scrambled up, not wasting a second before fleeing into the woods.
The sound of bullets hitting the trees beside her spurred her on. Bastard was using a silencer so she had no idea how far back he was. It didn’t matter. If he caught her, she was dead.
“ETHAN. Ethan!”
Ethan came awake in an instant, every instinct screaming at him that something was terribly wrong. He glanced around to see Sean shining a light in his face. He raised a hand to shield his eyes from the glare, and Sean lowered the light.
“Christ, you scared ten years off me. What the hell happened?” Sean demanded.
Rachel.
The realization slammed into him with the force of a freight train. He reached down and yanked at his seat belt. Sean grabbed him, yelling at him to stop.
“Goddamn it, Ethan, you need to wait for the ambulance. You shouldn’t move. Don’t know if you damaged your spine. Come on, cooperate with me.”
“Rachel,” Ethan rasped. “They have her.”
He threw off Sean’s arms and managed to get out of the seat belt. Christ, how was he going to get out? His entire side of the truck was caved in. The window was busted out, and Sean leaned through with his flashlight.
Ethan turned in the direction of the passenger seat. Where Rachel had been. The door was still open, but her seat was eerily empty.
Heaving himself up, he crawled across the center console and all but fell out of the passenger seat and onto the ground. Sean was around the truck in an instant, that damn flashlight beam bouncing across Ethan’s face again.
“What about Rachel?” Sean demanded. “Was she with you?”
Ethan hauled himself to his feet and grabbed onto Sean’s shoulder when he bobbled. Fuck. He didn’t need this.
“Yeah. She was with me. Bastards took her. She was right, damn it. The accident on the bridge. Wasn’t an accident. Those assholes were waiting for us when we left Sam’s. They rammed us and took her.”
“Holy mother of God,” Sean whispered.
He immediately began barking orders into his radio. He broke off at one point and stared hard at Ethan.
“Tell me every thing you remember, Ethan. We need a starting point.”
“I don’t know,” Ethan bit out. “It was dark. I saw them parked at the intersection of the highway. They turned on their brights and rammed us when we got close. The rest is fuzzy, but I remember Rachel screaming while some guy yanked her out of the truck by her hair.”
“God help us,” Sean muttered. “Okay, we’re going to have to organize a wide search. They have a head start on us. I’ll radio for the highways and secondary roads to be roadblocked. I’ll contact the Henry Country Sheriff’s Department and get them out looking.”
“Give me a phone so I can call Sam and Garrett.”
Sean tossed him a cell phone and he dialed Sam’s number. His gut was churning like a volcano. Fear had him by the balls. Sean was talking fast in the background, his radio going off like a bullhorn. Ethan had to hand it to the younger man, he knew his shit, and right now he was glad as hell to have him to help find Rachel.
He closed his eyes as he waited for Sam to answer.
I’m coming, baby. Hold on. I’ll get to you, I swear it. Just hang on. For me. For us.
Please God, don’t take her now.
Someone wanted her dead. Her life depended on him and his brothers figuring it out yesterday. And God help the fuckers when Ethan found them.
SAM rubbed his hand wearily over his face. What a goddamn mess. He’d never suspected. Oh sure, he’d known Ethan could be a rigid son of a bitch, but he’d never dreamed his marriage to Rachel had been in so much trouble.
He stared over at Garrett, who wore a look of equal bafflement. Garrett looked up and simply shook his head.
“Me. And Rachel.”
He shook his head again, as if he couldn’t wrap his brain around the idea that someone had thought he was having an affair with his brother’s wife.
“That’s messed up,” Garrett said.
Sam glanced at his watch. It was almost time for Rio to check in. No sense going back to bed now. He gestured at Garrett.
“Come on. Let’s head to the war room. Rio will be checking in soon, and you and I need to plan our trip over. Steele’s probably already on his way. Against my wishes, I might add. Never can tell that son of a bitch anything. I don’t know