Page 81 of Keeping Collette

“There you are bitch, I knew you couldn’t stay still for long.” Jim laughed, and headed in the other direction. “You won’t get too far. There’s no way to stop what’s coming for you.”

His voice faded, and yet she still didn’t move. Fear kept her frozen to the spot. Eventually Jim would find out it wasn’t her that was making that sound, but an animal, and he’d come back.

Was she silly in hoping that help would be coming for her? That somehow, someway, Deal would find her?

Maybe with Jim and Mal preoccupied with looking for her, she could run back to the house and get in the car? Had Jim left the keys in it, or had he taken them with him?

Did she know which way the house was?

That was the problem; she wasn’t sure what to do. Stay and risk Jim coming back. Run and risk either one of them finding her.

She had to make a decision soon, she couldn’t stay there. She’d been lucky once, but she wasn’t going to be lucky again.

Perhaps there was another place she could hide. Somewhere a little less obvious, and where there was no chance of her being found.

There were some muttered curses, but they weren’t yelling out as much as now.

What did that mean?

Were they giving up? Going to wait until it was daylight, which would make it easier to find her?

Dawn would have to be coming soon.

Frustrated with her indecisiveness, Collette drew into herself, took a deep breath, and then wriggled out of her confined space.

It was time to move.

Deal checked his weapon again, even though he didn’t have to, but he needed to do something as they sped toward the location of Jim’s car.

Through her connections, Cass was able to get her hands on a drone which was flying over the area now. Soon they would have thermal imaging of the area, and hopefully a better idea of what was going on.

Deal prayed they would get there in time. That they wouldn’t be too late, and Collette wouldn’t be harmed or scarred by what she’d been put through.

Whatever happened though, he would be by her side. He wasn’t going to leave her to handle this all by herself. He loved her. She was his life. If she pushed him away, he’d push back. He wouldn’t let her suffer alone.

Deal slammed the door on those thoughts. He was getting too far down a rabbit hole that he may not need to venture down.

Collette was smart and strong, and if there was an opportunity for her to escape, he had no doubt she’d take it.

The vehicle slowed to a stop. “We’re going to have to make the rest of our way on foot,” Fox announced.

“Any update from Cass?” Deal asked. Although they were all wearing comms, if Cass had come across something, she would’ve told them by now. He tried not to let the lack of communication be a bad thing. There could be a valid reason for it. She could be making sure that everything was in line before she sent the details.

He was starting to get inside his head, something he never did when he went on missions. But this one was different. This mission involved the one person he hadn’t expected to ever find.

“You good?” Hound nudged his foot.

“Yeah.” Perhaps if he said it enough, he’d believe it.

“You gotta get your head on straight. Collette needs you.” Jag frowned at him. “If you’re not in the right mind space, then you’re going to be of no help to her. Same for you,” he directed to Hound. “Are you good?”

Hound nodded. “I don’t give a fuck about my brother. When I left, I cut all ties. If this fucker hurts one hair on Collette’s head, he’s going to pay.”

There was steel in Hound’s voice, but there was something in his eyes that didn’t quite match. As much as he said he hated his brother, there still had to be a part of him that wished things had been different. But that wasn’t something he needed to think about right now.

“I’m good,” Deal said again, this time feeling it. “Let’s go get my girl.”

They piled out of the car and met at the front of the vehicle where Fox and Irish were standing, two tablets on the bonnet.