Page 24 of Halloween in Sleepy Hollow
Of Kane telling Oliver, “I’ve got this. Go to Shea.”
And then Oliver’s voice cracking as he tells Shea, “Fuck, I was soscared. Are yousureyou’re okay?”
But I can’t focus on anything aside from the woman in my embrace.
Rylan comes up behind her and says quietly, “I’m just cutting through the zip ties. You’ll be free in a second.”
My molars nearly shatter with rage.
Zip ties. He usedzip tieson my wife’s delicate skin.
Once Thea’s free, she flings her arms around my neck. Then her mouth crashes against mine. She kisses me desperately. Passionately.
I taste salt, but I’m not sure if they’re from her tears or mine.
“Backup’s on the way,” Kane announces. “And this piece of shit is under arrest.”
When we finally break apart, Thea looks at me with pink-rimmed eyes. “Elias. Is he okay?”
I stroke her curls away from her face. “He’s fine. Grant and Scarlett have him.”
“And Laila? Did she call? I was worried?—”
“She’s still at the party.”
Thea stares at me for a few seconds. Then her face crumples. “I want to go home. With our babies. Can we go home?”
Now Iknowthe tears are mine.
“Yeah, sweetheart.” I kiss her again. “We can go home.”
CHAPTER 6
SHEA
If it hadn’t happened to me, I wouldn’t believe it.
And I thought I’d heard everything.
Russians trying to kidnap me to use as leverage to blackmail Oliver? Check.
My best friend taken by a sinister trafficking organization run by her father? Check.
Rose’s hand horrifically broken by her obsessed coworker in a sick attempt to win her over? Check, check, and check.
But held hostage by the unassuming grocery store cashier because we accidentally stumbled onto his crazy plan to summon the Headless Horseman? Using four innocent women as sacrifices, no less?
Out of anything I could have imagined,thatwasn’t one of them.
But I’m okay. We’re all okay. Aside from some minor bruises, none of us were hurt.
Well. That’s not completely true. Randy has a brokennose thatmysteriouslyhappened sometime during his arrest.
“I have no idea how he broke his nose,” Cole told Mike Troy, one of the first officers to arrive on the scene. “It’s possible he tripped. I honestly can’t remember.”
“Probably tripped,” Kane agreed. “He was trying to get away from Cole and Oliver at first. But my attention was on the women. So I can’t say for certain.”
No one would say who did it. Not any of the guys, not the four women Randy originally kidnapped, and definitely not me, Thea, or Ari.
