He looks around wildly, and we both notice the back door to the cabin at the same time.
I start fighting, struggling against the ropes holding my hands behind my back and the grip he has on my hair. My eyes sting with tears as some hair gets ripped out, but I don’t stop.
“Fucking—stop,” Geoffrey snaps. He yanks me to my feet, and I try not to fall over and make things worse. Before I can struggle again, he sets the knife to my throat, letting me feel the keen edge of it right against my skin. “Make another sound,” he hisses. “I dare you.”
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He’s unhinged enough that he might slit my throat, and I don’t dare to scream again, not now. He keeps dragging me backward toward the door, and all I can think is that he’s going to get me somewhere even more secluded and then there’s no chance that anyone will find me.
I can’t let that happen.
I drag my feet, kicking and twisting in his hold. I don’t care if he rips all my hair out, if it means I can get away from him. I thrash and fight like a wild animal, pulling against the ropes and trying desperately to get free.
I can hear him grunting as he struggles against my movements, inching us closer and closer to the door.
Chapter 46
Everett
Usually a long drive clears my head, but this one does the exact opposite. The miles seem to crawl by, and every time I check the GPS, it feels like we haven’t made any progress at all.
My hands grip the steering wheel too tight the whole way to the mountains, and I take turns too fast, checking each fork in the road with my jaw clenched.
Cash and Lincoln are just as on edge as I am, and neither of them comment on my driving as we make our way to where that fucker might be keeping Harper.
Emphasis on might. It’s the only lead we have, and I’m keenly aware that chasing this one might mean we can’t find her in time if he’s gone somewhere else with her. But there’s nowhere else to check if we don’t have any leads. No one else has called with information about seeing him or Harper, so all I can do is keep driving and try not to let my head fill up with worst case scenarios.
I’ve seen enough shit in my time as sheriff to know how bad this kind of thing can go. Women kidnapped by people they knew and people they didn’t, returned broken and beaten, if they were returned at all.
Harper’s strong, and there’s every evidence that she didn’t go down without a fight, but that might make this worse. Men like Geoffrey don’t like women who don’t give in to what they want. Who stand their ground and mouth off and show backbone.
I keep thinking about my shitty dad and the way he acted whenever someone stood up to him. Whenever my mother didn’t hop to in the way he wanted. How his face would go cold with rage and the air in the room disappeared. It always felt like holding my breath until the moment passed, and it always seemed to take longer and longer for that to happen.
Harper would do anything to keep Geoffrey away from Cora, I know that. Even if it meant provoking him to hurt her instead. Anything to keep him from coming back and finding her niece.
“Everett,” Cash says softly. He reaches over and puts a hand on my arm. “Breathe.”
“I’m breathing,” I mutter back. “This is just… a fucking nightmare.”
“I know.”
The two of them have been looking as hard as I have, peering through the trees as the sun came up, trying to find any sign of Geoffrey. But it’s a big area, and there’s too many places to hide up here. We don’t have time to check every fucking nook and cranny, every hidden path to see if that’s where this asshole is keeping her.
“You can’t let your head go where it’s going, though,” Lincoln pipes up. “I know what you’re probably thinking about.”
He’s seen horrors in his job too, so that makes sense.
“Can’t help it,” I grunt. “It’s… the longer this takes, the longer there’s no sign of her, my head starts fucking with me more. All the what ifs and maybes just start flooding the fuck in. I don’t know how to stop it.”
And neither of them know what to tell me to help either. They’re just as worried, just as preoccupied with the thoughts of what will happen if we’re too late to save her.
“Think about how we’re going to get her home instead,” Cash offers. “How we’ll wrap her in a blanket and tuck her into bed and never let her out of our sight again.”
“She’ll hate that,” Lincoln says. He laughs a little, but it’s strained. “I give it a few days before she’s trying to sneak out on her own.”
“She’ll stick close for Cora,” Cash says. “There’s that, at least.”
“Yeah.”
They fall silent, and I force myself to take a breath. If it comes to that, if we get her back and can get her home where she’s safe and no one can come after her again, then nothing else matters. She can rail against it all she wants, but it’s going to be a long time before I feel safe with her out on her own after this.