‘If you’re really one of the good guys, why did you knock me out?’ As desperately as Addis wanted to believe this man, after everything she’d been through, she was having a few trust issues.

Tony pulled at his bottom lip before puffing out an aggravated breath. ‘I didn’t have time to think. Someone was coming down the road, I didn’t know who it was, and I needed to quiet you down and get you out of the open before you were spotted. After your friend slipped away, I had to make a decision to go after her or try to get you to safety first. That was the first solution that came to mind. In hindsight, it might’ve not been the best.’

Emerson. Had she escaped to safety, or had she run directly back into the arms of a murderer? Addis made a fist out of her right hand and pressed her knuckles into her chest as if that would ease the ache of unknowing. ‘Why didn’t you just tell me you were there to help us?’

Tony jerked to a stop and turned her toward him, though his face stayed shrouded in darkness. ‘I tried, but you were already screaming. Besides, would you have believed me?’

Stubbornness and fear made her want to argue that yes, she would’ve, but in light of those trust issues, they both knew it would’ve been a lie. ‘No, I suppose not.’

Something large crashed in the forest, sending a cascade of animals scrambling for cover. Addis staggered as she watched an eerie cast of shadows flickering in and out of focus somewhere off in the distance. Her heart did backflips and somersaults as every twig snapping convinced her she’d been shot at, every bird that startled from the trees was her kidnapper pouncing on her from above. Only when she spotted the truck camouflaged ten feet in front of them did she realize they’d never stopped moving forward.

Wheezing gasps slipped past her lips as her fingernails dug into Tony’s skin.

Crouching so that he was eye level to her, Tony grabbed her shoulders. ‘Addis, it’s okay. That’s my truck. Look at me.’ He shifted one hand to cup her chin, forcing her wide eyes from the vehicle to him. ‘It’s okay,’ he repeated.

Pulse pounding loudly in her ears, Addis nodded numbly, even as her gaze darted left and right in search of an escape route, knowing she wouldn’t make it three steps before this man tackled her to the ground. Why had she trusted him when her instincts had screamed ‘Danger’?