Page 79 of Tormented Hearts

“If Shiloh took her vehicle, we can track her GPS.”

Hawk hovered over Carson, gaze fixed to the screen of his laptop as his boss flipped through screens to locate his sister-in-law.

As soon as the pin popped onto the screen, Hawk leaned closer and Carson hunched over the keys.

Her vehicle’s GPS coordinates blinked right there, in downtown Willowbrook, at the municipal office.

“Pull the security footage,” Hawk ordered.

It took agonizing minutes to get access and when the feed finally loaded, frustration spiked hot through his chest.

“Fuck!” He tore off his cowboy hat and raked his fingers through his hair. “There’s a blind spot.”

The camera angle cut off exactly at the section of the parking lot where her vehicle sat—where they needed to see.

Carson played the footage back for several minutes.

“There!” Hawk jabbed a finger at the screen. Barely caught at the edge of the frame, another car pulled away fast.

Lex was on her feet, watching too. She pointed. “Back it up. Ten seconds. Zoom in.”

Carson did, his knee bouncing beneath the table. Two women’s lives were on the line, and the room was tense with the knowledge.

When he expanded the view, Lex pointed again. “There. Back seat.”

Hawk pressed his face so close his nose almost touched the screen. It could only be a person, slumped over. Or held down. Impossible to tell which from the camera view.

“We have to get to the municipal office—now.” Hawk was already moving to the weapons locker and loading himself for battle.

Carson and Gray did the same, and then they drove hard for the municipal office. Hawk’s knuckles were white on the wheel the entire way. Every damn mile felt longer than the last.

When they screeched into the lot, it was empty except for two cars parked closest to the entrance. And Shiloh’s SUV at the back of the lot.

The hackles on his neck raised, and his heart lurched. The place was empty and quiet in a way that felt wrong.

“There’s Shiloh!” Gray burst out.

They rushed out of the truck and took off, racing for the bench outside the office. Shiloh sat there alone.

Hawk’s lungs stopped working.

Gray dropped to his knees in front of their sister-in-law. She was holding a hand to her head. As she saw them, relief crossed her face.

She lowered her hand, revealing a thick lump.

Gray took her hand. “Shiloh. What happened?”

Her eyes were glassy and unfocused, and it took her a second to fix on him. No wonder she didn’t even think to go inside and ask for help. “I don’t know. I feel so confused. But…they took Sinead.”

The words struck like a physical blow.

“Who? How many? Which direction—”

Carson put a hand on his shoulder, and he saw that Shiloh’s expression was pinched with confusion and pain in equal measure. If he had to judge, she had suffered a concussion and was struggling to catch up with what he was asking.

She looked up at Carson and winced. “Two men. Maybe three. I can’t think. My head hurts. It happened so fast, I—” Her voice cracked.

Another peel of tires shrieked across the parking lot, and one of the Black Heart trucks burned into the parking lot.