He rubbed a hand over the dog’s head and found Raszta’s ponytail knocked askew. He looked down and tried to focus, but Razzy was standing too still. Without movement, he couldn’t see anything but the blurry impression of a dog. “Hey, buddy. Why are you out here alone? Where’s Pierce?”
Raszta gave an anxious whine and gently nipped at Sawyer’s fingers.
Something was wrong.
His stomach knotting with dread, he straightened and grabbed his cell phone from his pocket. “Call Ash,” he told it.
The line rang twice before Ash picked up with a curt, “Yeah?”
“Raszta just showed up from the woods without Pierce.”
“Fuck,” Ash muttered. “Cal and Ellie are missing, too.”
That knot in his stomach twisted ever tighter. He called Zelda to his side and strapped her back into his harness. “I’ll round up the team. Or at least what’s left of it.” With Pierce missing, Shane on his honeymoon, and Connelly away on a book tour, there wasn’t much of a team right now to round up.
“Yeah, you do that,” Ash said. “I’ll be there in ten.”
Zelda led the way and Raszta trailed at his side as he hurried back to the rescue. He’d just reached the back door when he heard tires screech to a halt out front.
That couldn’t be Ash already.
