Page 222 of Hold Me Until Morning

Maddie.

And Hailey.

Felt like I was being asphyxiated as we traveled. Oxygen ceasing to exist. That aching knot in my gut promising they had her, too.

The hour it took to travel to the deep woods outside of Langmire where the ranch was located was the longest hour of my entire fuckin’ life.

Time moving as slow as the gnarled hands of the clock imprinted on my chest.

Frozen, that moment that had marked me burning like a bitch.

The moment I’d believed I’d started living on borrowed time. Sure that one day the mistakes of that summer were going to catch up to me.

They finally had.

But I’d had no idea how twisted and entwined those circumstances were going to be.

When we finally made it to the turnoff, Ezra took the right onto the long, single-lane road at a clip, wheels skidding and peeling out as he hit the dirt. He punched the gas hard as soon as we’d righted, the engine roaring, and another police cruiser came flying in right behind us.

“Please be here, please be here.” The words barely made it from my muttering lips, praying to God that we were in time. That they hadn’t already taken off with the two of them. That I wasn’t too late.

Because I didn’t know this motherfucker Pruitt’s intentions. Didn’t know how Douglas Wagner could have been so callous that he’d send some assassin-clad villain to kidnap his own granddaughter.

Didn’t know anything but the truth that I would chase them to the ends of the earth. I wouldn’t stop until they were safe in my arms. Until Pruitt and Douglas had gone down, even if it meant I went down with them.

“They will be there,” Lolly said from the back. Her angst roiled in the cab, a deep-seated grief that spiraled and shook.

“They’re going to be okay,” I grunted, not sure exactly who I was promising.

“Fuck.” A low roll of dubiety dropped from Ezra’s lips when an SUV came into view, coming at us from the opposite direction.

Flying fast and kicking up a storm of dust behind them.

A black bullet speeding our direction.

“Is it the same one you saw taking off from Hailey’s?” I could barely squeeze the question from between my lips.

“Yup,” Ezra said.

The asshole didn’t slow as the lights and sirens came at him.

He accelerated.

Dread and disbelief whipped through my insides as this monster gave way to a dangerous game of chicken.

“Hold on,” Ezra ordered, his voice calm, but I could feel the tension radiate from his pores as he slammed on his brakes and cut hard to the right. Our SUV skidded, dust flying and the cab jostling. My heart vibrated a manic beat as we came to a quick stop sitting sideways across the road, fully blocking it from the SUV that was still barreling our way.

The cruiser behind us did the same, though they went left. The two vehicles came to a rest completely obstructing the road and shoulders, trees rising up high on each side to create a full blockade.

There was nowhere for them to go.

My eyes were wide as they just kept coming.

No care for the lives that were hinged inside that metal box. No care for themselves. No care for us.

They weren’t more than fifty yards back when the fucker finally slammed on his brakes, skidding hard and coming to a screeching standstill about forty feet away. Both front doors flew open at the same time as Ezra was out on his feet, using his door as a shield with his gun propped in the opening between it and the windshield.

“Hands up!” Ezra shouted.

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