Page 132 of The Rogue

I hit the brakes and throw my head back against the seat. Counting the seconds while the radio is silent.

“They’re on the move.”

My pulse spikes. “Do you see her? Is she hurt?”

Static.

A mixture of voices come through the speaker. And it’s hard to tell if it’s our local police or the FBI anymore.

“Fuck this.” I hop out of the car. Noah jumps out too, but isn’t stopping me. He swings around to the driver's seat of his car. “I’ll keep it running.”

Leaves crackle under my boots as I follow the team going in on foot. My advance startles Officer Sharpe. He whips around, gun drawn in a fluid motion. Every muscle tense as he aims in my direction.

I freeze, throwing my hands in the air.

“Mother—” he curses silently. “Scared the shit out of me, Levi.”

This is the guy Sheriff handpicked? Really?

I shake my head, keeping my voice low. “I’m not staying behind.”

Static on the radio again. Then voices. “I see her. She’s restrained. He’s taking her into the shed.”

My stomach twists. Tessa. Trapped with the monster that put a bullet in her back.

Sharpe curses. “Stay behind me,” he grits. Then lowers the speaker volume.

I nod. My eyes sharp, breath shallow and heart in my throat.

I hear a sharp crack of a door being forced open. It’s followed by a burst of activity and shouts. I listen for her voice but it never comes.

A fucking horse can scare her silly but all this and she doesn’t make a sound?

Sharpe turns up his speaker. “What’s going on?”

Silence.

“Sheriff, Kingsley, come in.”

This is ridiculous. Leaving the nervous officer behind, I race around to the shed, finding the cracked wood on the floor.

My blood runs cold. Tessa’s on a wooden chair. She’s stiff as a board with a gun held to her head by a psychopath.

I lock eyes with my woman. Then the man who has her.

He smirks. “Look at that, Red. More witnesses. What do you think boys, one bullet or two?”

“I repeat. Drop the gun. You’re surrounded. You’re not leaving here a free man,” Sheriff’s voice cuts into the silence as he stands with a gun pointed.

As much as I want this fucker dead, he’s got my wife inches from his frame.

Eddie laughs. “I haven’t been a free man for a long time.” He flips the gun between his fingers. “But I always finish what I start.”

Tessa swallows hard, and it takes everything I have not to run to her. From the corner of my eye, I watch Sharpe go around the side of the shed. The small windows are dusty and cloudy and there’s no telling what this man thinks he’s doing. But he's going the wrong way.

The distant thrum of a helicopter fills the air.

Eddie looks up. “Time’s up.” He points the gun sharply at my wife and my vision blurs.

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