Page 80 of Tormented Hearts

Oaks slammed it in park and hit the ground running. As soon as Shiloh saw her husband, her face crumpled in relief.

He reached her in two strides and pulled her into his arms.

Hawk didn’t wait to hear the rest. He turned, scanning the parking lot with the same focus he’d used on the mountain. Searching for anything—a dropped item, a tire track, anything.

He rushed to the back corner of the lot where the Shiloh’s SUV still sat. A quick circle of the ground around it, and his heart stopped in his chest.

A low growl broke from him, and he crouched to scoop up Sinead’s phone, the designer case cracked in half, the screen shattered into a spiderweb of glass, ground into the asphalt.

She had nothing on her. No GPS. No signal.

No way to track her.

Rage and fear tangled in his chest until he couldn’t separate one from the other.

His mind felt numb and his legs wooden as he crossed the lot to his team again. Oaks had Shiloh loaded into the truck to take her to the clinic, murmuring reassurances that Hawk only half heard over the blood pounding in his ears.

The rest of the team arrived moments later, converging in the parking lot. Gray split them into two groups.

He looked at Hawk. “Lex followed McCrae’s financials to an Airbnb.”

“Where?” he grated out, throat swollen with the need to bellow and rage.

“Not far. You’re with me.”

Crew reached out and squeezed Hawk’s shoulder. “Let’s hope he’s sitting there waiting.”

“You guys take the Airbnb. I’m taking the mine.” He spoke to the other group before the plan even fully formed in his head. “Crew, Gray and I are the only ones who know the way in from here, and if he’s desperate enough to grab her in broad daylight, my gut says he’s taking her back to where this whole thing started. Finish what his family never finished.”

Crew gave a hard nod. “I got you.”

Carson jerked his head toward Hawk. “You guys get to the mine.” He fired off more instructions for the other two teams, but Hawk stopped listening.

They loaded into the chopper within minutes, blades cutting hard through fading daylight. The mountains rose, black and silent ahead of them. Hawk sat rigid in his seat, jaw locked, every mile eating at what little patience he had left.

Every cell in his body screamed out for Sinead. They hadn’t known each other very long, but dammit, he’d vowed to protect her and he would see it through.

But more than that, he was feeling things he never expected to feel for anyone.

He was falling for her.

No. Had fallen.

“Fuck,” he ground out.

Gray looked at him hard, but he didn’t say anything.

The chopper banked hard toward the ridgeline, and Hawk gripped his weapon.

His hand was unsteady, but he steeled his spine and looked out at the trees that sheltered them only days before.

He was going to get her back. Whatever it took.

Whatever waited for him on that mountain was about to learn exactly how far a man would go for the woman he loved.

* * * * *

Sinead had no idea how to get away.