Colters' Gift (Colters' Legacy #5)(75)

“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 ass**les 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.”