“You can run, Scottie,” the man shouted her name like a curse. “You can run all fucking night, but it won’t matter. I’m going to find you, and when I do…I’m going to make you pay for taking the one person who ever cared about me away!”
There it was. The real reason this man wanted her dead.
For a brief moment in time, Scottie felt a splinter of empathy for the man intent on ending her life. Grief was something she understood all too well. Losing her mother, especially at such a young age, had been a massive blow no sixteen-year-old should ever feel.
While this man may not be reeling from the loss of a parent—or even that of a blood relative—it was clear her stalker’s death had affected the mentally unstable man in a way that had sent him on a vindictive path to murder.
“Stop running from me, you stupid, fucking bitch!”
Any empathy she’d been feeling vanished in an instant with the rage-filled order. If this guy thought she was going to just stop and give up, he was even crazier than she realized.
But her legs were growing weaker, and her heaving lungs were burning in their fight for more air. Scottie knew she couldn’t keep going like this forever, which meant she needed to find a place to hide, and she needed to find it now.
Her panic-stricken gaze flew from left to right as she scanned her immediate area. A thick group of wide-trunked trees stood in the distance. If she could get there without the man seeing her…
Not allowing herself a second’s worth of time to question or second-guess, Scottie veered off to her immediate right. Running straight for what she prayed would end up being her saving grace, she began closing the distance with surprising efficiency and ease.
She thought she was home-free. That her plan was going to work. However, all that rejuvenated hope vanished in an instant when the tip of her booted toe hit a fallen branch.
Scottie lost her footing and fell. The air was forced from her lungs with anoof.
For a brief moment, she was too stunned by the sudden fall to move. Seconds later, she heard the snap of a twig, and her fight or flight instinct kicked right back into gear.
Using her bound hands, she awkwardly pushed herself up to her feet. This time, when she resumed her previous path, Scottie was sure to pay closer attention to the ground she was covering.
Any delay in reaching her goal could be the difference between living and dying. Another impact to her body could risk the life of the child she prayed was still safe within her womb.
Please be okay, little one. You and your daddy both have to be okay!
Another stick snapped, and Scottie knew she was cutting things close, so she cleared her mind of all distractions, focusing solely on her own survival.
The group of trees in her sights was only a few more yards away. She gave herself another final push, and within seconds, Scottie was there.
She sped around to the other side of the trees. Her feet slipped on a pile of leaves, and she had to throw out a hand to the nearest trunk to keep from falling.
Her heart raced to the point she feared it would literally explode, but she ignored the painful pounding in her chest and quickly tucked herself in the niche the combined trunks had naturally formed.
Scottie’s hands flew to her mouth to keep from whimpering in fear. If this didn’t work…if that man found her…she had no doubt she’d be murdered right here in these trees.
Chase can’t find me like that. He can’t live the rest of his life with that image in his head.
If the worst happened and she didn’t survive, Chase would live each and every day believing her death was all his fault. Because that’s the kind of man she loved.
He was a protector. A warrior. And if he survived that horrifying crash and was able, Scottie knew he and his team were already out there somewhere, doing everything in their power to find her.
He’d never stop looking, of that she was certain. Question was, would he make it to her in time to save her from a killer, or would the man she loved more than life itself be damned to a fate worse than death?
Nothing about what had happened had been Chase’s fault. But as sure as Scottie knew that to be the God’s honest truth, she also knew if the situation were reversed, she’d blame herself, too.
This was it. The next few seconds would determine the rest of her life.
She brought a hand to her flat belly, allowing only a few tears to fall. Then Scottie closed her eyes, held her breath, and waited for her killer to come.
15
“Levi Taylor ownsa stretch of property north of the city,” Lucky announced. “It was originally set up in a trust under another man’s name—one with a completelydifferentlast name—which is why it took me so long to find it.”
The entire team had gathered at Chase’s apartment, since it was only a few blocks away from the scene of Scottie’s abduction. Logan had managed to talk Natalie into going back home after Archer and Lucky called their wives and asked them to go sit with the expectant woman so she wouldn’t be alone so close to her due date.