“We really need to get moving. Time’s running out. I hear ole Cedar Ridge is crawling with cops.”
A flicker of hope lit somewhere deep. Roan was one of the smartest people I knew. He’d figure this out. He’d find me. I just needed time.
I’d spin a hell of a story if it got me that. If it bought me a chance.
Iris positioned the microphones in front of Steven and me, then connected them to her laptop. “I don’t have your intro music, but I can add that later. What’s important now is the interview.” Her eyes narrowed on Steven. “Help me clear John’s name.”
Steven snorted. “I’m not doing a damn thing for that asshole. He’s been treating me like a puppet for six months.”
At least this little adventure had opened someone’s eyes.
Iris pushed to her feet. “He has given you everything.”
“He told me where his sister-in-law was hiding out. That’s it. I should’ve known when he said he’d turned someone in the court system that the dude was bad news.”
Iris’s breaths came faster and faster. “I turned him. I had to sleep with that disgusting piece of trash to get information on Tara’s new identity.” She closed her eyes and slowly exhaled. “But I’ll do anything for John.”
My stomach roiled. How many people had John twisted?
Steven started laughing, but it was the maniacal kind. The type that told me he was losing it and quickly. “Lady, if he’s whoring you out to get what he wants, get a clue. He doesn’t love you.”
Iris moved in a flash, raising her hand. There was a deafening pop.
Steven screamed as blood bloomed on his shoulder. “You fucking shot me!”
“You’re lucky I didn’t put a bullet in your brain,” Iris seethed. She turned to me, gun still pointed. “Start talking or I’ll give you a hole to match his.”
51
ROAN
Holt’s gaze tracked back and forth across the screen. “There’s not a lot of information to go on here. Wait. I’ve got some notes from the original police file.”
I struggled to swallow as Holt read. Every second felt like agony.
“Iris found out her husband was cheating on her and stabbed him with a kitchen knife,” Holt said, still scanning the screen.
“Holy shit,” Nash muttered.
I couldn’t breathe. Aspen was in the hands of someone incredibly violent who had been in close contact with the man who’d tried to kill her.
“Roan?” Lawson asked carefully.
“We need to find her,” I croaked. A million different scenarios flew through my head, none of them good.
“Already looking,” Holt assured me. “Under her alias and legal name. I’m guessing she has a rental. Someplace removed.” His fingers stilled on the keyboard. “Bingo.”
I moved in a flash, taking in the address on the screen. I knew the area. Removed was exactly right. There were no other homes. No cell phone reception. No Wi-Fi. A place you could get away with anything because no one could see or hear you.
I was moving before I even realized it, running for the door.
Someone called my name, but I didn’t stop. Footsteps followed me, and I knew it was my brothers having my back. But I didn’t pause to acknowledge them. All I could think about was Aspen.
Her name was a whispered chant in my head—a form of prayer. As though if I said it over and over, she would be okay.
“My SUV,” Lawson yelled as we reached the parking lot at the back of the police station. “I’ve got gear in the back.”
I made a beeline for the passenger side as he beeped the locks. We climbed in within a matter of seconds.
Lawson started the engine.
“I called it in. Backup’s en route. They’ll wait on the main road,” Nash said as he buckled his seat belt.
He knew better than most how delicate these situations could be. One wrong move, and Elsie, or whatever the hell her name was, could be spooked. And then anything could happen.
Lawson flicked on his lights as he pulled out of the lot, but he didn’t hit his sirens. He pressed down on the accelerator. “Holt, you gotta stay in the SUV.”
“The hell I do.”
“You’re not law enforcement,” Lawson growled.
“I signed that piece of paper. I’m a consultant,” he argued.
“That doesn’t cover this sort of thing, and you damn well know it,” Lawson shot back.
Nash clapped him on the shoulder. “Give Law a break. He’s going to have an aneurysm with all the rules he’s already breaking.”
Because I shouldn’t be here. Shouldn’t be part of an operation trying to get the woman I loved out of harm’s way. I wasn’t a cop in this town. Law enforcement, sure, but not under Lawson’s jurisdiction. But he hadn’t even suggested I should stay back. He knew it wouldn’t have gotten him anywhere.
Lawson flicked off his lights as he turned onto the road that led to the cabin. When we reached the long drive, he pulled behind some trees and threw the vehicle into park.
We hopped out instantly, closing our doors as quietly as possible. We moved to the back of the SUV, and Holt pulled the hatch open. Lawson handed all of us but Holt vests. We checked our weapons, and Lawson retrieved his long-range rifle.
He glanced at Holt. “Bring them up to speed when they get here.”
Holt jerked his head in a nod. “Don’t do anything stupid and get yourselves shot.”
Nash’s lips twitched. “I’d never do that.”
Holt smacked him upside the head. “You get one more hole in your body, and Maddie’ll kill you herself.”
Nash winced. “You’ve got a point there.”
“Let’s move,” I gritted out. There was no time to waste. We could be too late as it was.
That thought had everything in me constricting. It was hard to walk, to breathe. I didn’t want anything to do with a world without Aspen.
“We stick to the trees, see what we’re dealing with. Then, we go in,” Lawson instructed.
Nash and I both gave quick nods and followed Lawson’s lead. It took us less than two minutes before the cabin came into view. But those one hundred and twenty seconds felt like a lifetime.
A navy SUV was parked out front, but everything was quiet—too quiet.
Lawson moved in closer, up to the very edge of the tree line. We circled until we reached the first set of windows. They looked in on a kitchen and through to a—my breath caught.
Aspen.
Tied to a fucking chair.
Her face was black and blue from Oren’s attack, and now she had a split lip. Shock ripped through me as I saw Steven tied to the chair next to her. I could only get a glimpse of Iris. A flash of her blond hair. Her arm. The gun in her hand.
Nash cursed. “Second hostage is shot.”
I hadn’t even noticed the blood blooming on Steven’s shoulder.
“We need to move,” I growled.
“Let me see if I can get a shot from the front,” Lawson said.
“She could see you,” I argued.
Lawson was already moving. “I’ll stay covered.”
We followed the edge of the trees, and Lawson crouched low, getting into position. He let out a slew of curses. “I don’t have it.”
A crack lit the air as though lightning had struck without any hint of a storm.