“Outside. He’s been patrolling the grounds with your father ever since.”
Leaving her alone. She glared at the younger Garretts in her driveway, who were doing the same thing to her.
“I’m sorry you’re alone,” she told her mom. More than that, Marissa was sorry she couldn’t be there to support and comfort her somehow. “I’d be with you if I could.”
“I know.” Her mom’s careful composure was gone. “Where is your sister?” She choked the words out on a whisper. Her heartbreak split Marissa’s chest in two.
“We’ll find her.”
Her mom’s sobs flowed freely now.
Marissa would have given anything to hold her. To shoulder the burden. Her mother had lost hope, and she needed something to hold onto. “We’re at my house, collecting the key to Kara’s place. Blake says the house is all clear, and we’re headed to Kara’s next. I’m hoping she wrote her agenda on the calendar or made some other note about what she planned to do today. At least then Blake’s team will know where to begin looking. I’ll tell you what we find at Kara’s as soon as we’re finished there.”
Marissa disconnected and tucked the phone back into her pocket. She’d thought yesterday was long, but today was officially worse. The hanging doll was just another attempt to scare and misdirect them, and frankly, Marissa was tired of Nash’s games. It was time to get moving. Something at Kara’s could be the clue they needed to bring her home.
Outside her window, growing winds bent the treetops and pushed little clouds faster through the sky. A storm was bad news, especially if Kara was still outside somewhere. Autumn rains meant plummeting temperatures, and Kara had probably dressed in a T-shirt and pants when she left home this morning.
She reached for the door handle and froze. A shadow passed over the rearview mirror, and Marissa’s senses went on high alert. She spun on her seat, twisting for a better view of the entire scene outside. She found nothing but a sheriff’s cruiser and the three men still engrossed in a private meeting on her lawn. Wind whipped and pulled the fabric of their pants and jackets. The Garretts took a few lazy steps in her direction before stopping again to look back at her house.
The hairs on Marissa’s neck tingled and stood at attention. A sense of urgency squeezed her heart and propelled her to act. She gripped the handle on her door and shored up her nerve, suddenly preferring to be a lot closer to the guys with guns and badges. Gooseflesh crawled up her spine as she cracked open the door and planted her feet firmly in the gravel.
The air was instantly pressed from her lungs with one powerful blow. A thick hairy arm wound over her rib cage and meaty fingers dug into the flesh of her side. A broad and calloused palm scraped against the cuts and bruises on her jaw and cheek, fingers clenching across her mouth. The stench of cigarettes overcame her.
Tears blurred her burning eyes as the unseen assailant dragged her into the shadows, her body crushed against his. Her feet twisted and flailed, unable to find purchase against her assailant’s feet or shins. Her lungs burned with an increasing lack of oxygen as his palm flattened her nose and lips.
Not today, she screamed internally. Not until I find my sister.
Marissa’s muscles tensed at the thought, and panic bled into purpose. She clutched his wrists in a powerful burst of adrenaline and bent them sharply into her abdomen and jaw until his hands shifted and his fingers loosened their grip. Marissa sucked in a fresh gulp of oxygen and screamed against his palm as he struggled to reposition his hold on her. She dug her toes into the gravel and kicked a cloud of stones at Blake’s truck.
“Freeze!” Blake’s strong voice bellowed through the night.
A trio of armed Garretts appeared in a flash of lightning, guns drawn. The brothers marched forward in a tight V formation. “Back away from her, Nash,” Blake commanded. There was venom in his tone and vengeance in his eyes. “This is between you and me.”
“And Miss Lane,” Nash cooed, digging his fingers deeper into her skin.
The rebuttal from Blake’s mouth was fierce and foul. He widened his stance just twenty feet away and lifted his gun higher. “You aren’t getting away this time.”
Marissa stopped fighting and tried to make herself smaller in case Blake planned to shoot him.
“That’s a good girl,” Nash whispered in her ear. A wave of stinky breath washed over her, souring her stomach and weakening her knees. “Make him fight for you,” he said. “The agent thinks you’re his, but he can’t fight destiny forever.” He pressed his hot mouth against the tender skin along the back of her neck before curling his fingers deep into her hair and sending her headfirst into Blake’s tailgate.
The loud smack of her forehead on metal reverberated through her bones before the world went black.
Chapter Eleven
Blake’s heart stopped.
Marissa’s head snapped back, and her body went limp. She hit the ground in a heap.
Nash was already on the move, fleeing the scene, making his getaway.
“No!” Blake skidded in the gravel to her side. Nash could have broken her neck. She could already be gone. “Marissa!”
Footfalls pounded the earth behind him, arriving in the next heartbeat. “I’ve got her,” Cole announced, falling onto his knees beside Blake. “Go on.” His hands were already on her neck, counting her pulse.
West’s silhouette raced into the woods across the street, gun drawn.
“Go,” Cole insisted. “Cover West. I’ve got this.”
Reality slapped back into focus and Blake was in motion. Cover West. Yeah, right. Nash was all Blake’s and after what he’d done to Marissa, Blake would be damn sure he paid slowly.
He launched off the street and into the woods at a sprint, quickly catching and passing his brother.
Nash fled through the trees and underbrush ahead of them, cutting
