“Get your asses home as soon as possible. The fucker has bigger connections than anyone in that town. You keep your eyes open. Last thing we need is that fucker onto us.”

“Yep, on it,” I tell him before hanging up and walking back inside.

“You get on to him?” Beau looks up as I walk back into the room. Mackenzie is awake, sitting propped up by a few pillows.

“Yeah, all good. Says to get back as soon as possible.” He nods, looking over to the messed-up woman.

“You need anything?” he asks her. She shakes her head no, her face looking worse as the night moves forward.

“How long until we can move?” she croaks out, her breath choppy as the movement sends pain to her face.

“The doc’s on his way back. Should be getting here in about thirty,” Beau answers her.

“He’s going to find me.” Her panic is not unwarranted. The asshole has instilled fear into her, but we will do everything in our power to make sure that won’t happen.

“No one is going to find you. This wasn’t in the plan, but we’re gonna work with what we have,” Beau assures her.

“You don’t know him like I do. He will find me. He did this because he knew I was leaving. I don’t know how he knew, but he knew,” she whispers.

“Listen, Mackenzie. We will do everything we need to do to get you out of here safely, but we have to get this arm set. It’s too badly damaged to move you to the next drop off. We have the connections here. I promise you he won’t get to you.” I don’t like the feeling that settles in me at hearing Beau call her Mackenzie, or his absolute promise that her husband won’t find her. I know we will do everything in our power to get her out, but that’s not to say we won’t run into some problems. We need to prepare ourselves that her husband might find her.

A car pulling up into the gravel drive has me on alert.

“Did the doc call?” Beau asks, standing as I move through the cabin to get the guns.

“No, he said he would call five-minutes out,” I tell him as I retrieve my Beretta 92FS.

“Whatever you do, don’t make a sound,” he whispers to a petrified-looking Mackenzie as I pass him his weapon.

“Get her to the back room,” he instructs, moving to the front window.

“It’s him. I know it is,” she cries, not listening to Beau’s command.

“Woman, be quiet,” I growl, moving back through the cabin. She nods, silent tears falling down her face.

“I need to move you. It’s gonna fucking hurt, but you can’t make a sound, you hear me?” I ask, leaning down into her space. She nods, my stare telling her we are not fucking around. We don’t know who is coming up the drive, but the doc has been on plenty of call outs to know not to show up unannounced. “Bite down on this.” I hand her a clean towel. “Okay. One, two, three,” I count and pick her up over my shoulder, careful not to move her arm. I can’t help the ribs and I know she must be in some fucked-up pain but she holds in her screams as she bites and moans into the towel. “Good girl,” I tell her, placing her down on the bed in the back room. “Hang on,” I instruct, moving to the free standing closet and pushing the heavy fucker aside.

“What’s going on?” she asks removing the towel from her mouth.

“Whoever is out there is not meant to be here. We have to hide you ‘cause if it’s the police, they’re here for you,” I tell her, flicking the lock on the secret door hidden in the wall.

“I can’t go in there,” she shakes, looking at the dark space.

“It’s either in there or back to your husband. What do you want?” I ask, losing my patience, my nerves on edge. I need to get back to Beau. She nods, understanding it’s our only way.

“Okay,” she agrees, standing shakily from the bed and walks forward slowly, with every step the pain is evident on her face.

“Please don’t leave me in here long,” she pleads as I go to pull the door closed.

“As soon as we get rid of whoever is out there, we’ll be back,” I promise, closing the door. Pulling the closet back into place, I flick the switch off and walk back out to the front room.

“We’ve got two sheriff’s cars pull up,” Beau says, keeping eyes out the window. “Both about to approach. She secured?” he asks, placing his gun in the back of his jeans.

“Yep.” I take a drink from the fridge and pull up a chair around the small kitchen table. The knock comes next, and with a nod of our heads, we know shit is about to go down, and can only pray that they don’t find her.

“Sheriff, what brings you out tonight?” Beau asks, opening the door to three officers. I don’t know how I feel about this visit. Mackenzie has been out of her husband’s clutches for not even three hours and he has the whole county’s sheriff’s department looking for her. The fucker is dirty or the mayor has something on him.

“Evening, Sir. We have our men out searching for a missing woman, Mackenzie Morre,” he says, looking past Beau’s shoulder into the cabin. “You haven’t seen her around have you?” he asks and I can’t get a hold on if he suspects she’s here or if he’s just doing a routine door-to-door check.

“Nope, haven’t seen anyone. We’re just dropping in for a rest before heading back to Rushford,” Beau plays it cool, letting him know we aren’t planning to stay.