Page 79 of Cruel Expectations

Hunter rarely took orders from anyone without many more chevrons on their sleeve than he had, but in this case, he deferred to his friend.

“I’ll check out her truck.”

As Colton strode into Badlands, Hunter rushed to the vehicle. The door hung open. Two big bags of food were dropped on the ground. Some of the takeout boxes had opened, and food spilled out in the gravel at his feet.

“Where the hell did you take her, you son of a bitch?” He barely got the question past his lips when an SUV turned into the parking lot.

His sixth sense told him to jump behind the closest vehicle and hide. From his crouched spot, he watched the black SUV pull up next to Ivy’s. A man with a shaved head jumped out of the driver’s seat and snatched Ivy’s brown leather purse off the ground.

Hell fucking no.

Hunter lunged out of his hiding spot just as the man jumped into the SUV and took off with Ivy’s purse.

He ran to the door of the saloon. “Nox!”

His bellow brought Colton running. Waving for him to follow, Hunter took off running to the truck again. He hurled himself in the passenger seat and Colton leaped behind the wheel.

“Follow that black SUV!” Hunter jabbed a finger at the road where the taillights were vanishing around a corner.

“What the fuck did you see?” Colton peeled out in a spray of gravel. Hunter heard rocks strike the building before they were out of the lot.

“A guy pulled up and took Ivy’s purse. He knows where she is!”

“Jesus Christ!”

He could have minutes—precious seconds—to reach her before it was too late.

“Did you recognize him?”

“No.” Hunter’s tone was a razorblade over his already shredded senses.

Colton followed at a close enough distance that it wouldn’t give them away while keeping the SUV in sight the entire time. No way were they letting this guy get away.

The vehicle continued on his slow route as though he hadn’t just swiped the purse of a kidnapped woman and instead was dropping off his kid at soccer practice. When he took a right onto a back road, Hunter held the console harder.

“Where does this road lead?”

Colton shook his head. “I haven’t been here much longer than you have. I’ve never been on this road.”

“What’s that sign ahead?” He picked out the small sign along the grassy side of the road. Leaning forward in his seat to see better, he scanned the words.

“A body shop.”

“Are we talking about cars or something else?”

“No one better lay a fucking hand on her. If she even has one bruise—” Struggling, he broke off.

“We’ll get to her.”

His jaw ached from clenching it. “Someone is gonna die today.”

When the vehicle turned onto another small road branching to the right, they followed. Now it was very apparent that they were trailing the SUV—but there was no turning back now.

The driver turned onto a bumpy, rutted lane.

“He’s trying to lose us.” Hunter’s hand twitched toward his weapon. The urge to shoot out his tires and stop him in his tracks raged stronger than any sense of right from wrong. He only saw justice.

And Ivy.

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