by Susan Stoker
“Eaaaaasy, honey. You’ve got this.”
That was the thing. She didn’t have this. But by some miracle, Colt thought she did. His voice was still even and controlled.
“Shit. She’s not here!” one of the men complained after they’d passed by her hiding spot.
“Come on, she’s got to be here somewhere. She’s barefoot and in her fucking pajamas. No cars have left, so she hasn’t driven off. Stupid bitch is just hiding from us. You go that way and I’ll—”
His voice abruptly cut off when the sound of sirens wailed in the distance.
“Fuck. She called the fucking cops!” the man who wanted to “have his way with her” said. “We gotta get out of here.”
“Dammit. There goes that extra thousand,” the other man complained. “We’ll come back after the cops leave. She won’t get away again.”
Macie didn’t move a muscle after she heard the men run off. She stayed where she was, refusing to do something stupid, like come out of her hiding place too soon and have the men catch her after everything she’d done to keep away from them.
“Are those sirens?” Colt asked in her ear.
Macie nodded, knowing he couldn’t see her, but not able to speak. Her vocal cords had closed up and refused to work. Her lips were dry and she didn’t have enough spit in her mouth to even lick them.
“Don’t come out, hon. Just stay where you are. We’ll be there in”–there was a pause and Macie could imagine him looking over at her brother—“less than ten minutes. Even if you hear the cops, just stay put. Truck’ll tell the 9-1-1 operator that you’re too scared to come out. You won’t get in trouble. Hear me?”
Macie nodded again, but didn’t speak.
“I’m proud of you, Mace. You’re doing great. You did the right thing. You got out of your apartment, called for help, and stayed hidden. That’s exactly what you should’ve done.”
His praise was like a balm to her soul. She wasn’t sure she believed him—she felt like the biggest coward ever—but for now, right this second, she chose to take his words to heart.
She could hear the sirens getting louder and louder, but she kept her concentration on Colt. If she didn’t, she knew she’d completely fall apart.
* * * *
Colt ignored the looks Truck was shooting him from the driver’s seat. He knew the other man was going to have a lot to say to him later…not that he could blame him. He was just getting to know his sister again, and obviously hadn’t known about the fact she suffered from anxiety—or that his commander had spent the night with her after Truck’s wedding.
They hadn’t done anything, but Colt didn’t think that was going to matter to Truck.
His entire focus right now was on Macie. He could hear her breathing on the other end of the line and could hear the sirens wailing in the background, but most importantly, he no longer heard the men who were searching for her.
He continued his litany of soothing words, not wanting her to move until he could get to her, holding on to the handle over his head as Truck continued to drive like a man possessed. Truck wasn’t fucking around. He’d pushed the Wrangler as far as it could be pushed. It was a miracle they hadn’t been stopped by a cop. Even with his credentials and the fact that Truck was on the phone with an emergency operator, he didn’t think a police officer would be amused at how recklessly Truck was driving.
Truck clicked off the phone and Colt looked over at him. The other man’s lips were pressed tightly together, and he looked like he was about two seconds from losing his shit. Colt wanted to tell Truck to pull himself together, that the last thing his sister needed to see was him freaking out, but he couldn’t, because he was still talking to Macie.
“Macie? We’re almost there. I can see your apartment complex ahead. It’s lit up like a Christmas tree with all the blue and red lights from the police who are there. You’re safe. We’re here. Stay put until I come and get you though, okay?”
She hadn’t been answering him, but for that question, he got a slight murmur. Even that made him feel better.
He didn’t know exactly where she was, but once Truck pulled into the lot, he looked around and tried to see it from Macie’s perspective. “Where’s her apartment?” he asked Truck. The other man pointed toward a building to the left.
Nodding, Colt climbed out of the Jeep and headed in that direction. He was stopped by Truck’s hand on his arm. “You get my sister and I’ll speak to the cops. But we need to talk. Sir.”
The rank was tacked on at the end of his sentence in such a way that it more than communicated Truck’s irritation with his commanding officer.
Nodding at him, Colt turned to head toward a row of cars on the back side of the parking lot. There weren’t lights covering the entire blacktop and he could see dark shapes in the distance that he imagined were the trees Macie had described to him.
He remembered her talking about how beautiful they were and how she liked to look at them when she was working at her desk in her apartment. She’d recovered from her anxiety attack after the wedding reception and had been relaxed and warm in his arms. Right afterward, Colt had told her that he wanted to take her to dinner, and she hadn’t agreed or disagreed. He’d taken that as a good sign, but of course he’d been wrong, as she’d left the next morning without a word and without waking him up.
Shaking off his memories, Colt concentrated on finding Macie. “I’m here,” he told her quietly through the phone. “You’re going to need to come out so I can get to you. If those other men couldn’t find you, there’s not a chance in hell that I will.” He was lying, but he wanted to reassure her that her hiding place was secure. That she’d done a good job.
“Mace? You can come out now. Your brother is here. You’re safe.”
He waited a heartbeat…then he heard rustling coming from his left. He turned toward the row of hedges that looked way too skimpy to have concealed a full-grown woman, but sure enough, Macie was crawling out of the bushes.
Clicking off Truck’s phone, he shoved it into his back pocket even as he jogged toward Macie. She was on her hands and knees, and she looked up at him with wide eyes.
Without thought, he dropped to his knees and took her into his arms. Instead of recoiling, she latched on to him so tightly, he couldn’t tell where she ended and he began. He could feel her heart beating way too damn fast against his chest, and she buried her face into the space between his neck and shoulder. Her arms wrapped around him and she clutched at his back. It felt as if she were literally trying to crawl inside him.
“Shhhh,” he murmured. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
Macie didn’t cry. She simply held on to him as if he was the only thing between her and certain death. And in a way, he supposed he maybe had been.
How long they stayed like that, he couldn’t say. All he knew was how good she felt in his arms and how fucking relieved he was that she was okay. Finally, Colt forced himself to loosen his hold and draw back from her. She resisted, but he reached up and took her wrists in his hands. Her pulse was still hammering as if she’d run a mile.
“Hi, Mace,” he said with a smile.
She did her best to return his smile, but it quickly faded from her face.
“Are you hurt?”
“No. At least I don’t think so,” she said softly.
Colt looked her over as best he could, but as it was dark in this corner of the parking area, he couldn’t see much. She was wearing a dark-colored tank top and shorts that matched. He absently had the thought that he was glad she hadn’t been wearing white before he eased to his feet, pulling her with him.
“Oh!” she exclaimed when she was standing and her knees suddenly buckled.
Colt didn’t waste time asking what was wrong. He simply put an arm behind her back and one under her knees and picked her up.
She grabbed at him. “Don’t drop me!”
“Of course not. You don’t weigh any more than the packs I used to carry on missions,” Colt rea
ssured her. “I’ve got you.” He saw that she still clutched her cell phone in her hand and didn’t bother telling her to put it away. First, he had no idea where she’d put it, but second, it had been her lifeline, and he’d let her hold on to it for as long as she needed if it made her feel more secure.
He started walking toward the spinning lights of the cop cars, where they’d no doubt find Truck.
She rested her head on his shoulder, and Colt felt as if he were ten feet tall. He loved the way Macie fit in his arms, how she felt. He didn’t care about her anxiety. Nobody was perfect. And if he could make her feel better about herself and about things going on in her life, he’d be satisfied.
Chapter Two
Macie sat sideways in a chair at her dining room table and watched with wary eyes as the police and detectives wandered through her apartment. Truck was standing off to her left with his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face. After draping a blanket around her shoulders, Colt sat in front of her, holding her hand. In fact, he hadn’t let go of it since he’d carried her away from her hiding spot.
“Why don’t you tell me everything that happened tonight,” the detective sitting across from her said in a no-nonsense tone.
“She needs to take her medicine first,” Colt insisted, then turned to Macie. “Are your pills in your bathroom?”
She nodded. “I can go and get them,” she told him quietly.
“I got it. What am I looking for?” Truck asked.
Macie looked down at her lap. This wasn’t the way she’d wanted Truck to find out how messed-up she was. He was strong and brave and amazing, and the last thing he’d want to deal with was a sister who was crazy. He’d—
“Macie,” Colt said firmly, making her raise her head to look at him. “Where are your pills?”
“In the cabinet to the left of the sinks. I need one of the Vistaril tablets,” she told him.
“Be right back,” Truck said.
“I know this is hard, but you’re doing great,” Colt said. “Just hang on a little longer and we’ll get you to a quiet place where you can relax, okay?”
Macie nodded. She had no idea where that would be, but she knew Colt wanted her to agree, so she did. Her head was pounding and she felt shaky from her anxiety attack. And the worst thing was that her nightmare wasn’t over. She was going to have to talk about what happened and what she’d heard. Then her brother, Colt, and the cops would leave, and she’d be alone again, and the men said that they’d be back and—
This time Colt simply threaded his fingers with hers and held on tightly. He always seemed to know when she was lost in her head, when she was over-worrying.
Truck was back within seconds, holding a small pill in his hand. He handed her a cup full of water and she swallowed the pill gratefully. If there ever was a time when she needed to be numb, it was now.
“Take your time,” Colt said gently. “When you’re ready, walk us through what happened tonight.”
Wanting to get it over with, Macie didn’t hesitate. “I couldn’t sleep so I was reading. I heard a weird noise, and then heard two men talking. They were being quiet, and if I had been asleep I wouldn’t have heard them, but because I was up, I did.” She knew she wasn’t being very articulate, but no one interrupted her, which she was grateful for.
“What were they saying?” the detective asked.
Macie’s hand tightened on Colt’s involuntarily. She didn’t want to repeat what they’d said. What if Colt decided she was somehow to blame for what had happened tonight? What if Ford decided she was too much trouble and wouldn’t want to keep talking to her?
“Breathe,” Colt said softly. “You’re safe. Your brother and I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She looked up at him and saw the sincerity in his eyes. She had no idea what a man like Colt was doing here with her. She was fucked up. Seriously fucked up. But she was also weak enough to not give a damn right now. She needed him.
“At first, they were arguing about whether or not I could hear them. They knew about my safe room. They were going to see if I was in bed, and if not, the first place they were going to look was my room in my closet.”
“You have a safe room?” the detective asked, sitting up straighter in his chair.
“Sort of. It’s not really a safe room. It’s just a place I like to go when I need complete darkness. I get migraines, and it helps to be somewhere with no light,” Macie explained. She could’ve gone on and told the police officer about how sometimes it was the only place she felt safe, how she liked to hide there when her anxiety overwhelmed her, but, ever aware of how people perceived her, she kept her mouth shut.
“How big is it?” the detective asked.
“Not big at all. Maybe around six feet long by three feet wide. I just had a false wall put in the back of my closet,” she explained.
“Okay. Go on. What happened next?”
Macie took a breath and continued. “The men were there to pick something up. They said if they got it tonight, they’d get a bonus from whoever hired them.”
She glanced at her brother and saw him run a hand through his hair in agitation. Just seeing him so stressed out made her own anxiety level climb.
Macie used her free hand to pinch the skin at the top of thigh. Sometimes the slight pain helped keep her in the moment and not completely freak out. “Yeah. They said they were there to pick something up.”
“What were they looking for?” the detective broke in.
Macie knew this question was coming. She’d been trying to think of what in the world someone could want of hers, but had come up blank. Knowing it was important the officer believed her, she raised her head and looked him in the eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t know who the men were who broke in. I don’t know what they were looking for. I don’t know how they knew about my safe room. I don’t know why they’d be interested in someone like me. I’m nobody. I don’t meet a lot of people. I work from home. Most days, the only people I talk to are online. I don’t understand any of this.”
She felt Colt squeeze her hand. Then she felt him nudge her other hand off her thigh and rub the spot she’d pinched. It was almost uncanny how much he saw her. It made her uncomfortable, but at the same time it felt good.
“How’d you get out?” Colt asked.
She turned her gaze on him. She liked looking at his warm, compassionate eyes more than looking at the hardened face of the detective. She could tell the cop didn’t believe her. That he thought she was hiding something. If she knew what the men were after, she’d give it to them, no questions asked. The last thing she wanted was someone hunting her.
“I jumped out my window,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Jesus Christ,” Truck swore.
Macie flinched at the harsh words from her brother.
“More, Macie. Give us more,” Colt said firmly.
She took a deep breath and kept her eyes on Colt. “You know I need to have an escape route. I did it at your house, too.”
He nodded. “The first thing you did was look out the windows, test to be sure you could open the one in my bedroom, and scope out how you could get out of the house.”
“Right. Because if there was a fire or an earthquake, I needed to know where to go. What to do.”
“Makes sense. Go on,” Colt urged.
“There’s a big tree right outside my window. I picked this apartment because of it. It’s close enough to my bedroom, and has branches big enough that if I needed to, I could jump out of my window and get down.”
“Is that how you got these?” Colt asked, running his fingers lightly over the scrapes on her legs and arms.
Macie shrugged. “Some. The ones on my knees I got from crawling in the parking lot.”
“Mace,” Truck said, then he was kneeling in front of her. “God, I’m so sorry. But…you also have to know, I’m so fucking proud of you.”
She blinked. Proud of her? He was proud of her?
“I was a
coward,” she told him. “I was so scared. I didn’t even call the cops. Those guys would’ve gotten me if it wasn’t for you and Colt.”
Truck brought a hand up to her head and brushed her hair back from her face. “You are not a coward,” he scolded. “You did what had to be done. You got out of the situation. Believe me, that’s the most important thing you could’ve done.”
“Okay. So you jumped out your window and climbed down a tree. Then you hid, right? And the men came after you?” the detective asked, obviously wanting to move the interview along.
Truck gave her one last caress, then stood back up and leaned against the wall once more.
Macie cleared her throat. “Yeah. Colt told me to hide, so I got under a car in the far part of the parking lot. But the men figured out that’s where I’d most likely be and started looking for me there. I crawled out from under the car I was hiding under and went into a bush. I hunkered down there until the men were scared away by the sirens.”
“Did they say anything else?” the detective asked. “Can you give us anything that will help us find these guys?”
She hated the sound of impatience in his voice and wished she could tell him exactly who the men were, and why they’d been in her apartment. “They said they’d be back to get what they were looking for.”
“There’s no way in hell you’re staying here tonight—or in the near future,” Truck said firmly. “You can come and stay with me and Mary.”
Macie was shaking her head before he’d finished his sentence. “I can’t stay with you guys. You just got married!”
“Well, you’re not staying here,” Truck repeated. “Mace, they said they’d be back. It’s not safe here.”
She knew that. She was the one who’d had to jump out her window. She was the one who’d had to listen to the one guy talk about wanting to hurt her. She was the one who’d had to crawl around the parking lot to try to stay hidden.