Briggs, Brody, and Rick jumped into Briggs’ SUV. Briggs practically threw the phone to Brody and peeled out. “The girls will tell you where to go. I’ll drive; you navigate. We’ve got to make up for lost time.”
Rick said a silent prayer and glanced down at the watch that the Bennetts had given him. It was just like Lydia’s and everyone else’s the Bennett family cared about. His wasn’t studded with diamonds, but it was effective. The GPS woven in the band was their only hope of finding Lydia in time.
Chapter 25
Lydia’s head felt as though it were spinning. She didn’t dare open her eyes. She could tell that she was in a moving vehicle from the bumps on the road because they threatened to throw her to the floorboard. She drew in a deep breath. The chloroform was no longer over her nose. The man in the front seat was seething while he yelled at Lydia. She played possum and listened to his tirade, hoping to gain some sort of understanding of why the hell the man wanted her.
“You killed her, you bitch. She would have checked in by now. I heard the gun shot and now you’re going to die.” The dark-haired man’s phone rang once before he flipped the phone open. “Yeah.”
She could hear the male on the other end yelling.
“I’m busy. You’re going to have to get one of your other flunkies to do it for you.”
The man flipped his phone closed and threw it into the passenger seat next to Lydia’s pink-covered phone. Lydia wiggled her hands against the ropes restraining her. The knot was loose, not what she would have expected from a professional. She wiggled her free legs. Definitely not a professional with the stupid mistakes, but glad just the same.
“You know he’s going to kill me for not taking you straight to him, but watching you die is going to be worth it.”
Lydia peeked from beneath her eyelashes. It was do or die time. She needed to get the hell out of the car and away from this guy. Lydia squeezed her eyes shut tight and concentrated on the energy in the car while simultaneously wiggling her wrists free. She wasn’t at full capacity since her fight with Brody, but she damn sure would find enough energy to get away from this crazy man. The car started to sputter. The man hit the steering wheel. “Not now!”
He pulled the car onto the side of the road. Lydia concentrated on the man himself. She needed to take his ass out. She used what little energy she still felt in her veins and smashed the guy’s head into the steering wheel and then into the dash.
He slumped over into the passenger seat and on top of her phone. Lydia pushed up from where she’d been lying. She leaned into the front seat and pushed the crazy man off of her phone. Her vision spun. She pulled the handle on the door and stumbled out of the car. She had to do this. She had to much to live for. Her family, the unit…Rick. Visions of him filled her mind. Things she’d left unsaid, he loved her for god’s sake. No people were counting on her and she wouldn’t let them down, she couldn’t. She had to get away from this guy. She stumbled to the tree line and into the dense forest. She used her hands to push against the trees to keep her upright. She needed to put as much distance between her unknown assailant and herself as she could if she wanted to live. And she did. Birds chirped in a nearby tree. Squirrels playfully ran up and down the trees and across the ground in front of her. The fresh air had started to clear her head but did little for her energy. Her throat was dry, parched from whatever that man had stuffed in her face. She would kill to have coffee right now.
She pushed farther into the thick brush, tripping over rocks and fallen tree trunks. She couldn’t stop, not if she was going to live. She heard water in the distance. A sure sign of sustainable life. Fear of bears and other wildlife sent a shiver through her body. I should have studied the area better. She was a city girl, and now was the only time she wished she’d grown up differently. She stumbled again.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
Lydia ducked behind some shrubs. She peeked through the surrounding leaves. The man poked at the wound on his head and stared at the blood on his fingers. “You’re going to pay for that,” he spat out as he glanced around their surroundings.
Lydia cowered into the brush, trying to be a silent and as small as the squirrels she’d seen. Her loud heartbeat filled her ears, and she lifted a hand to her chest, trying as she might to slow it down. It was no use.
The man looked behind him and into the bushes and jumped around tree trunks in an attempt to find her. He waved his gun around every trunk and up into the branches as he moved farther and farther away from where she was hiding. Lydia let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.
He turned, and his gaze connected with hers. An evil grin lit his face. He walked over to her slowly. “I bet you wish you had some coffee, don’t you, Lydia?”