Colters' Gift (22 page)

CHAPTER 32

L
AUREN
stopped and bent over, holding her side and gasping for breath. Each expulsion of breath was painful and she didn’t know if it was because of her desperate flight through the woods or if it was the result of the crash.

Her head hurt. Her side hurt. Every muscle in her body ached.

A sound to her right had her jerking around, pistol up. A squirrel scurried up a tree and the gun wobbled precariously in her grasp.

She was losing her mind and she was rapidly losing any strength she had remaining. The brief adrenaline burst she’d experienced directly after the crash had long since fled, and she was barely existing on fumes.

She had no idea if she was heading in the right direction or not. The crash had completely rattled her and she hadn’t logically thought about direction when she’d fled the crumpled SUV.

What bolstered her spirits was that she hadn’t heard any shots fired. She hoped that her supposition would be correct in that they would come after her and not bother with Liam and Noah. She just prayed that neither were seriously injured in the crash.

After catching her breath, she took off in a jog again, determined to keep on the move and her attackers at a distance. After one particularly steep climb up a rocky incline, she realized that she was back on the road.

Jubilation filled her and she set off in a dead sprint. When she heard an approaching vehicle, she turned, relief making her weak-kneed. Her relief turned to paralyzing fear when she recognized the Hummer that had forced them off the road. The Hummer skidded to a stop, kicking up a cloud of dust. The driver was out and rushing toward her before it had fully stopped.

It was time for payback. She raised the hand holding the pistol and took aim. It was a peculiar moment of disconnect for her. The person wasn’t real. The situation wasn’t real. The gun wasn’t real and neither were the bullets.

It took her back to some of the dreams she had when she was being pursued and she would point the gun and it either wouldn’t fire, or it would be out of bullets. She’d awakened, frightened and frustrated by her inability to shoot her attacker.

It would indeed be over her dead body if she wasn’t able to pull the trigger this time.

And evidently, the man charging her didn’t think she had the balls to do it either because he never let up. She waited until he was only six feet away, and then she calmly pulled the trigger.

The explosion was deafening. The gun jerked in her hand, the recoil so much that she feared she’d missed her target all together.

But then she saw the bloom of red on his chest. The faint shock that registered on his face. He staggered, barely keeping himself up right.

She shot him again, this time right through the forehead.

He went down like a rock.

Before she could register any relief or satisfaction, pain exploded in her head and she went sprawling to the ground. The gun flew from her hand and through the foggy haze of her semiconscious state, she heard the rapid exclamations from other men.

“Holy shit, the bitch shot Mark! We should kill her and be done with it,” he said, his voice full of shock and rage.

“Don’t be stupid,” the other man said, in a voice that suggested he thought his accomplice was just that. “It’s one less person to share the bounty we’re being paid to bring the bitch in to Knight. We split two ways now instead of three and the boss is happy. Now let’s get the hell out of here before the cops start showing up.”

Her stomach twisted into a vicious knot. She’d been so focused on the threat in front of her that she hadn’t heard the two men behind her.

Realization of her circumstances sent terror through her veins.

Joel Knight wanted her back.

He’d hired these men to do whatever was necessary to bring her to Joel.

They hadn’t blinked an eye over their fallen accomplice. It was a financial transaction for them and nothing else.

She was so fucked if they got her off this mountain and back in Joel’s world where he made the rules and nothing could touch him.

But at the same time, they hadn’t been ordered to kill her. Joel wanted her back. Alive. At least for the short term. Could he not know of what she’d done? Was this all about the blow to his ego because she’d dared to walk out on him?

If he didn’t know that she’d stolen incriminating evidence from his computer or that she’d spoken to the district attorney, she might manage to stay alive long enough for Liam and Noah to find her.

Most important she’d led these bastards away from Noah and Liam. She clung tenaciously to that thought. They were alive. They would come for her.

She was barely clinging to consciousness when the two men yanked her to her feet and dragged her toward the truck driven by the man she’d shot.

They merely left him on the road, lying in a pool of his own blood.

At least Noah and Liam and the Colters would find the body, and they would know what had happened to her.

It was her only hope.

They took a roll of duct tape and roughly wound tape around her head and over her mouth. Then one taped her hands together, winding the tape around and around her wrists. Once that was accomplished, they tossed her into the back of the Hummer and grabbed her ankles, bruising her skin with the force of their grip.

After securing her legs with the same tape, they tossed the roll over their shoulder and slammed the back door shut. Without sparing another glance in her direction, they got into the cab of the Hummer.

The driver began the awkward task of turning around on the narrow road and several times sent rocks tumbling over the edge of the sharp incline.

After a moment, he had them turned in the way they’d come, and he floored the accelerator. She bumped painfully all over the backseat, the seat belt buckles digging into her skin and hitting her ribs.

They were bringing her to Joel and what he planned for her she had no idea. She could no longer deny the sort of man he was. The blinders had been off for a very long time now.

She knew what he was capable of. She knew what he’d already done to numerous women.

What was one more woman’s blood on his hands?

CHAPTER 33

W
HEN
Noah heard a shout in the distance, he breathed a huge sigh of relief. Liam had left, taking Noah’s gun with him, as soon as he’d learned that Lauren had struck out on her own.

He hadn’t wanted to let Liam go. Liam was obviously injured and fighting his hold on consciousness. He was bleeding steadily from his head wound.

But what choice had either of them had? How could Noah hold him back when Liam was all the help Lauren could expect so soon?

Liam had been terrified the moment Noah had told him what she’d done. And it was obvious that he was torn between leaving Noah in such a horrible situation and going after Lauren.

Noah had quietly pointed out that there was nothing Liam could do for him. Noah was stuck until help arrived. But Liam could go in search of Lauren and hopefully reach her in time.

Noah had never felt so helpless in his life than he did now, pinned in the SUV while Lauren was out there fighting for her life and Liam was somewhere in between.

Relief made him temporarily weak, and it took a second for him to muster the strength to shout back upon hearing Adam Colter’s call. A moment later, the older Colter brothers appeared at the vehicle, their expressions worried and grim as they took in the wreckage.

“Are you hurt, son?” Adam asked. “Where are Lauren and Liam?”

“No, sir, I don’t think I’m injured that badly. Just can’t move my legs but I can feel them.”

Then he quickly related the events that occurred right after the wreck, and Liam’s departure to go after Lauren.

“I’ll call Seth and give him the update,” Ryan said grimly.

“I did,” Noah said. “He was on his way out. I told him to get everyone in the damn town out if that’s what it takes.”

“Okay then. We just need to concentrate on getting you out of there,” Ethan said. “I have some tools in the truck. I’m calling for a wrecker just in case we can’t get you out of this. I know you don’t want to be stuck here when Lauren is out there and her fate has yet to be determined. We’ll do our best, son.”

“Thank you,” Noah said, his fingers flexing and then curling in agitation. It was killing him to have to sit there, unable to move, while others searched for Lauren.

Ethan and Ryan turned and ran in the direction of their vehicle while Adam stayed with Noah. Adam put his hand on Noah’s shoulder and squeezed.

“I don’t want you to panic. I know you’re worried. I won’t tell you
not
to worry because in your shoes, I’d be pissing my pants and freaking out. But I want you to know that not one of us will rest until we get Lauren back.”

Noah nodded, not trusting himself to speak. The more time that passed, the sicker at heart he became. Liam hadn’t returned and neither had Lauren.

He yanked his head back up to stare at Adam. “Lauren said she was going to try to make it to your place. Did you leave Holly there alone? They could both be in trouble.”

“I called Max and Callie to go stay with Holly. He was fit to be tied but we told him we didn’t have any details and that we needed him there. I can understand his anger. Lauren is his sister and by rights he should be right here with us, but he doesn’t know this mountain like we do and the last thing we need is for someone to get lost while our focus is on Lauren.”

“You did the right thing,” Noah said. “We need level heads right now.”

Even as he spoke, his fingers formed tight fists and he pounded the caved-in dashboard in frustration.

“Seth and the others are nearly here,” Ryan said when he returned. “They’ve set up a roadblock at the bottom of the road, and they’re coming up the mountain balls to the wall.”

“Can you get me out?” Noah demanded.

“We’re sure as hell going to try,” Ethan said as he held up a crowbar.

Ryan held a sledgehammer and an axe.

“Stand back, Adam,” Ethan said. “Cover your head as best you can, Noah.”

The entire vehicle shook as the two men tore into the door and the frame. Several times, the pressure on his legs made him wince, but he was just grateful to be able to feel anything at all. He was damn lucky he hadn’t crushed both legs.

Using the crowbar to pry the dashboard up off Noah’s legs, Ryan strained, muscles bulging.

“As soon as I loosen this enough, pull him out,” Ryan said through gritted teeth.

Ethan and Adam scrambled to get into place. As Ryan pulled back away from Noah, Adam and Ethan grabbed for his shoulders and they hauled upward.

Noah bit back a bellow of pain when he came free.

The Colters lowered him to the ground when in the distance they heard, “Dad! Dad! Damn it, where are you?”

“Over here!” Adam yelled.

Then he knelt back down by Noah.

“Okay, talk to me, son. You hurt anywhere?”

“Help me up,” Noah said, extending his hands to Adam and Ryan. “There’s only one way to find out.”

They grasped his hands and hauled him to his feet. For a moment, the two men pressed close to Noah’s side, offering him support until they were certain he could stand on his own.

“I’m okay,” Noah said. “Nothing feels broken. Just bruised and cut.”

Ethan nodded. “Yeah, you’re bleeding in half a dozen different places.”

All four men looked up when Seth barged onto the scene, two of his deputies on his heels.

“Why aren’t you looking for Lauren?” Noah demanded.

Seth gave him a look that sent a shock of fear hurtling down his spine. “We came to get you. Liam tracked Lauren’s route back to the road where he found one of the men dead. Two gunshot wounds. Looks like Lauren shot one of the assholes and then got hit from behind. There was a depressed area of grass with a small amount of blood. A good distance from the other body, so it wasn’t his. We also found a roll of duct tape with several hairs that match Lauren’s. Half the roll had been used. There are fresh tire tracks that aren’t a match to one of ours leading away. If I had to guess, judging by the pattern and the disturbance to the area off the road, the truck was coming up the mountain when Lauren came into view. I think the guy she shot was driving. The other two were tracking her on foot and came in behind her while she was distracted by the first guy. They knocked her down, subdued her and then tossed her in the truck, turned around and hauled ass off the mountain, getting away before we arrived with the roadblock.”

Noah went numb. His mouth went dry. His pulse pounded painfully in his head.

He’d failed her. He and Liam both had failed her in a huge way.

They’d planned in detail. They’d taken into account so much. They’d made a plan of action. None of it did a damn bit of good, because those bastards had gotten to Lauren faster than Noah could have ever imagined.

How
?

He put a hand to the back of his neck and rubbed, trying to alleviate the knotted tension coiled in his muscles.

“How in the hell could they have put this kind of plan into motion that damn fast?” Noah demanded. “We only called the D.A. yesterday.”

“Can you make it on your own or do we need to carry you out?” Seth asked. “We can talk on our way back up. Liam is with my brothers and volunteers and first responders. They were combing the area where the body was found to make sure we weren’t missing anything.”

“I can make it,” Noah said in a determined voice.

He took a step forward, falling into stride with Seth as Seth’s fathers followed behind. Seth’s deputies went ahead of the men, one of them talking into the radio.

“How did they manage this, Seth?” Noah asked again.

“I think Joel Knight had already made her,” Seth said grimly. “He may not even know about the meeting with the D.A. If he’s had people looking for her all these months, it’s possible they were finally able to locate her and were just waiting for an opportunity to make their move.”

Noah swore long and hard. “And the very thing we thought we were doing right—taking her to a more isolated area—proved to be their golden opportunity. They couldn’t make this kind of attack in town, even one as small as Clyde. But on a lonely mountain road that’s only traveled by the people who live on the mountain? Son of a bitch. We may as well have just gift wrapped her and delivered her to the bastard, complete with a bow.”

Seth put a hand to Noah’s shoulder as they completed the climb back to the road, where a string of police cars and SUVs were parked.

“Beating yourself up over the what-ifs and maybes doesn’t do you or Lauren any good right now,” he said quietly. “What we have to focus on is getting her back.”

Noah nodded, his jaw tight, and determination so fierce that he wouldn’t entertain any other option took firm grip of his insides.

“I heard them talking,” Noah said as they continued to walk toward Seth’s SUV. “They came looking for her and thought Liam and I were dead. They didn’t waste any time going after her, but they didn’t say a word about killing her. They specifically talked about dumping her on Knight and getting paid. Knight wants her alive, and so if we find Knight, we’ll find Lauren.”